Surveys, Achievement and Enrollment: Strengthening and Sustaining Catholic Schools

Abstract U.S. Catholic school enrollment has declined significantly from a peak in the 1960s. Schools attempting to reverse that trend have relied on marketing and promotion. We use survey data from Chicago Catholic schools to compare Rasch measures of school climate to student growth, school enrollment, and closure. We find that these measures are reliable indicators of students’ and teachers’ experiences, and they are related to enrollment change. These findings provide some validation of survey measures that were previously validated in public schools. Thus Catholic schools seeking to increase enrollment might move beyond marketing and achievement to examine school climate.