This article first appeared at ,The Heights Forum. It was my second year teaching and I thought I had everything figured out. My seventh graders were doing great in their classes and I was imparting sage advice left and right during mentoring sessions. Nothing could slow me down. Nothing, that is, until parent-teacher conferences came around. As it turned out, over the course of the previous academic quarter, my advice had been less than satisfactory. Several parents approached me with fair criticisms and certainly knocked me down a few pegs. Pretty quickly I realized that I didn’t actually h ..read more

“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” — Winnie the Pooh Dear Reader:   Oh, how I’ve loved being a part of Catholic School Playbook.   I’m writing to express my gratitude to you and everyone who has been a part of this wonderful journey with me.   It was about three years ago that I began the fascinating work of interviewing leaders of the renewal of Catholic education for the purpose of sharing best practices to improve all Catholic schools.   The idea for the project came from Mike Ortner, president of the Ortner Family Foundation. I’ve alw ..read more

,Although about 100 Catholic schools close every year, hundreds more are thriving and leading a renewal marked by faith, joy, and academic excellence. Lifting up thousands of more schools will require a rededication to serving the natural leaders of cultural renewal: our teachers. Until recently, Catholic schools have drawn almost exclusively from secular approaches to content and pedagogy across the curriculum.   This was a mistake. A very big mistake.   Especially because many Catholic schools required state licensure for their teachers, even though most states did not impose  ..read more

Once-failing schools that are now thriving show the path forward for good schools to become great. Here are five steps to help principals of good schools join the rank of leaders of America's best Catholic schools. Have you ever met someone who was so out of shape that it led to a major health scare, and then they completely turned around their lifestyle—their diet, their sleep habits and their exercise routine—to become amazingly healthy and fit? They had sunk so low that it became imperative for them to embrace radical change in order to survive. Then they over-performed and are now healthi ..read more

We’re about 100 years into the experiment of progressive education and it’s been a disaster in all areas. Intellectually, emotionally, and morally, children are less prepared to live a good life than they were generations ago. Sadly, this is the case even for many students at Catholic schools. That’s because, until recently, most Catholic schools had been nearly indistinguishable from government schools. Over the course of decades, Catholic schools had borrowed the materials, methods, and objectives of progressive education, even training their teachers in state programs. Through no fault of ..read more

,Great teachers make great schools that make great learners. The opposite is also true. Having a home library means that when you find yourself thinking about something you read in a book years ago, you can hold that book in your hand, flip through the pages, and reengage with the text in a way that was not possible the first time around. The experience always leads to new discoveries. That’s what happened to me recently when I went looking for something I remembered reading in ,,The Smartest Kids in the World, a book by Amanda Ripley that sought to explain what countries with recently improv ..read more

The way forward for the American Catholic Church can be found in small, but vibrant, communities across the country where Catholic schools, having rediscovered the Church's education tradition, are cultivating a strong Catholic counterculture in partnership with families and parishes. This is possible everywhere. Our schools can lead the way. Can Catholicism be passed on without Catholic culture? This is the question David B. Bonagura asked recently in an ,insightful article in Catholic World Report. Noting that today’s young Catholic parents are not only uncatechized, but also unchurched and ..read more

What do 10-year olds need to thrive in school? To begin with, they need the adults in their lives to recognize that they're not little kids (anymore) or big kids (yet); they're somewhere in between, and that's okay. Fifth grade is an odd year, let’s face it. The students are too old to be considered “elementary“ and too young to be in “middle school.” Fourth- and fifth-grade teachers seem to be the hardest to retain because it is so difficult to bridge this gap from elementary to middle. But, when you get a good fifth-grade teacher at your school, things are very good. So how do these teacher ..read more

Teen dating has been a normal part of American culture for decades. But is it healthy? Should parents discourage teens from entering into romantic relationships until they are out of high school? Do Catholic schools have a role to play in helping teens develop healthy attitudes and habits about dating, marriage, and sexuality? To that last question, two Catholic school headmasters say, "Yes." See what they're doing to help parents raise young men and women who will be prepared to live a vocation of marriage faithfully in the world. To date or not to date while in high school: is that really e ..read more

A grateful mom shares her family's screen-free Lenten journey with the support and encouragement of her faithfully Catholic school community. It is four o’clock in the afternoon on a cold Wednesday in Lent. My second grader has finished her homework, she and her brother have practiced piano, they have put away their backpacks and set the table for dinner. As they round the corner into the family room, I anticipate their question before it leaves their lips, “Can we watch TV?” I would like to say that I suggest they go play a board game or build a block creation with their toddler sister, but ..read more