I would like to offer another picture than the one presented in “Madonna High succumbs to financial woes, Northwest Side school joining list of all-girl archdiocesan facilities to close their doors” (Metro, Jan. 18).
In your feature, you spoke about Madonna High School closing, enrollments in Catholic girls high schools diminishing and donations being harder to come by. These are all facts but only half the story.
I would like your readers to look at the strengths of Catholic girls high schools, their unique contributions and their committed supporters. It is not all doom and gloom in this niche market.
First, research continues to grow concerning the value for learning in an all-girls environment, as well as for developing self-confident, articulate people. Women who have not had the opportunity for secondary education in such a setting are not qualified to contrast the single-gender option with coed schooling. Only those who can place pre- and post-secondary educational experiences alongside their single-gender high school years realize a difference. At St. Scholastica Academy, where tuition covers about half the cost per student, a strong alumnae donor base forms the backbone committed to covering the funding gap.
Research also shows that small is better. A number of Chicago-area Catholic girls high schools have lower enrollment than their coed counterparts.
That is something viewed as positive rather than negative, given the increased need for both personal and academic support systems in today’s society. Not all the girls schools are shrinking, by the way. Our academy, for example, is 14 percent larger than it was five years ago, and we continue moving toward our optimum enrollment of 400.
Then there is the envious academic quality these schools provide. Our school and Trinity High School have pioneered International Baccalaureate Programs in Illinois. Many of us send entire senior classes to college. Here at St. Scholastica, 90 percent of our graduates enter their first-choice colleges. About half of our students come from public elementary schools these days. Besides our own scholarship program, we partner with Big Shoulders, the Daniel Murphy Foundation, High Sight and Link to make it possible for lower-income girls to attend.
Finally, there is the spiritual dimension, something many families see as the greatest value our schools have to offer. No matter what their faith, they know their daughters will be taught to revere their cultural and racial heritage. Public-school administrators market special-niche schools in increasing numbers. Not everyone is interested, of course; people differ on priorities. This is also true in the Catholic system. Not all parents and students choose small, all-girl, spiritually based secondary schools, but many do. Such schools have a place, and they always will.
