America's Largest Catholic Newspaper
A dual language school will be offered this fall for kindergarteners at St. Elizabeth School in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan.
“This is where kids will learn the same curriculum—the entirety of that curriculum, but they’re going to learn it in both English and Spanish,” said Dr. Timothy McNiff, superintendent of schools for the archdiocese.
“It’s an immersion program where there will be days in the week only Spanish will be spoken.”
The program is a partnership with the Department of Education at Boston College. Although a pilot program, per se, “we’re into it with both feet,” the superintendent said.
“You’re not only teaching a language, you’re teaching a culture,” Dr. McNiff said. “Not only from a global perspective, just from our own country, at a national perspective, how many folks are now bilingual, particularly with Spanish,” he added. “This is a skill set you need, even if you don’t go abroad.”
For the new provision, three instructors and the principal of St. Elizabeth’s attended a four-day workshop at Boston College this summer.
Noting the Pathways to Excellence strategic plan for Catholic schools in the archdiocese is in its sixth year, Dr. McNiff said, “This is a great time to stop, revisit that document and let’s set the course for the next three years.”
In that vein, he added, “we’re on the verge of saying, this fall, we’re going to be in Pathways to Excellence Phase II. It’s the continuation of a strategic plan in a formalized way.”
Plans are to roll out the second phase in mid-September.
Whatever emerges from the second phase, “I’d like to make sure that we can accomplish it in a 36-month period, at which point I’d be happy to engage a Pathways to Excellence Stage III,” he added.
The three-year time frame is also strategic, according to Dr. McNiff, as “any time a plan gets too robust, you can’t get at all the things.”
“If you keep it to a limited time period and really prioritize what you can get done, that’s the way to go.”
Highlights of the second phase include finding more opportunities to help children with special learning needs as well as for all pastors to become engaged in the schools.
An archdiocesan survey that assessed how best to assist children with special learning needs has recently been completed. “We got some data that we think is terrific,” Dr. McNiff said. “Now we need to look at that data,” he said, and ask, “How can we help now serve Catholic families who have children with special learning needs that we presently are not serving?”
About providing more opportunities for pastors to participate in the schools, “It’s great to have our pastors as cheerleaders,” the superintendent said. “It gets even better when we can find times and opportunities for them to rub shoulders with the school community, be it celebrating the liturgy, passing out report cards to children, meeting with the kids from their parish during the day…
“One of the things we did not want to see happen with Pathways to Excellence is that they relinquish the pastoral or spiritual leadership that our schools need. I think all agreed to take the administrative burden from the pastors was the right thing to do, but we still want their Catholic touch on our schools.”
To achieve that goal, it is helpful for the pastors to serve on the Catholic Identity Committee for each region, “but for them to be on campus, visible, is a two-fold benefit,” Dr. McNiff continued. “One, our kids get to see pastors and engage with them. The flip side also works: pastors get to see the schools in operation.”
The outside organization used to accredit the schools has changed. “We’re going to a company now which is the premiere company in the country called Advanced Education (AdvancED),” headquartered in Atlanta, Dr. McNiff said.
“Within these next three years, we will complete a self-study based on their procedures and then they send a fairly large team of professionals to come in and not only evaluate but authenticate what our self-study says we’re doing,” Dr. McNiff explained.
Middle States, the archdiocese’s previous accrediting organization, will continue its work in some of the private schools in the archdiocese.
“The reason I liked Advanced Ed, is because when we went to regionalization, we systemized and, to a certain extent, centralized how we operate. Advanced Ed has a district model that they promote,” Dr. McNiff said. In the past, an accreditation process in the archdiocese was always site-based for a particular school.
“This gives us now an opportunity to not only look at an individual school, but look at us as a district, as a large system, which is really what our regionalization is.
“I think they’ll come in with a different lens, and say, here’s where we think there might be more opportunities for how you’ve structured your regionalization process; here’s how we think you can do a better job of taking initiatives from the superintendent’s office, through a region, have it land at a school and make it become a success.”
As a new academic year approaches, the superintendent gave special “thank-yous” to students and parents alike: “To our parents, for their ongoing willingness to partner with us, on what I believe is an important ministry,” and to students, “for their willingness to work with our teachers so that they can find opportunities for growth and excellence, academically and spiritually, this year.”
A new school year equals a new start. “This is one of the inherent beauties of schools and education: There’s a start date and a definitive end date,” Dr. McNiff said, “and you start all over again to make something great happen…
“I would hope and pray that our children intuitively are mindful this is a gift that’s been given to them, called Catholic education, and that they would make the most of this gift.”
