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Meeting the Challenge in Catholic Schools
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Participants are steeped in a value that “undergirds the education,” says Dr. Martin Scanlan, assistant professor of educational policy and leadership: embracing diversity in all its forms. “What we try to do at Marquete is create and support school leaders who see inclusion of those on the margins as a fundamental tenet of their leadership,” he says. That principle is grounded in church social justice teachings that are in turn founded on “the religious value that everyone is made in the likeness of God and all are equally welcome.” The emphasis on inclusivity resonates among Catholic K-12 educators in the program whose schools have grown more diverse, says Jeff Monday, Grad ’98, principal of Marquette University High School who received the 2002 Young Alumnus of the Year Award from Marquette’s then-School of Education. One reason for that demographic shift is growth in the state’s Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, which covers costs of low-income Milwaukee students in participating private schools. College of Education faculty are wellequipped to help leadership students embrace this change. “There was always an emphasis on care for the individual at Marquette,” says Monday. “That has transitioned into a more concrete curriculum.” In valuing inclusion, master’s students often turn conventional assumptions upside down. For instance, the view that pupils who enter school learning in a language other than English have a “language barrier” casts their own language (typically Spanish) as a deficit needing a remedy.
Photo by Ben Smidt
As an alternative, says Scanlan, educators can view knowledge of another language as an asset. Instead of viewing “bilingual education” as an accommodation, they can embrace a new model: the dual-language — or “two-way immersion” — school or classroom that nurtures lifelong use of two languages in the student and employs teachers who work in more than one language, too.
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To further emphasize the importance of inclusion, Marquette’s leadership students conduct “equity audits” in the schools where they work. For hers, Sister Jean Ellman, SSND, Grad ’12, principal of Notre Dame Middle School on Milwaukee’s near south side, examined the cultural competence of Notre Dame’s majority Caucasian staff in its work with the school’s 99 percent Latina enrollment. Sister Jean was gratified to learn that her staff understood the importance of bilingual ability — both spoken and written — in the students. And members of the board of the school, which is not parish-affiliated, endorsed her proposal (inspired by her work with Scanlan) to configure a planned coed primary school as a dual-language school. Another skill contemporary principals need is collaboration. The cohort model that the program introduced in 2009 to group Catholic school professionals together for their course of study helps foster that. (Marquette master’s graduates work in public, as well as private schools.) Group work and constant cohort interaction help students share perspectives on issues that affect Catholic schools in particular and also build long-term professional and personal relationships. “One of the most amazing benefits of being part of this cohort is we have each other,” says Vega. After serving for more than 40 years as a Catholic educator, including three previous stints as a principal or co-principal, Sister Jean acknowledges she worried if she would be up to the intellectual rigor of returning to school. But she thrived. “They didn’t just lecture,” she says of the university’s faculty. “I liked being with the younger people. They were helpful to me. I got a lot of ideas on how to improve the school that I wouldn’t have had before. It really was stimulating.” As she moves toward her graduation from the program this spring, Vega has already had the opportunity to test her skills, serving as acting principal of Mother of Good Counsel during fall 2012 while the principal was on a medical leave. She’s prepared, she says, to be a middle school principal full time now and would like to return to a high school position in perhaps five years and to lead a high school in 10. “I have a really great handle on that 30,000-foot view now. I was a great teacher, but I was limited to the perspective of a classroom teacher,” she says. “Now I understand the whole weave and web of what a school is and how everything intermingles with each other. I feel 100 percent prepared for an administrative role.”
Now I understand the whole weave and web of what a school is and how everything intermingles with each other. I feel 100 percent prepared for an administrative role.
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Courtesy of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School
Dr. Ellen Eckman, chair of the Educational Policy and Leadership Department, says the program extends the perspective of educators already focused on the long view. “I like to think they are more sensitive to what’s going on around them,” she says. “We really push for that. You have to be able to read beyond the headlines.”