Volume 11, Number 1
September 2007
Table of Contents
Editors' Comments (pp. 5-6)
Ronald J. Nuzzi, Thomas C. Hunt
Articles
Pastor-Principal Relationship in the Parish School
Sharon Weiss
St. Patrick School, Washington, Illinois
(pp.7-22)
The traditional parish plant—church, rectory, convent, and school—all conveniently located next to each other on a parcel of land, is a fast vanishing model. While some argue that the parish-sponsored elementary school is a vestige of immigrant Catholicism, this article calls for a strengthening of the relationship between the pastor and the principal. By using frames of reference from human resource management and organizational theory, this essay challenges pastors and principals to work through differences, find common ground and ways to collaborate, and resolve or set aside differences for the sake of the higher good.
Responses From the Field (pp. 23-26)
Michael Fierro
Blessed Sacrament Catholic School, San Antonio, Texas
Diana Hankins
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School, Columbus, Georgia
Ecology and Mary: An Ecological Theology of Mary as the New Eve in Response to the Church’s Challenge for a Faith-Based Education in Ecological Responsibility
Gloria J. Thurmond
Seton Hall University
(pp.27-51)
The Church’s interpretation of the current ecological crisis as a moral crisis is the catalyst for this essay, which proposes a newly constructed faith-based model for ecological dialogue and education. The exploration and reinterpretation of the traditional Church doctrine of the Virgin Mary as the new Eve provides a theme from which an ecological theology of Mary is constructed. Papal and Episcopal statements that call for a moral concern and response to the growing urgency of the ecological crisis are discussed in order to promote awareness of the involvement of the Church’s leadership in the issue. Analyses and interpretations by scholars in the second century Church on the doctrine of Mary as the new Eve are presented and reinterpreted to create a viable model with the potential to nurture ecological awareness and responsibility in the contemporary Church. The construction of an ecological Marian theology is approached through review and analysis of the 1974 visionary pastoral letter of Pope Paul VI, Marialis Cultus (To Honor Mary), the writings of Catholic feminist theologian and Sister of St. Joseph Elizabeth Johnson, Catholic Ecuadorian-American theologian Jeanette Rodriguez, and those of other major feminist, womanist, and liberationist theologians.
Evaluation as Pedagogy: Models of Theological and Pastoral Formation
Vivian Ligo
St. Augustine’s Seminary, Toronto School of Theology
(pp.52-66)
This essay proposes that there is one process but many points of departure for religious education. Each point of departure requires its own construction to facilitate learning. The constructs presented are Bloom’s taxonomy of learning outcomes in the cognitive domain, Groome’s “shared Christian praxis,” the lectio divina, the Ignatian rules of discernment, and the method in ministry of the Whiteheads. The theory proposed found validation in the task of evaluating written assignments of the candidates to the permanent diaconate of an archdiocese.
Faith Schools and State Education: Church-State Relations and the Development of the 5-14 Religious Education Program in Scotland
Roisín Coll & Robert Davis
University of Glasgow
(pp. 67-82)
Public policy questions such as public funding for Catholic schools, the extent of government involvement in private education, and church-state relations in general are not unique to the United States. This article discusses Catholic education in Scotland, which a view to explaining the ongoing need for cooperation and goodwill in church-state relations concerning schools.
Focus Section
An Evaluation of the Effect of DC’s Voucher Program on Public School Achievement and Racial Integration After One Year
Jay P. Greene & Marcus A. Winters
University of Arkansas Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
(pp. 83-101)
This study evaluates the initial effect of Washing, DC’s Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) on the academic performance of public schools and its effects on the opportunities that District students have to attend integrated schools. The OSP is a federally sponsored school voucher program that provides vouchers worth up to $7,500 for an estimated 1,800 to 2,000 students in the District of Columbia. The authors measure whether a public school’s test-score gains are related to its distance to the nearest voucher-accepting private school or the number of voucher schools within a one-mile radius of a public school. The evaluation finds that the OSP has had no academic effect, positive or negative, on the District’s public schools after its first year. The study also compares rates of racial integration in DC’s public schools and private schools participating in the voucher program. This is part of the first-year evaluation of the OSP. The authors plan to continue evaluating the OSP using a variety of approaches.
The Impact of Charter Schools on Catholic Schools:
A Comparison of Programs in Arizona and Michigan
Matthew Ladner
Goldwater Institute
(pp.102-114)
Many Catholic educators assume that charter schools pose a significant threat to Catholic schools, especially in the urban core. Through an analysis of educational policy variations in Arizona and Michigan, this article demonstrates that while charter schools pose a threat to Catholic school enrollments, they do not always do so.
Book Reviews
Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and
the Scholars Who Study Them (pp. 115-116)
By Robert A. Orsi
Reviewed by Chad Berndt
Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Commentaries and Interpretations (pp. 117-120)
Edited by Kenneth Himes, Lisa Sowle Cahill, Charles Curran, David Hollenbach &
Thomas Shannon
Reviewed by Peter Corrigan
The School Choice Hoax: Fixing America’s Schools (pp. 120-123)
By Ronald G. Corwin & E. Joseph Schneider
Reviewed by D. M. Keller
The School Uniform Movement and What It Tells Us About American Education:
A Symbolic Crusade (pp. 124-126)
By David L. Brunsma
Reviewed by Suzanne McBrayer
The “Preferential Option for the Poor” in Catholic Social Thought From John XXIII to
John Paul II (pp. 127-130)
By Gerald S. Twomey
Reviewed by Jennifer Midgley