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A series of regional meetings during May will engage supporters of Catholic education in implementing the Albany Diocese's "Covenant to Educate," the diocesan school board's multi-year plan to reinvigorate Catholic schools.

Attendees will hear a half-hour breakdown of the goals of each committee - teaching and learning, Catholic identity, partnerships, governance, Church-school alliance, and branding - and break into groups to offer feedback on each area.

Already, progress has been made in several areas of the initiative in recent months.

• The Diocese did a trial run of a formal principal evaluation at three schools.

• The Covenant to Educate's Catholic identity committee developed standards and indicators that will be submitted to the school board for approval in May.

• Teachers of Kindergarten through grade 12 will meet in May to map out a standard mathematics curriculum for the Diocese's schools - a step toward eventually "curriculum mapping" all subjects in the schools (though individual educators can choose teaching methods).

• An "educator compact" whereby teachers and principals agree what it means to teach in a Catholic school was approved at a recent meeting.

• A parent-student compact along the same lines is being developed.

• The public relations firm hired to develop a marketing communications strategy and branding campaign for the Diocese's schools finished its research and will present a logo and tagline by the end of the school year.

• The diocesan Schools Office may sponsor a fall symposium for local businesses to brainstorm partnership ideas.

• Pastoral leadership will gather with committee leaders in the fall to collaborate with faith formation programs.

Kathleen Burgess, chair of the implementation committee, told The Evangelist that the goal of the Covenant to Educate is "to reimagine Catholic education.

"If we were starting anew today, what would Catholic education look like?" she pondered. "What can we, as a Diocese, do to reinvigorate our schools? How can we prepare our students for the 21st century and instill in them, simultaneously, the timeless Gospel values of Jesus?"

The Catholic schools of the Diocese "have tremendous potential to learn from one another and collaborate with each other," she noted.

(Learn more about the Covenant to Educate and the upcoming meetings at www.faithinourfuture.net.)[[In-content Ad]]

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