Addresses seven competencies in leadership and nine in curriculum and instruction. Includes more than 150 sources in the bibliography.

Addresses six competencies in personnel management, seven in institutional management, and four in finance and development. Includes more than 150 sources in the bibliography.

Catholic elementary school principals, speaking out in a major nationwide survey, report faithful commitments alongside acute challenges in the operation of their schools, and they identify financial management, marketing, Catholic identity, enrollment management and long-range planning as their schools’ top five areas of need. The study, completed by the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education and its Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, is a rare, comprehensive glimpse of these principals’ views on what they need in order to do their jobs better and how they describe the state of Catholic education today. “It is difficult to read the responses of Catholic school principals in this study and not sense both their commitment to this ministry and the overwhelming responsibilities that are associated with it,” say the authors of “Leadership Speaks: A National Survey of Catholic Primary School Principals.” They paint a picture of many principals as faith-filled individuals confronting unusually challenging expectations, worthy of new forms of support, such as their own national association. The study provides enormous amounts of data describing today’s Catholic school principals and outlining their views, and the authors conclude with four recommendations: 1.) Develop “new models of governance for Catholic elementary schools” that shift the panoply of principal responsibilities “into a more manageable and realistic position description.” 2.) “Develop a program of ongoing professional development and renewal for principals” that addresses their needs, both professional and personal. 3.) Organize a national association of Catholic school principals as a means “to give voice to their leadership concerns at every level and to promote advocacy for Catholic schools at the national level.” 4.) “Convene multiple groups of national and international stakeholders to advance the understanding of Catholic schools as instruments of the new evangelization.”

As an evangelizing arm of the church, Catholic education plays an indispensable role in introducing young people to rudimentary elements of the Catholic faith as well as creating human and social capital. In spite of the numerous contributions Catholic education has made in the area of socio-economic development, many people don't understand what Catholic education is nor appreciate its contribution in the character formation and overall enhancement of human capital. This book is written to explain what Catholic education is, its mission, its identity, and its challenges. The audience the book seeks to serve includes diocesan policymakers and those in charge of in-service training and formation programs aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of leadership practice in Catholic schools. This book is also a useful resource for Catholic school leaders and administrators. It is a must-read for students undertaking graduate studies in Catholic school leadership and new emerging leaders and administrators in Catholic education.

The administration of Pre K – 12 Catholic schools becomes more challenging each year. Catholic school leaders not only have the daunting task of leading a successful learning organization, but also to serve as the school community’s spiritual leader and the vigilant steward who keeps the budget balanced, the building clean, and maintaining a healthy enrollment in the school. Each of these tasks can be a full time job, yet the Catholic school principal takes on these tasks day after day, year after year, so that teachers may teach as Jesus did. The goal of this book is to provide both beginning and seasoned Catholic school leaders with some insights that might help them to meet these challenges with a sense of confidence. The words in this text provide research?based approaches for dealing with issues of practice, especially those tasks that are not ordinarily taught in educational leadership programs. This text helps to make sense of the pastoral side of Catholic education, in terms of structures, mission, identity, curriculum, and relationships with the principal’s varied constituencies. It also provides some insights into enrollment management issues, finances and development, and the day in day out care of the organization and its home, the school building. As a Catholic school leader, each must remember that the Catholic school is not just another educational option. The Catholic school has a rich history and an important mission. Historically, education of the young goes back to the monastic and cathedral schools of the Middle Ages. In the United States, Catholic schools developed as a response to anti?Catholic bias that was rampant during the nineteenth century. Catholic schools developed to move their immigrant and first generation American youth from the Catholic ghetto to successful careers and lives in the American mainstream. However, most importantly, Catholic schools have brought Christ to generations of youngsters. It remains the continuing call of the Catholic school to be a center of Evangelization—a place where Gospel values live in the lives of faculty, students and parents. This text attempts to integrate the unique challenges of the instructional leader of the institution with the historical and theological underpinnings of contemporary Catholic education.