Does Changing Governance Yield Effectiveness? Making Sense of Catholic School Governance Shifts and Practitioner Responses

• In Event: Developments in and for Catholic Schools Concerning System Leaders and University Change Efforts

Abstract

Catholic schools continue to close amid this decline in enrollment; the trend is most noticeable among parish-run elementary schools. One of the most common ways schools and dioceses have responded to this era has been for schools to shift their governance model away from the parish-based governance assuming this will ensure operational vitality. Yet there has been little independent research examining these shifts in governance, the ways practitioners make sense of these governance shifts, or the popular assumption connecting governance shifts to operational vitality. In this proposed paper, we review the literature on Catholic school governance shifts and analyze the perspectives of Catholic school stakeholders who participate in this trend.

Authors

• Andrew Frederic Miller, Boston College

• Melodie Marie Wyttenbach, Boston College

• John Reyes, Boston College