Measuring Our Success
It seems to me that our Catholic schools have been a little scarred by the Common Core battles and are therefore less likely to challenge public schools on their terms. Catholic schools have begun emphasizing mission, Catholic identity, and other non-measurables. But I find that strategy ignores the reality that Catholic schools are at their heart good SCHOOLS. And we can measure that!
For example, our Montana Catholic schools (5) serve a diversity of students (over 25% Free/Reduced), which makes the fact that the average ACT score has been over 2 points higher than the state average over the past 5 years even more impressive. We need to pay attention to the looseness of our schools (site-based management and autonomy of our teachers) as well as the tightness of our system (adherence to the same curriculum and accreditation protocols). In fact, I wonder if our Catholic schools even consider ourselves part of a system of schools. The following is a comparison of the ACT composite average of our Montana Catholic school students with all Montana high schools students.
· ACT 2012: Catholic schools 22.3; MT schools 22
· ACT 2013: Catholic schools 22.3; MT schools 21.3
· ACT 2014: Catholic schools 22.5; MT schools 20.5
· ACT 2015: Catholic schools 22.9; MT schools 20.4
· ACT 2016: Catholic schools 22.5; MT schools 20.3
In the same way, our elementary schools are given local control and teachers are given tremendous autonomy but we have best practices, shared policies, and the same WCEA accreditation protocol. This system is working! All of our schools are administering the MAP test three times per year. Our MAP scores show achievement scores in grades K-8 far above the national norm of the 50th percentile (state results are not available).
The following are the percentile achievement scores of our elementary students on the MAP test in the fall and spring last school year. Our students take the MAP three times per year. The 50th percentile is the national average.
· Grade Fall 2015 Spring 2016
· K 78 83
· 1 73 69
· 2 80 72
· 3 73 57
· 4 79 67
· 5 62 52
· 6 73 62
· 7 61 62
· 8 77 71
We need to remind our current and future parents that our Catholic school system in Montana provides excellent schools and we are at the heart an excellent school system.
Dr. Tim Uhl, Superintendent
Amish
Loyola High School
Montana Catholic Schools
Email: superintendent@montanacc.org
Website: www.montanacatholicschools.org
Location: PO Box 1708 Helena MT 59601
Phone: (406) 442-5761
Twitter: @mtcathschools
