Archdiocese’s Catholic schools form new partnership with accreditation program
Criterion staff report
Continuing its emphasis on an education rooted in Christ, academic excellence and the development of the whole person, the archdiocese’s Office of Catholic Schools recently announced that it is forming a new partnership with a distinctly Catholic accreditation program.
“During this Catholic Schools Week, we are pleased to announce that our new school accreditation will be imbued with our core values: mission and Catholic identity, academic excellence and Gospel values,” said Brian Disney, superintendent of the archdiocese’s 67 Catholic schools. “We are excited about the partnership and how it will help us to continue to focus on the Catholic identity of our schools.”
A press release from the archdiocese’s Office of Catholic Schools stated that the archdiocesan Catholic schools will be aligned with Lumen Accreditation, part of a new partnership with the Institute for the Transformation of Catholic Education (ITCE) at The Catholic University of America in Washington.
The partnership will begin in the 2024-25 school year.
According to Dr. Peter Kilpatrick, president of The Catholic University of America, “Lumen, a distinctly Catholic accreditation program that is centered on Gospel values with fidelity to the Church, will encourage authentic conversations and dialogue regarding Catholic identity and enable our Catholic schools to place the proper emphasis on the human person.”
The press release offered insights about the usual accreditation process for schools and the added focus that Lumen’s “distinctly Catholic” accreditation program will provide for archdiocesan Catholic schools.
“Accreditation is an important quality assurance process in which a school or diocese voluntarily seeks an external body to help it measure its effectiveness in fulfilling its mission and setting a course for continuous improvement,” the press release noted. “In this process, an accrediting body and a school mutually agree on a framework and standards of excellence—and work together to support the school community in its striving for greater attainment of those standards.
“While the above statement is true for any accreditation process, a Catholic accreditation calls schools to something greater. In a Catholic accreditation, school communities are called to be more than successful, they are called to be faithful; faith and reason are authentic pathways to knowledge and wisdom. As such, culture is an essential element to a Catholic accreditation process which leads to the continuous improvement of a Catholic school community.”
Lumen Accreditation is committed to these results, the press release states, noting its primary goal to advance and promote “the distinctive excellence of K-12 Catholic school education.”
“The foundation of Lumen Accreditation is the Catholic Church’s rich educational heritage, which will renew Catholic schools in the search for truth, beauty and goodness,” the press release states.
“The Lumen Accreditation program was developed to unify the renewal of Catholic schools nationally. As a service to Jesus Christ and his Church, Lumen integrates foundational elements of the Church’s teachings on Catholic education and seeks to meet the needs of the individual charisms of dioceses and Catholic schools.
“With an aim toward true Christian education, Lumen Accreditation assists schools to align their community more fully to the example and teaching of Christ.” †