My tentative General Field is U.S. Catholic urban secondary schools. In this update, I’ll cite and summarize three scholarly articles related to the general field and explain why they are significant to my research.

Article 1:

Miller, Park, Y., Conway, P., Cownie, C. T., Reyes, J., Reynoso, M., & Smith, A. (2022). Examining the legacy of urban Catholic schooling in the U.S.: A systematic literature review. The Urban Review, 54(3), 481–508. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-021-00619-w

Research questions:

1. What is known about who currently attends urban Catholic schools and the effect these schools have on these students, if any?
2. What is known about the ways urban Catholic schools have operated during the current phase of the neoliberal education reform era?; and
3. What is known about the urban Catholic schools that have intentionally worked to sustain the historical legacy of supporting the education of students of color and students from low-income communities?

Abstract: ​​Research conducted in the twentieth century found urban Catholic schools in the U.S. had a legacy of providing high quality educational opportunities for low-income students and students of color. In an era of declining Catholic school enrollments, urban Catholic school advocates have argued that urban Catholic school closures would deny these students one of the best educational opportunities available to them. However, there have been few attempts in recent years to synthesize research in, on, and about urban Catholic schools to see if the sector’s historical legacy is still present. In this article, we systematically reviewed 80 recently published empirical research studies focused at some level on the effects, operations, and reforms currently present in urban Catholic education. We found that while positive effects of urban Catholic schools on student outcomes can still be identified, these effects are not consistently present in all urban Catholic schools and there is little evidence to suggest that the sector as a whole has enacted the social justice mission for which it is best known. In light of these findings, we conclude our review with suggestions for future research that connects urban Catholic schooling to contemporary issues present across all U.S. urban education.

(Miller et al., 2022)

The authors wanted to explore empirical research published since 2007 that looks at who attends Catholic schools and any impact this has on those students. This is important because as Catholic school enrollment has declined, Catholic school advocates have focused on increasing access for poor and minority students with their rationale being that Catholic schools do a better job educating these students than their public school counterparts. This Catholic School Advantage (Coleman, Hoffer, & Kilgore, 1982) has been widely researched and touted by advocates, yet evidence of its actual existence has been mixed or inconclusive. The authors of this article are specifically looking at research that has been done since 2007 (O’Keefe & Scheopner, 2007) when the last comprehensive literature review on this topic was published. With the surge of school choice and the continued failure of public schools to educate poor and minority students, particularly in urban areas, the Catholic school model remains an important component of the American education system.

The authors approached the task by systematically reviewing 80 empirical, peer-reviewed research studies published since 2007. Their results:

show that while academic and nonacademic effects of the Catholic school sector on its student population can still be identified, these effects are not consistently present across all urban Catholic schools. There is evidence to suggest that some urban Catholic educators have successfully reformed some urban Catholic schools to more effectively meet the needs of low-income students and students of color. Yet our findings suggest there are more differences among particular urban Catholic schools engaged in this work than there are between the urban Catholic school sector and other urban school sectors. (p.500)

The authors use their findings to suggest that rather than continuing to focus on access-oriented policies that blindly assume Catholic schools produce sector-driven “better” outcomes, researchers should seek to “determine why different groups currently attending urban Catholic schools benefit from their education in these settings or how certain organizational conditions have contributed to urban Catholic schools successfully enacting their CST-informed organizational identity where others have failed to do so” (p. 501).

This article is relevant to my research. Published in 2022, it synthesizes a large amount of recent research, providing a wealth of authors and studies to build out my bibliography. It suggests that future research describes and analyzes how urban Catholic education works, or not, in specific local contexts as well as look for regional and sector-wide trends.

Further, the article raised many new questions for me; And I appreciate that it grounded my personal and professional interests in research rather than beliefs stemming from my background.

Article 2:

Brinig, M. F., & Garnett, N. (2010). Catholic schools, urban neighborhoods, and education reform. Notre Dame Law Review, 85(3), 887-954.

Research Questions: What do urban Catholic schools mean to their neighborhoods?

Hypothesis/Purpose: The authors want to find out if Catholic school closures impact the surrounding neighborhood. “In contrast to previous studies focusing on what urban Catholic schools mean for their students, we seek to understand what they mean for their neighborhoods” (p.902).

Abstract: This Article explores the implications of a dramatic shift in the American educational landscape-the rapid disappearance of Catholic schools from urban neighborhoods. Primarily because of their strong track record of educating disadvantaged children, these school closures are a source of significant concern in education policy circles. While we are inclined to agree that Catholic school closures contribute to a broader educational crisis, this Article does not address well-rehearsed debates about educational outcomes. Rather than focusing on the work done inside the schools, we focus on what goes on outside them. Specifically, using three decades of data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, we seek to understand what a Catholic school means to an urban neighborhood. Our study suggests Catholic elementary schools are important generators of neighborhood social capital: We find that neighborhood social cohesion decreases and disorder increases following an elementary school closure, even after we control for numerous demographic variables that would tend to predict neighborhood decline and disaggregate the school closure decision from those variables as well. Our study-the first of its kind-contributes in a unique and important way to ongoing debates about both land use and education policy for reasons that we explore in detail in the Article.

