Alliance for Catholic Education
Pictured Frankie Jones, Remick faculty and one of seven researchers on the project.
A survey of more than a thousand Catholic grade school principals will inform new research from the Remick Leadership Program designed to strengthen the formation of school leaders and, ultimately, keep them in their roles for longer.
Responses from nearly 1,200 principals in 48 states addressed four key areas: their motivations; how they had conceived of their roles; their use of time; and the factors that impact their work, both positively and negatively. Data analysis is underway, with Remick program leadership planning to share initial findings with the wider academic community at conferences this fall.
Kevin Baxter, director of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, said that at the highest level, the survey results can help diocesan leadership identify key motivators and barriers to inform strategies for keeping transformational principals in place. “Long term,” he said, “it’s better for kids and better for schools.”
The study also marks the first collaborative research effort by Remick Program faculty and staff, part of a thoughtful effort to deepen scholarship around the organization and administration of Catholic schools and further establish Notre Dame as a hub for learning that supports them. Frankie Jones, Remick faculty and one of seven researchers on the project, said a strong motivating factor in determining the focus of their inquiry was that nearly all studies on effective school leadership had been done in the public sector. This new research into the distinct ways Catholic school principals feel called to service and derailed in their work will have specific programmatic benefits for Remick’s formation efforts with aspiring administrators.
“When we see Catholic schools closing, they don’t tend to be the college preparatory, suburban high schools,” she said. “These are the inner city Catholic schools serving vulnerable populations that need our most transformational leaders.”
Advancing research to identify what additional supports are needed by drawing upon their own professional experience is essential to the larger work to retain them. The Remick team hopes results from the large-scale study, now in its second year, will have implications beyond campus.
“This is an opportunity for us to shape the narrative among superintendents, and among other leadership preparation programs to say, ‘How do we do better by these individuals who are taking on the ministry of servant leadership?’” she asked.
Jones is hopeful, too, that the perspective offered by Catholic elementary school principals in the Remick study will prove of equal value to education more broadly, a space where experienced leadership faces its own combination of challenges.
“Trends in public schools are increasingly being attentive to what we consider full human flourishing,” she said. “There’s an avenue there for public schools to learn from the great ministerial view that Catholic school leaders take in their work; it doesn’t have to be limited to a religious mission.”
Learn about the full Remick Leadership Program research team: April Garcia; Carissa Maddox; Sandria Morten; Betsy Okello; Emmy Robison; Fr. Nate Wills