Describes a project designed to create an energy efficient high school in the diocese of Pittsburgh. The project will save over $850,000 in energy, operations, and maintenance costs over fifteen years. The design improves the physical premises as well by adding windows and eliminating fluorescent lighting. Offers tips for developing similar…

Discusses the difficulty Catholic schools face in recruiting Directors of Religious Education (DRE). Suggests that there are not enough skilled DREs to go around. Encourages schools to find talented lay people and mentor and empower them so that they can grow into the position. Presents some model approaches to the recruitment process. (NB)

Suggests professional art consultants as an alternative for schools that cannot afford full-time art teachers. Relates the experience of Holy Trinity Elementary School in California where artists teach art to 4th through 8th graders in the presence of a credentialed teacher. Looks at funding alternatives. (DMM)

Provides a description of the author's experiences and challenges as president of the National Catholic Education Association between 1986 and 1994. Indicates that the period, which began with the visit of Pope John Paul II to the United States, was a period of much collaboration among Catholic educators of all levels. (MAB)

Offers a model for wage negotiation for Catholic school teachers, identifying the negotiators (i.e., the diocesan bishop or his delegate, an officer of the teachers' organization/union, the diocesan superintendent of schools, and four lay persons) and their task (i.e., to negotiate a fair compensation package). (DMM)

Suggests that if theology professors at Catholic institutions have to get authorization from bishops in order to teach (as mandated by the Vatican's "Ex Corde Ecclesiae"), academic freedom will be lost. (EV)

Asserts that schools can be academically excellent as well as authentically Catholic by employing both academic and faith-based methods of teaching. Cites three main areas responsible for student achievement: student ability, family background, and effective organization. Describes research supporting higher achievement in Catholic schools than in…

Asserts that it is time to formalize the practices involved in integrating values into Catholic education. Presents the six-step Educational Community Opportunity for Stewardship (ECOS) system and the Catholic Education Community manual as vital components in preparing teachers for values integration. Presents conceptual and organizational…

Discusses assessment within the realm of Catholic education. States that assessment should not be limited to testing, and that there are other methods of student evaluation that are intrinsic to the classroom environment. Asserts that opportunities to exhibit excellence need to be given by teachers, and that assessment is a celebration of this…

Explains that service learning began as a way to help provide students with a better sense of civic and social responsibility, and has developed into a process enabling students to feel more connected with their communities. Lists benefits from enrollment in service-learning programs, including enhanced self-esteem, leadership abilities, spiritual…

Discusses the saints and how they should be presented to students as individuals who did great works. Explains that saints were not created but recognized for their efforts. Presents a research and writing project, with nine research questions, to help students discover which saint has their talents and can function as a role model. Includes two…

This article examines the connection between religion and literacy efforts on behalf of girls and young women in the early nineteenth-century United States by looking at the rapid proliferation of Catholic convent academies and the anti-Catholic sentiment that spurred the growth of proprietary academies, such as those of Mary Lyon and Catharine…

Background: To identify whether school health policies and programs vary by demographic characteristics of schools, using data from the School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS) 2006. This study updates a similar study conducted with SHPPS 2000 data and assesses several additional policies and programs measured for the first time in SHPPS…

This research is the product of blending two pertinent questions. The first question is: "What are the guidelines and behaviors that define a Constructivist classroom?" There have not been a great number of pedagogical tools that discuss and summarize concrete, observable Constructivist behaviors. The second question is: "Is there a unique form of…

Describes the opening of Holy Angels Catholic School in Indianapolis, which is the nation's first new inner-city Catholic School to be built in more than 40 years. It offers Catholic education to inner-city youth through a unique partnership formed by the Archdiocese of Indiana, the city of Indianapolis, and local corporate leaders in a campaign…