Immaculate Conception School

Turns out the Catholic School here in Irvington is K-8. It's on the same plot of ground as Irvington Middle School and Irvington High School. The sidewalk over at the left of that photo goes straight up the hill - and I do mean straight up - to the high school, where Jimmy goes to school, and, just beyond that, to the middle school, where Christopher is in 6th grade.

About ICS

Immaculate Conception School welcomes children of all faiths and cultures. We provide a competitive academic program infused with Catholic Christian values. Through prayer, song, liturgy, and action, God is spoken here.

Though that probably won't be the first page I show Ed.

I personally am ready to have more God in my kid's life and less character education. Way less.





question

What is a Home School Association at a Catholic School?

Is that a term for PTSA? Or something like it?


[pause]


it's definitely not home schooling in the sense of home schooling. You send tuition checks to the Immaculate Conception Home School Association, or something like that.




next question

Lucy Calkins


[pause]


ok, that's not the question. Immaculate Conception uses the Lucy Caulkins model for K-5. In the middle school years they do this.

Do most Catholic schools take applications from kids outside the parish?





I have a good feeling about this.

Christopher, on the other hand, has a bad feeling about it.

Ed will be shocked, but interested. After the brilliant education my friend Cindy's kids got at Catholic schools in L.A., he's a fan. He's also familiar with the research on inner city black kids and Catholic Schools (very good). He's a fan.

It's amazing how far we've come.

Back when we were first having kids, he would have objected absolutely to having his kids in a religious school. (Ed is a secular Jew.)

Now he's practically at the point of thinking we need to be making charitable contributions to urban Catholic schools to keep them in business.


update: ok, he's not going to be crazy about the social studies write-up





D-Ed Reckoning on fuzziness in private schools

This tends to be my position:

As much as I like the free market system, the reality is that we live in a social welfare state and that's not going to change any time soon. A majority of people believe that subsidizing education is a good thing. Once we agree to public subsidies, then the public will want a say in what's going on in education, for better or worse.

[snip]

Then we have the very real problem that we do have somewhat of a free market in education, private schools and our university system; but the market appears not to value increased student achievement or, at least, is incapable of increasing student achievement.

Do we know if a Harvard education is any better than a state college education once you adjust for student ability? Our university system does a fairly good job segregating students by IQ and works as a signaling mechanism for employers, but how well do they actually do in the education department. In this respect education is not like an ipod. An ipod is simply to understand and evaluate, a quality education is not. Education is an extremely complex product that is probably beyond the ability of your average consumer to effectively evaluate. And, third parties haven't exactly stepped up to provide this service [emphasis mine].

[snip]

Then we have the whole regulatory capture issue. Education groups are very adept at getting their "standards" enshrined into national and state standards. The NCTM has been extremely successful getting their "standards" into the NAEP math exam.

I think the new Courant Initiative should create and promote an alternative set of standards.

But that's a subject for another post.


update: ok, he's not going to be crazy about the social studies write-up





Catholic schools and the common good

The late great sociologist James Coleman repeatedly found that when he compared Catholic schools to their public-sector counterparts, they were more effective in educating low-income and minority students, they engendered greater parental participation and they sent far more of their graduates to college — all after controlling for differences in the characteristics of public and private school families.[2]

Coleman’s findings were echoed by the team of Anthony Bryk, Valerie Lee and Peter Holland in their 1993 book, "Catholic Schools and the Common Good." Lee (a professor of education at the University of Michigan) and her colleagues concluded that Catholic schools outshine public schools in raising student achievement, diminishing racial and economic achievement gaps, sustaining teacher commitment and promoting student engagement.

