The Case for a Socio-Cultural Approach to Literacy and Student Support Services

Abstract

Many urban Catholic high schools pride themselves as developing our students in a holistic way. In these schools, educators are able to develop and support their students in both a moral and an academic sense. This belief in educating the whole child is appealing to many families, especially those in our most underserved urban contexts. Families in these urban contexts look toward Catholic high schools as offering the necessary holistic support and guidance needed to achieve academic, collegiate, and moral success and stability. As co-developers of a newly launched Academic Resource Center within one urban Catholic high school setting, however, we recognize that while our education may appear holistic in nature and philosophy, oftentimes our understandings of student ability and literacy behaviors may be radically underdeveloped.

Examining the Legacy of Urban Catholic Schooling in the U.S.: A Systematic Literature Review

“…These studies addressed a wide range of attempted reforms within and across schools, ranging from the implementation of curricular interventions in already existing schools to the creation of new organizational networks of schools. Compared to the other clusters, this last category also contained more diverse types of empirical research, including literature reviews (e.g., Horning, 2013) and practitioner-initiated action research studies (e.g., Madden, 2017;Palomino-Bach & Fisher, 2017;Thielman, 2012). Across these studies, two main findings emerged: (1) multiple efforts have been made within urban Catholic schools that have improved the education offered low-income students and students of color in these schools; (2) however, there is not yet consensus about which of these efforts is best positioned to help the sector as a whole sustain its legacy given the sector's numerous organizational challenges.…”

“…Some studies investigated curricular, community-based, or organizational interventions and programs designed to enhance the experiences of stakeholder groups in current Catholic schools (Beltramo, 2012;Gibbs et al, 2009;Madden, 2017;Palomino-Bach & Fisher, 2017;Proehl et al, 2013;Rieckhoff, 2014;Scanlan, 2017;Suhy, 2012). As established in previous sections, urban Catholic educators are very aware their schools have not consistently provided stakeholders supportive or educative environments, particularly the low-income communities and communities of color these schools consider themselves mission-bound to serve.…”