Special Issue of the Journal of Catholic Education Points to Growing Commitment Among Scholars and Church Leaders to Expand Educational Opportunities for Latinos

Providing further evidence of the growing commitment among leaders in education and the Church to address the challenges and opportunities confronting Latino families and Catholic schools today, the Journal of Catholic Education recently released a special issue devoted exclusively to Latinos, education, and the church. The compilation of essays, which represents a broad cross-section of scholars, advocates, and practitioners, is really one of the first efforts to consolidate educational scholarship on this topic and features an essay co-authored by the Catholic School Advantage Campaign’s Father Joe Corpora, C.S.C., and the Arthur Foundation Endowed Professor of Transformative Latino Leadership and Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, Luis R. Fraga.

In their essay, titled ¿Es Su Escuela Nuestra Escuela? Latino Access to Catholic Schools, they examine some of the strategies designed to increase Latino enrollment in Catholic schools, offer several specific recommendations, and also pose challenging questions for educators and Church leaders on how we might collectively expand the breadth and depth of this work. The recommendations primarily draw from key lessons learned through the work of the Catholic School Advantage Campaign and bring national attention to some of our ongoing programs, including the Latino Enrollment Institute and the School Pastors’ Institute.

In addition to Fr. Corpora and Dr. Fraga’s essay, this special issue features contributions from a wide variety of educators at various institutions, each offering a unique perspective and its own distinctive voice. The themes include a Latina theological reflection on education, a historical discussion of Catholic education in Los Angeles, a self-reflective examination of a new principal in a Catholic school, a look at two-way language immersion in a Catholic school context, and an evidence-driven assessment of Latino presence in K-12 Catholic education, to name a few.

While the editors consider the variety of approaches and conclusions in this issue to be an “accurate reflection of the range of experiences and outlooks that surround debates and dialogues on Latinos, education, and the Church,” they also note that the authors are “clearly united in three important points”: (a) a vision of using the transformative possibilities within the Catholic Church and Catholic education to expand educational opportunities for Latino families; (b) the priority that leaders of the Catholic Church in the U.S. should give to expanding educational opportunities for Latino families; and (c) the need to continue to work strategically to leverage the resources necessary to improve the educational attainment of Latino students across the nation.

From its outset, the Catholic School Advantage Campaign has always sought to help catalyze a broader national effort to increase Latino enrollment in Catholic schools, so it is encouraging to see this coalescence of ideas, interests, and institutions across the country on this topic. We hope that these essays prompt greater discussion on the challenges and opportunities before us and inspire all educators, advocates, and mission partners to work together to develop fresh and imaginative ways to expand access to the transformative possibilities within Catholic schools.