When students returned to St. Laurence High School last month, they came back to a building that underwent numerous changes over the summer.
The tile floors in some of the hallways were gone. In other rooms, one could still smell the fresh paint and new carpeting. In the former library, now a “research center,” students were hunched over their iPads — which were distributed to all incoming freshmen this year. Changes at this 55-year-old school have been wide-ranging, from redecorating to new food in the cafeteria to bringing in a new, global curriculum along with new technology and Chinese foreign exchange students.
It’s all part of an overhaul school president Joseph Martinez started when he took the helm four years ago.
“It’s been fun and challenging but definitely worth it for the students,” Martinez said, while pointing out the new features as he walked through the halls of the all-boys Catholic high school at 77th and Central Avenue in Burbank.
During his tenure, Martinez said, the school has seen a 43 percent increase in freshmen enrollment and a 14 percent increase overall from 2015 to 2016. The year before he took over in 2012, there had been a 12 percent drop in freshmen enrollment, Martinez said. He declined to offer specific enrollment numbers, saying simply that enrollment had been below 500 and now is in the “mid-500s.” His goal is to reach 600 by 2020, Martinez said.
According to the Chicago Archdiocese, student numbers for the 34 Catholic high schools this new school year won’t be finalized until October, but it’s possible three other Chicago high schools also had an increase in students this year: St. Francis de Sales, at 101st and Ewing; Resurrection High School at 7500 W. Talcott; Christ the King Jesuit High School, 5088 W. Jackson.
The archdiocese’s numbers, however, indicate that enrollment has steadily declined, with a loss of 2,887 students and six schools in the last five years.
Nationally, Catholic high school enrollment has dropped by 19,378 students since 2010, according to the National Catholic Education Association.
Enrollment is driven by market forces, and it’s what forced the closure of two Catholic high schools this year, Seton Academy in South Holland and Notre Dame High School for Girls on Chicago’s northwest side. Seton cited a $2.5 million debt and an enrollment that dropped from 400 a decade ago to 138 students this past year. Notre Dame expected 31 students this fall, far from its heyday in the 1950s and 60s when it enrolled 1,200.
The Rev. Ronald Nuzzi, senior director of the Alliance for Catholic Education at the University of Notre Dame, said that unlike elementary schools, which are often tied to a church parish for support, Catholic high schools must find ways to deal with the financial challenges that accompany declining enrollment.
To keep enrollment strong, these high schools must set themselves apart — what is unique about them, and why should parents pay tuition to send their child there, he said.
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It’s not that Catholic high schools are doing anything wrong, but the educational landscape has changed in the last 10 years, and the birth rate has reduced, producing fewer students, said Elizabeth Wilkins, professor of curriculum and instruction at Northern Illinois University.
“Catholic high school graduates are extremely well prepared academically and they understand the concept of service and leadership,” she said. “Catholic schools need to stick to their guns and do what they do well.”
But they are no longer the only alternative to public schools.
Parents today want choices in education, and they are finding opportunities in charter and independent schools, other religious schools, online classes and home schooling, which alone has increased 300 percent in the last decade, Wilkins said.
“In their own way, all of these schools have value,” she said. To survive, Catholic schools need to find a “dynamic leader, one who really makes a difference.”
St. Laurence seems to have found that in Martinez
, who is keenly aware that parents have lots of other options today.
“We need to challenge ourselves to look at changes in the market and prepare not only for college but for a career afterward,” Martinez said. “It makes a school look at themselves.”
His focus has been on “being a leader in education” while maintaining St. Laurence’s Christian identity.
Since he was hired as president in 2012, the three priorities of St. Laurence were to improve enrollment, academics and fundraising.
“Improving finances has to start with academic excellence,” said Martinez, who made major changes to the curriculum, administration, and even the school’s physical environment.
“We look at education as whole, at what universities are doing, what the job market is doing and look at St. Laurence as a whole,” Martinez said.
He is what Wilkins referred to as a “transformative leader” — one who has the ability to empower teachers, staff and the community to get everyone to work collaboratively to transform the school environment.
“They are a rare find,” Wilkins said.
