The Office for the Mission of Catholic Education at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis helps the 91 schools in the archdiocese “live out their mission of ensuring that every child grows in their love of Jesus Christ, is prepared for the world in which they live, and can become the men and women God has created them to be,” said Emily Dahdah, the office’s director of educational quality and excellence. Dahdah works with the schools to help them ensure educational quality and excellence, she said.
During a recent interview with “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley, Dahdah discussed “one of the biggest initiatives” that her office is excited about. The archdiocese was invited to be one of the first members of an accreditation cohort through Lumen accreditation, offered through The Catholic University of America. Starting this year, every archdiocesan Catholic school will be eligible for Lumen accreditation, she said.
One of the reasons for excitement is that “for the first time in a very long time,” Dahdah said, archdiocesan schools can “look at themselves in an opportunity for renewal and transformation and self-study through the lens of what it means to be an excellent Catholic school.”
The outcome of what’s called “a Catholic school study” is every school having a roadmap “that will help them grow in their practice of educational quality and excellence over the next five years,” Dahdah said. It includes high-level goals, with each goal having “a series of initiatives” laid out for years one, two and three. “Then, we at the archdiocese help accompany each school in fulfilling those goals, with the goal of moving the needle, of becoming an ever-greater source of educational quality for our families and for our community,” Dahdah said.
Giving one example, Dahdah said: “In the Catholic school study through Lumen accreditation, we don’t just look to see that we have a good discipline policy in place. We look to see that we have a good discipline policy in place and that it’s rooted in the virtues, that it’s helping each child to become a virtuous man or woman in love with the Lord.”
To learn more details about the Catholic school study and Lumen accreditation, and to hear the full interview, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which debuts at 9 p.m. Sept. 8 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM and repeats at 1 p.m. Sept. 9 and 2 p.m. Sept. 10.
To visit the new website for the Office for the Mission of Catholic Education recently, visit spmcatholicschools.org.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes an interview with Gina Ashley, principal of Divine Mercy Catholic School in Faribault, Minnesota, who discusses starting her 35th year as an educator and what she would tell parents considering sending their children to a Catholic school; and Josiah Klas, a chapter leader for St. Paul’s Outreach at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, who discusses how SPO is bringing Christ to college campuses this school year.
Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com or choose a streaming platform at anchor.fm/practicing-catholic-show.