More broadly, they noted, "Although the common school ideal inspired the formation of American public education for over one hundred years, it is now the Catholic school that focuses our attention on fostering human cooperation in the pursuit of the common good."[3] More recent studies and journalistic investigations have further corroborated the Catholic school advantage, particularly for disadvantaged students. Given Catholic schools’ superior social and academic effects, it would seem sensible to structure education policy so as to make Catholic schooling more readily available to all families — especially to the low-income and minority families whose children benefit disproportionately from the schools’ services.

source:
Mackinac Center

source:
Why Catholic Schools Spell Success for America's Inner-City Children





update

uh-oh (pdf file)










Catholic Schools and the Common Good
Sol Stern on Catholic schools
Howard Fuller in Ed Next
High School Achievement by James Coleman
obituary, James Coleman, sociologist
Andrew Greeley report, research on Catholic Schools, 1997
Why Catholic Schools Spell Success for America's Inner-City Children
The Attraction of Private Schools Terry Moe



-- CatherineJohnson - 28 Apr 2006

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http://newyorkmetro.com/news/features/16775/

Is this the same Lucy Calkins?

-- LoneRanger - 28 Apr 2006

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Researching Catholic schools for my own children, I've found them to be generally very strong in the math/language arts department and overly squishy and heavy on the "social justice" as far as history and social studies are concerned. Most of the ones we looked at were very much stuck in the 1960's as far as those courses went.

Funnily enough, our biggest problem was finding a Catholic school with a decent Religion curriculum. Most had the same "all cultures but our own" philosophy I found in the social studies programs. Invocations to the Lakotan Father Spirit are all well and good, but not in second grade catechism class, thank you very much.

-- KtmGuest - 28 Apr 2006

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Oh, and Catholic schools take applications from anyone, but parishioners get first dibs on spots. I've only ever found this to be an issue at the kindergarten level but YMMV. There's also usually some type of screening/entrance interview.

-- KtmGuest - 28 Apr 2006

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Yes, and they answer questions about how non-Catholic students are treated every day.

Here the next most common question is about children of gay/lesbian couples (who are welcome at all the schools we looked at).

The caveat is, are there more parish children than openings, or more openings then students?

And let's just say each school is going to be a different proposition. You need to evaluate the specific school, not just as a "Catholic school"

San Francisco has a substantial parochial school infrastructure. In looking at Catholic elementary schools, we looked at several and then decided which one we liked the best (that we could afford).

My situation is different as my wife is Catholic, although I'm not. But we know several non-Catholic families with kids enrolled.

We also know a kid who transferred into our school in (I think) 5th grade from a posher private school. He struggled with he academics for a year, but then rose towards the top of the class.

Your mileage may vary, of course. Go talk to, and visit, the school and see how it feels to you.

-- BenCalvin - 28 Apr 2006

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I've found them to be generally very strong in the math/language arts department and overly squishy and heavy on the "social justice" as far as history and social studies are concerned.

This is different from public schools how?

Oh, right... in the strength of the math and language programs.

-- CarolynJohnston - 29 Apr 2006

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Lone Ranger

yup, that's her

The teacher threads are hilarious (probably true, too):

How New York City is Failing Black Kids

more irritations

sample:

Lucy Calkins is an educational war criminal
Red Hog

-- CatherineJohnson - 29 Apr 2006

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Funnily enough, our biggest problem was finding a Catholic school with a decent Religion curriculum.

that doesn't surprise me, but it does bug me

-- CatherineJohnson - 29 Apr 2006

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We also know a kid who transferred into our school in (I think) 5th grade from a posher private school. He struggled with he academics for a year, but then rose towards the top of the class.

That doesn't surprise me, either.

Funny thing, when I was a kid I LOVED the nuns and the Catholic grade school. I always took piano lessons from a nun, and once a year I was allowed to go to the Catholic School for a day.

Those are some of my happiest memories.

-- CatherineJohnson - 29 Apr 2006

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Immaculate Conception doesn't appear to have a religion curriculum

-- CatherineJohnson - 29 Apr 2006

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TopicType:	WebLog
SubjectArea:	IrvingtonMath, IrvingtonSchools
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