Children bused to religious vacation school, Altoona, PA, 1950. Image: National Confraternity of the Christian Doctrine/National Catholic Welfare Conference Records, Special Collections, Archives, The Catholic University of America.

"The Subtle Conspirator," a 1926 anti-Catholic political cartoon by former Ku Klux Klan preacher Branford Clarke from the newsletter "Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty." The image implies the Catholic church will infiltrate public schools using religious propaganda under the cloak of the American flag. Image: Public Domain.

The phenomenal growth of Catholic schools in the United States from the mid-nineteenth through the late-twentieth century was fueled by the influx of millions of Catholic immigrants during this era. Hostility toward Catholicism in the public schools and a sturdy parish infrastructure created the groundwork for such schools to flourish. In the meantime, a network of Catholic colleges established throughout the country during the same period educated the priests, religious men and women, and laity who would service local Catholic populations in the burgeoning school networks.

As historian James T. Carroll notes:

“The breadth and scope of Catholic Education in the United States were vast and wide ranging, encompassing schools associated with parishes, secondary schools sponsored by religious orders, protectorates for vulnerable youth, colleges and universities for men and women, nursing schools, law schools, graduate and professional schools, minor and major seminaries, and catechetical schools, to name a few. The Catholic school system that developed in the United States was the most significant private philanthropic endeavor in history.” 

In 1965, U.S. Catholic parish school attendance reached its highest point at 4.5 million students. That same year, The Catholic University of America’s Department of Education became the School of Education, aimed at accommodating the expansion and professionalization of the field. By that time, more than one million students attended over 2,000 secondary Catholic schools. Catholic educators (both lay and religious) staffed urban elementary schools, trade schools, college preparatory schools, colleges, and schools accommodating a range of intellectual abilities. Many were staffed and run by graduates of Catholic University’s Education program. Even as the educational landscape shifted and many schools moved to the suburbs—in 1980 2.2 million students attended 7,800 parish schools—the Department of Education continued training educators for leadership and teaching in Catholic educational institutions. 

This exhibit offers a brief overview of the evolution The Catholic University of America’s Department of Education across a little over 100 years, 1902-2010.

Sources:

1. James T. Carroll, “Catholic Education,” The Cambridge Companion to American Catholicism, Margaret M. McGuiness and Thomas F. Rzeznik, eds (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021) 105-122, quote on 105.

2. Carroll, "Catholic Education," 105, 116, 119.