The U.S. House of Representatives could vote soon on legislation governing elements of a schools disciplinary policy and practice.
The bill (HR 4247) would affect all public schools and private schools whose students or teachers benefit from any federal education program (about 80 percent of Catholic schools, for example). The measure represents an unprecedented and unwarranted degree of federal regulation of religious and independent education.
The impact of the earthquake in Haiti will be felt for years, especially in the life of the Catholic Church. The cathedral, many parishes, Catholic schools and other church buildings have been destroyed. Pastoral programs will also need to be rebuilt so that the Church in Haiti will continue to be a place of sacramental life.
Another great year!!! The teachers and tutors were great! They worked very well together and kept us informed. My son benefitted greatly from all...
I have only favorable comments regarding the education of my daughters at St. Louis. My name is Laura Hayes and my husband and I have two...
When deciding where to send our oldest daughter to kindergarten, I was a stay-at-home mom and Catholic schools would have meant a huge financial...
For more than 178 years St. Xavier High School's educational heritage - inspired by more than 450 years of Jesuit tradition - has been a warm, welcoming atmosphere of learning, friendship and spiritual affirmation. Young men from more than 100 grade schools throughout Greater Cincinnati come to St. X's 110-acre campus and leave to populate the world as men with a genuine sense of home and belonging.
The Jesuit ideal of cura personalis - care of the whole person - synthesizes mind, body and spirit in an academically rigorous college preparatory education. St. Xavier High School offers an intentional focus on the intellectual, physical, spiritual, expressive and interpersonal gifts of its students as conveyed in the teachings of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order. St. Ignatius said an education devoted to the full development of each student would produce Christian leaders capable of seeing God in all things and answering God's call.
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As Mrs. McGowan's principal the past 15 years, I have witnessed her almost magical ability to turn reluctant readers into bookies, weak writers into budding authors, and insecure adolescents into confident young adults.
It is not often that I am surprised by a request for classroom materials from Mrs. McGowan. About eight years ago, she asked for a portable stage. I should have not been surprised. This is the teacher who has students sit under their desks to read Number the Stars (to set the tone of the life of a Jewish teenager hiding during the Holocaust). This is the teacher whose hat collection brings character after character to life in junior high literature.
One morning last spring, I was in the building early and was startled to hear the sound of excited conflict echoing through the halls. In near panic, I ran to see what was happening only to find Mrs. McGowan coaching students for an upcoming speech contest. This is classic McGowan. She brings passion out in her students and gives them the opportunity to shine. She was the driving force in instituting a speech contest for all the 6-7 and 8th graders in the local Catholic grade school. Over 400 students participate each spring.
Mrs. McGowan brings the best out in our students. Having students with a wide range of abilities (87 of our students have identified disabilities) has motivated Mrs. McGowan to design her lessons to allow each student's talents to be stretched. A good example is her "Talking Statues" project on biographies. Some students have challenging biographies to read, speeches to memorize, and costumes to create on their own. Particular students, like one of her students with Down Syndrome, were guided through developmentally appropriate text, helped with costumes, and given an assistant "producer" to use cue cards for presentations. During a project where her students made marionettes to teach their "little reading buddies" an objective out of the second grade religion curriculum, Mrs. McGowan cleverly asked her student with autism (along with ODD, ADHD, and bipolar disorder) to be the emcee. He loved it and did a great job!
Career days, talking statues, puppet shows, debates, and speeches are all woven into a rigorous routine of vocabulary building, writing drills, study of genres, and English. Mrs. McGowan not only makes learning fun, she gets results. Parent and student satisfaction surveys indicate nothing but the highest remarks and, by popular demand, I make sure as many students as possible can have her for a teacher during their career here. Her success with promoting student achievement is evidenced in our standardized test scores. The mean reading national percentile of our eighth graders is 87. This is 37 points higher than the national average of 50!
Mrs. McGowan has modeled effective teaching practices as well as her Catholic faith in our community for over thirty-four years.
98% of Catholic high school students graduate
98% of Class of 2009 continued their education
64% of Class of 2009 received scholarships, in excess of $173 million
75% of Catholic elementary students enter a Catholic high school
