Mission, Faith, and Values - A Study of 94 Voices from Rhode Island Catholic Secondary School Graduates

While the mission statements of Catholic schools include strong language on faith formation, Catholic schools are more often identified with high-quality academics and less for the development of faith. A qualitative descriptive study was designed to understand how Rhode Island Catholic secondary school graduates described the influence of the Catholic educational mission on the formation of faith and personal life values. The results of the study indicate the graduates of Catholic secondary schools in Rhode Island recognized the strength of the academic programs at the four identified Catholic secondary schools. Participants also profusely described the influence of the Catholic educational mission on the development of personal life vales, but the results were less conclusive regarding graduates’ perceptions of the faith formation experience. Graduates who described faith as a process and personal journey had a more positive attitude regarding the influence of the Catholic educational mission on faith formation whereas described faith as the practice of religious ritual as well as obedience to the dogma of the Catholic Church, both positively and negatively, were less effusive regarding the Catholic educational mission