VOL. 2 n NO. 6

A EDUCATION NEWSLETTER The Catholic School Advantage

Catholic school parents have many reasons for choosing Faith-Filled Communities: Catholic . Many choose Catholic schools • Catholic school students are more likely to pray because they believe them to be places that provide daily. excellent academics, faith-filled communities and • Catholic school students attend church more service to others. Catholic school parents know this to regularly and retain a Catholic identify as an adult. be true from their own experiences, but do you also • Thirty-four percent of Catholic elementary school know that there is data to show these are more than just graduates and 39 percent of Catholic secondary “beliefs” but actually “reality”? school graduates continue to practice Catholicism into adulthood. This is compared to five percent of Here are some specifics about the advantages of a Catholics who did not attend Catholic schools. Catholic school education. These facts can be talking • Catholic high school graduates are more likely to points to share with your friends and neighbors or consider faith as one of the most important parts of anyone else who might be considering a Catholic school their lives. education for their family. Service to Others: Catholic Schools Have Excellent Academics: • People who attended some sort of Catholic school • On national and standardized tests, Catholic schools are more likely to feel a social responsibility to the consistently outperform public and other private needy. schools by as much as 20 percentage points. • Catholic school graduates are more civically • National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) engaged. results for the Technology and Engineering Literacy • Catholic schools serve the disadvantaged and (TEL) assessments show Catholic school students marginalized. were “at or above proficient” scoring 60 percent • Catholic school graduates are more likely to vote. and public schools scoring 40 percent. In basic • Catholic schools are deeply rooted in the overall achievement, Catholic schools stand at 93 communities they serve. percent and public schools at 83 percent. • Catholic school graduates are more tolerant of • NAEP results of twelfth-grade students performing diverse views. at or above proficiency in reading and math are, respectively, Catholic school seniors perform at 63 These facts are part of what make Catholic schools percent compared to public school seniors at 37 unique. Francis, through the work of the Pontifical percent; and Catholic school seniors at 48 percent Foundation Gravissimum educationis, neatly ties together compared to 25 percent for public school seniors. the threads of home and school -- the Catholic tenet • Catholic schools are 37 of the 50 private and that emphasizes parents as the primary educators of religious schools recognized as National Blue their children and the Church’s desire of an education Ribbon schools in 2017. that ensures their integral formation. “The education of • Catholic schools graduate 99.3 percent of their young people is such an important task in forming them high school seniors compared to 82 percent in as free and responsible human beings. It affirms their public schools; 86 percent of those Catholic high dignity as an inalienable gift that flows from our original school graduates go on to four-year and creation as children made in the image and likeness of . God. And because education truly forms human beings, it is especially the responsibility and duty of the Church, who is called to serve mankind from the heart of God and serve in such a way that no other institution can.”

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