Changing Landscape: Demography and Urban Catholic Schools

• In Event: Issues of Diversity in Urban Catholic Schools

Abstract

The landscape of American Catholic education has changed drastically in the past 50 years. Commenting on the state of Catholic education, Frank Bredeweg stated “if [Catholic schools] have become accustomed to anything, it is change” (1982, p. 17). Since 1960, the number of Catholic schools has decreased from 12,893 to 7,094, and the number of students served in those schools has decreased from 5.25 million to 2.12 million (McDonald & Schultz, 2010).
Despite the overall downward trend in Catholic school enrollment, several interesting student-level shifts have occurred in Catholic student religious affiliation and ethnicity. Although the total number of both Catholic and non-Catholic students has decreased considerably since the 1970s, the percentage of non-Catholic students has increased from 2.7% in 1970 to 14.5% in 2010 (Bredeweg 1985; McDonald & Schultz, 2010). These percent totals represent changes in the overall number of non-Catholic students from 120,000 in 1970 to 307,000 in 2010, which is slightly less than the total number of non-Catholic students enrolled during the peak year 1982 (n = 320,000) (Bredeweg 1985; McDonald & Shultz, 2010).
Since the1940s Catholic schools have continued to enroll “significant numbers of students who are members of racial or ethnic minorities (Convey, 1992, p. 42). Currently, 30% of Catholic school students are racial and ethnic minorities (McDonald & Schultz, 2010). Although the percentage of minority students continues to rise, the total number of students in key demographic categories has faltered over the last decade. For example, over the past ten years Hispanic students have remained the second largest ethnic group among Catholic school students; their percent of the total enrollment has grown from 11% in 1999 to just under 13% in 2010 (McDonald & Schultz, 2010). Although the percentage increased slightly, there are fewer total Hispanic children in Catholic schools today (n = 272,203) than there were in 1999 (n = 283,827). The current number of Hispanic children enrolled in Catholic schools is the lowest it has been in the past ten years, despite the fact that 35% of all practicing Catholics are Latino (Pew Hispanic Center, 2007).
Analysis of available demographic data indicates that urban, primary schools are most likely to enroll students who are non-Catholic and racial and ethnic minorities, and are most susceptible to closure. Recent data confirm that since the 2000 academic year, 98% of all Catholic school closures have been Catholic elementary schools (McDonald & Schultz, 2010). The most current data from the National Center for Education Statistics Private School Universe Survey (PSS) indicate a net loss of 1,417 Catholic schools between the years of 1989 and 2006 (NCES, 2008). When considered by location of school community, central city (urban) accounted for the largest portion of school closures (1,181 schools or 65% of school closures) followed by rural/small town (648 schools or 35% of school closures).
Each of these demographic factors has important and interesting implications for the study of diversity in urban Catholic schools.

Author

• Anthony C. Holter, University of Notre Dame