(Brinig and Garnett, 2010)

The authors attempt something new with this research - rather than focusing on the educational outcomes of students who attend Catholic schools, they are “seeking to understand how urban Catholic schools affect the lives of residents in the neighborhoods surrounding them” (p. 890). There are economic and school reform implications to this research.

Approach: This is an empirical study using 30 years of data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods to measure various effects of elementary school closures in the Chicago neighborhoods where they once operated. The authors begin by summarizing the history of Catholic education in the United States, which provides the necessary context for understanding the current situation of declining enrollment yet continued advocacy for increased access for low-income and minority students, particularly in urban areas, with data suggesting that postsecondary outcomes are greater for students who attend Catholic schools. The “Catholic school advantage” debate has been well-studied. These authors want to look at school closures from another angle - what, if any, impact they have on the surrounding neighborhood.

Findings: “We find strong evidence that Catholic elementary schools are important generators of social capital in urban neighborhoods: Our study suggests that neighborhood social cohesion and collective efficacy decrease and disorder increases following an elementary school closure” (p. 890). The authors situate their findings in both support of and opposition to several economic and philosophical theories.

This article, which was later expanded into a book, is extremely interesting. It focuses specifically on Chicago, which has a complex educational system consisting of not just private vs public schools, but a public school system that includes neighborhood schools, magnet schools, charter schools, and selective enrollment schools. The author’s conclusion that the closure of Catholic schools negatively impacts the neighborhood is therefore nuanced because it can be argued that Catholic schools, although private, are more “neighborhood” schools than many public schools. Is the displaced or lost social capital that comes from school closures unique to Catholic schools? Is it the same/different from the closure of public schools? These are not questions that the authors asked, but questions that were obvious to me as this topic continues to be highly relevant in Chicago.

I appreciated the historical and theoretical contexts that were clearly articulated in this article. In particular, I was drawn to Wilson’s and Kelling’s “broken window” theory which asserts a causal relationship between disorder and crime. I found myself jumping off topic to read more about this theory as there are many connections to the reality of living in an urban environment where there seems to be a massive shift in disorder over the past few years. Although it seems off-topic from my general field interest in urban Catholic education, it prompts me to think deeply about the importance of social capital and the role that schools can/do play in urban systems as well as the value of educational institutions not just for the students but for the community as a whole.

Article 3:

Dallavis, C. (2014). Culturally responsive caring and expectations for academic achievement in a Catholic school. Journal of Catholic Education, 17(2), 154–171.

Research Question: What qualities of contemporary Catholic schooling are evident at J&A that resonate with culturally responsive pedagogy? This paper focuses that question on one particular goal of culturally responsive pedagogy, asking “To what extent do teachers in this faith-based school hold high expectations for academic achievement for their students?”

Abstract:

This article draws from a larger dissertation study that applied ethnographic and historical research methods to explore the intersection of culturally responsive pedagogy and Catholic schooling in immigrant communities. In particular, this article presents qualitative data analysis to describe student achievement expectations at a contemporary urban Catholic elementary school. By examining teacher, student, and parent perspectives on academic achievement, the article explores the degree to which the caring demonstrated at the school is/is not consistent with a notion of “culturally responsive caring” in the scholarly literature surrounding theories of culturally responsive pedagogy.

(Dallavis, 2014)

Dallavis’ literature review is concise and focuses on the intersection of academic achievement and culturally responsive pedagogy. It includes references to a variety of similar but nuanced concepts, including culturally responsive pedagogy, culturally responsive teaching, funds of knowledge, and culturally responsive teachers. The authors cited are all ones I’m familiar with, which comfortably validates my growing background knowledge.

Approach: This paper describes ethnographic research drawn from an ethnographic/historical dissertation study that “considered the extent to which theories of culturally responsive pedagogy resonate with practices and beliefs in historical and contemporary Catholic schools” (p. 156). It includes qualitative data from interviews and observations at a Catholic high school that reveals student, teacher, and parent attitudes, beliefs, and observations about academic achievement.

Findings: According to the author, teachers generally held students to high schools of academic achievement, motivated by a sense of caring about students’ future success and social mobility. This was “inflected by the teachers’ religious beliefs and identity” (p. 156). Additionally, the author concluded that students wanted to be held to high standards. Students believed that teachers cared for them and that contributed to their academic achievement.

This article is helpful for several reasons. First, the topic itself is relevant to my research. When I began trying to figure out a general field, I originally began with culturally relevant pedagogy. As I considered where I could realistically do research, I decided to switch my general field to urban Catholic education, but there are obvious connections to culturally relevant pedagogy, and this article directly explores this. Another reason this article is helpful is because it is derived from a larger study the author did for a dissertation (which I’ve read). I appreciate seeing the process of analyzing a large data set for a dissertation project, and then thinking about the strands that emerge that a researcher may want to focus on and explore further. A third reason I appreciate this article is that its style is different from the previous two; as a qualitative study, it has a narrative approach, evident with an introduction that is a classroom vignette. This genre of academic writing resonates with me. I am not sure what type of study I’ll do, but I like the comparison of Brinig’s empirical study with Dallavis’ quantitative one.