Martinez does not have a background in education. He has a bachelor’s degree in systems engineering from the U.S. Military Academy and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago, which inspired him to launch the STEM curriculum — Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. But he said it is not just what students are taught but how they are taught, so he infused that into the school’s existing leadership program.
Donna Kiel, professor in DePaul University’s College of Education office of innovational professional learning, said what St. Laurence did with its STEM program is “cutting edge.” The school took its existing leadership program — in which students learn ethics, responsibility, communication skills, decision-making and community service — and incorporated it throughout its classes.
This “value-centered curriculum” is more meaningful to students, she said. While many schools see changes in curriculum as being difficult and costly, Martinez and his leadership team are preparing students for jobs that have not yet been created.
“He is doing things that other Catholic high schools have not taken on,” said Kiel, who provided the professional development for St. Laurence faculty.
Instead of teaching kids to be engineers or doctors, “we need students who are creators, inventors and thinkers. They are giving kids the skills to think through any job,” Kiel said.
Martinez said he knew he was taking a risk. “It was difficult to change the curriculum to one that was not yet proven or established.” he said.
St. Laurence’s STEM program was also unique because it focused on project-based learning and less on classroom lectures. Classes were shortened to 30-minute periods on the belief that students could retain information better in a shorter time, with two periods a day for English, math and science.
During its annual STEM week, students hear from an alumnus in the engineering field and are then assigned to teams of all grade levels to build their own robots, culminating in Robot Wars to determine a champion.
In 2014, St. Laurence partnered with Lewis University to offer dual degree programs on site, where students earn college credit in computer coding. Such opportunities will expand as Martinez plans to bring in more partners, he said.
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An ACT prep course has been built into the curriculum this year for all juniors, at no added cost to students.
Since the new program was implemented, there was a four-point increase in ACT composite scores for Advanced Placement/honor students and a 2.5 point increase for all students, Martinez said. School officials declined to release specific scores.
Catholic high schools in general score higher than the national and state average, according to data from the Chicago archdiocese. ACT scores in 2015 showed composite scores of 23.7 in English, 22.3 in math, 23.5 in reading and 22.7 in science for an overall composite score of 23.2, with 36 being a perfect score.
Parents already have high academic expectations when they select a Catholic high school, Nuzzi said. But what should set the schools apart is their Catholic identity — a “strong sense of community and caring” that involves students, parents, teachers, coaches and alumni.
“It’s how you act in the lunchroom and on the playground and how you administer the budget. It’s that mindset that everyone is on board,” Nuzzi said. “The culture should be irresistible. When parents walk in, they should say, ‘my child has to come here.'”
Martinez said changing a school’s culture takes four to seven years.
“We’re on our fifth year,” Martinez said. “It’s an exciting time.”
Martinez has a new leadership team in place.
New teachers and coaches have been added over the past four years “to move each other forward” and “never become complacent,” he said.
The key leaders at the school have a “shared vision” and “complement each other,” Kiel said. “They have created a leadership network and they model that for their students.”
The team approach is evident throughout the high school.
Students are involved redesigning the space that once housed the school’s library, to create a learning research center. In the classroom, individual desks have been replaced with tables that seat groups of four students — to enhance teamwork and project-based learning. In the cafeteria, Martinez plans to replace the long, rectangular tables with round ones, to create a family-like atmosphere.
Aside from academics, 100 percent of St. Laurence students are involved in an activity and 70 percent in sports, Martinez pointed out as he entered the gym, which is adorned with banners from the school’s glory days.
“This was a powerhouse back in the ’70s and ’80s,” he said.
To make sure athletics “continued to thrive,” he brought in new coaches, new backboards, scoreboards and lighting in the gym, enhanced the locker rooms and created a wrestling room.
In 2015, the football team was a class 5A state semifinalist — its first state semifinals appearance in 36 years — and in basketball, the school was a semifinalist in the Chicago Catholic League tournament. In 2016 the baseball team earned its first state sectional championship title for the first time in 23 years.
As he steps around mats and weights in the hallway, to make way for new fitness center equipment, it’s evident that Martinez is not yet done.
Martinez knows it is important to not just recruit new students, but to retain them, so he is focused on value and affordability.
“We will continue to take risks and challenge the status quo of education,” he said.