Cardinal Newman Society's Catholic Identity Self-Assessment Tool for Schools

Welcome to The Cardinal Newman Society’s Self-Assessment and Reflection Tool

We know how challenging it can be to find resources suited to faithful Catholic education, attending to its mission across all aspects of a school’s teaching and activities. That’s why we created this Catholic School Self-Assessment and Reflection Tool!

The tool is designed to provide discussion points and help schools independently assess and improve their Catholic education and formation. It can be completed by an individual or group, and it can be used by an accreditation team focused on mission and identity. While the tool is directly relevant to formal school structures, much of it will be helpful to homeschool programs and homeschool parents, if they apply the questions creatively to the home learning environment.

This Self-Assessment and Reflection Tool is only a part of a comprehensive suite of resources provided by The Cardinal Newman Society to help Catholic schools improve and measure Catholic identity in their programs, operations, and policies. These resources include the following:

Structure of the Self-Assessment and Reflection Tool

There are two online surveys, one for teachers and one for administrators. Together, they include more than 100 questions to gauge how well a Catholic school achieves its mission. Check-up questions are also included in the Administrators Assessment to help schools think about essential policies.

The questions on each assessment are divided into five scored sections according to The Cardinal Newman Society’s Principles of Catholic Identity in Education, which are derived from the Catholic Church’s magisterial teachings. These sections are:

Principle I – Inspired by Divine Mission
Principle II – Models Christian Communion and Identity
Principle III – Encounters Christ in Prayer, Scripture & Sacraments
Principle IV – Integrally Forms the Human Person; and
Principle V – Imparts a Christian Understanding of the World

Each question is privately self-assessed on a scale of 1 to 4, with 1=Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3=Agree, and 4=Strongly Agree. A higher score means a higher self-assessment of the school’s Catholic identity. The Cardinal Newman Society does not perform any additional evaluation on submitted forms. Scores are completely auto-generated.

Resources are provided for professional development with the automatic scoring report.

Individuals can access both the Teacher and Administrator Tool and receive a scored report with resources for professional development, or the head of school can set up an account for the school and invite additional administrators and faculty members. This way, a full school report can be generated.

The tool will temporarily save incomplete assessments for 30 days, so if you are interrupted, you can come back to complete the assessment during that time period. Once all questions are answered and submitted, you can retake the assessment as often as you like – even after a year! And, there is NO COST to use the Tool!

It is recommended that school administrators and faculty members come together to discuss each principle and the results of their independent assessments when working as a group. The cumulative report does not share individual answers—only scores. Action items can then be created and assigned for ongoing improvement. With honest, targeted, and specific data, schools can celebrate success and direct efforts toward improving their Catholic identity.

Sample Questions and Feedback can be viewed here.

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