Parochial Schools: A Report Card from Notre Dame

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Students in Roman Catholic parochial schools are academically ahead of those in public schools—even though their classes are overcrowded, understaffed and lacking many of the teaching amenities that secular education provides. The authors avoid generalizations, but that conclusion is evident in the most exhaustive study to date of the nation's vast Catholic parochial-school system, published last week by the University of Notre Dame. Called Catholic Schools in Action, the 328-page survey, which drew responses from 92% of the nation's Catholic elementary schools and 84% of its high schools, took four years to prepare, and was financed by a $350,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation. The study was directed by Reginald A. Neuwien, former superintendent of public schools in Stamford, Conn.

Documentation of Catholic-school quality came from one survey of students at 192 elementary schools, who were tested on such basic skills as reading and arithmetic. Except for an unexplained lag in second grade, the students scored well above the national averages. Similarly, seniors in 41 Catholic high schools did better, as a group, in language, social studies, math and science than the national norm.

Higher IQ. Such achievement is explained in part by evidence that Catholic students rank above the average on IQ tests. The median for 26,000 Catholic elementary-school students was 109, compared with a normal 100 for the general population. This, in turn, reflects the fact that Catholic schools, despite a 129% growth in enrollment in the 17 years before the study started in 1962, are still selective in their admissions policies. Less than one-half of eligible Catholic children attend parochial schools. Moreover, because few Catholic schools offer much in the way of vocational training, they appeal primarily to brighter, college-bound youngsters.

The record of Catholic-school students is especially impressive when measured against evidence that the quality of teaching they receive is erratic and classroom conditions less than ideal. About 47% of the sisters teaching in high schools have a master's degree; but only one-fourth of the fast-growing body of laywomen teachers in elementary schools have had more than one year of college work. Thanks to the generally low pay scale of Catholic education—laywomen in elementary schools average $3,250 a year—and to lay teachers' widespread conviction that they are treated as second-class citizens, even poorly trained teachers are in short supply. Nationwide, Catholic elementary schools average about one teacher to every 40 students, and in the crucial first three grades, the average class is nearly 50 pupils. Good teaching aids are in short supply, and 63% of the elementary schools lack such basic facilities as an auditorium, gymnasium, art or music room.