A Study of the Existence of Policy Development in Catholic Secondary Schools in Wisconsin Using School Board Minutes

The organizational structure of most Catholic schools includes a school board or education committee. It is generally understood by those involved with Catholic school education that the role of the school board or education committee is an important one. Resources are available which can help boards determine the tasks they should be involved in. Most of this information is glowing with the importance of the task of setting policy for the school--policy which the administrator can follow in running the school. The literature explains how boards should be doing their job, but what are boards actually accomplishing regarding policy? The National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) gathers statistics about Catholic schools which are published yearly in Catholic Schools in America. It is relatively easy to find out the size and enrollment of a school, the number of lay versus religious teachers , whether or not a school board or education committee exists, etc., but very little is written about how active boards are when it comes to policy matters. One reason for this may be the fact that boards and education committees are a fairly new phenomenon in Catholic education