Gerald M. Cattaro, Ed.D., executive director of the Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education and professor at the Graduate School of Education, was appointed by Pope Francis as one of two new consultors for the Congregation for Catholic Education on April 25. 

“I’m very humbled by the recognition of Pope Francis,” said Cattaro. “It’s a recognition of all the work we do at the Graduate School of Education and the University with our national and global partners. It’s also a great responsibility because we have to safeguard the mission of Catholic education.” 

The Congregation for Catholic Education is a pontifical organization that promotes and organizes Catholic education across the world. In his new role as consultor, Cattaro will offer policy recommendations for the global Catholic school community. Cattaro is the first layperson from the U.S. to be appointed to the position, and he is one of two consultors from the U.S., in addition to Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, said Cattaro. 

Cattaro has more than 30 years of experience in preparing Catholic school leaders, from principals to superintendents to deans. He also serves on several national and international governing boards, editorial boards, and educational commissions. 

At Fordham, he runs the Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education, which has trained educators from multiple faith-based schools and organizations for more than three decades. In 2019, he helped host the World Congress of Catholic Education, a global conference that brought a thousand delegates from Catholic schools worldwide to the Lincoln Center campus, and the fifth International Scholas Chairs Congress, an international conference that united more than 100 scholars on campus to discuss how education could promote social change. Cattaro is a Scholas Occurrentes ambassador who oversees the three designated Scholas Chairs in the United States—at Fordham, Minnesota University, and John Carroll University. 

In 2009, Fordham News profiled his work on revitalizing Catholic schools. Before joining Fordham, he served as a principal for 18 years, a high school teacher, and a junior high school teacher. 

There are more than 200,000 Catholic schools across the world, said Cattaro. In the U.S. alone, there are more than 6,000 schools and 1.7 million students, according to the National Catholic Educational Association. 

“We have a lot to be proud of, especially with the number of schools that we have,” said Cattaro.

But the COVID-19 pandemic has created a new issue for Catholic schools across the world—simply maintaining them, now and after the pandemic has passed, said Cattaro. Many Catholic schools generate most of their income through student tuition, and thanks to the coronavirus, schools across the world might face lower rates of student retention and admission, he said.

“We’re going to have to put a seatbelt on next semester,” said Cattaro. “We’ll have a lot to work on.”  

“This is a way for Fordham to celebrate the theme of this year’s National Catholic Schools Week, Catholic Schools: Learn, Serve, Lead, Succeed, encompassing the core values that can be found in the schools of the Archdiocese,” said Gerald M. Cattaro, Ed.D., director of the Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education. 

For many of the approximately 800 children from 19 different Catholic schools across New York City, it was also an opportunity to see a college campus for the first time. 

“By giving them the opportunity to visit classrooms, see college students in classes, and walk the same paths as college students, we hope to inspire these visiting students to reach higher in their academic choices and study habits,” said Virginia Roach, Ed.D., dean of GSE. “We want to show children, especially those who could be first-generation college-bound students, that there are pathways to realize their dreams of a college education.”

Shortly before 10 a.m. last Monday, students started to arrive at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, located across the street from Fordham College at Lincoln Center. For the next hour, they sat in the wooden pews and attended morning Mass. They sang hymns like “Here I Am, Lord” and “City of God,” led by choir singer t’Jacques Guillot, a Fordham College at Rose Hill senior, and Timothy Perron, a Fordham Jesuit scholastic and pianist. At the beginning of Mass, they were reminded of one of Fordham’s guiding tenets: 

“At Fordham, we’re committed to the idea of cura personalis. That’s Latin for caring for the individual. We really care deeply about you and supporting you today, tomorrow, and after you graduate,” Anthony P. Cavanna, Ed.D., associate dean for academic affairs at GSE, said to the students. “No matter what college or high school or university you finally choose, you map out cura personalis. Take care of yourself, take care of others, and God bless you.”

Presiding over Mass was Joseph M. O’Keefe, S.J., a scholar in residence at GSE and the first provincial of the newly created USA East Province of the Society of Jesus. He urged the students and teachers to continue to care for one another in “one family of faith and goodness and hope.” 

Today, he said, they were celebrating the feast of Saint Angela Merici—a religious educator who was dedicated to the education of girls. 

“When Catholic schools only taught boys, she said Catholic schools should educate girls, too. Girls, you think that’s a good idea?” he said to applause. “Absolutely … so we gather to celebrate Catholic schools and remember the heroes of Catholic schools like Angela Merici.” 

After Mass, the students split into two groups. Half of them toured the Lincoln Center campus; the other dined on pizza in Pope Auditorium with Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. 

For Isabella Marina Martinez, an eighth-grader at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Washington Heights, it was her first time at Fordham College at Lincoln Center. This past spring, she visited her cousin, Xienna Dejesus, a student at Fordham College at Rose Hill, at the Bronx campus.

“I’ve seen it in pictures, and I wanted to see it [in person], so she took me one day,” said Martinez, who said she’s considering a future as a lawyer—and keeping an eye on the Fordham School of Law.  “It would be cool to come here.” 

For half an hour, Martinez and her classmates explored the Lincoln Center campus, including Hughes Hall. It was Matthew Capellan’s first time seeing a trading room with Bloomberg terminals. It was also a special experience for his classmate, Manuel Ramirez. 

“The part that I found most interesting about the tour today was the business room—how they had all the stocks going around on the screens and how every computer is updated to the most recent stocks,” said Ramirez, who lives in Morris Heights and wants to become a biologist. 

Nisha Reyes, an eighth-grader who wants to study business or law, said she was struck by the number of student clubs and overall diversity. 

“Everyone’s so different, but they come together in such a special way at Fordham,” Reyes said. “It doesn’t matter where you come from. You can still come together; everyone can be part of a family at Fordham.” 

A thousand delegates from Catholic schools across the world congregated at the Lincoln Center campus and nearby locations for the World Congress of Catholic Education, hosted by Fordham from June 5 to 8.  

“I cannot overestimate the importance of a Catholic education and your work in bringing that gift to the widest audience possible,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, in his welcome message. “The schools and educators you represent do holy work every day, and in that work, they transform the lives of young people around the globe. Those young people in turn change the world.”

The four-day conference, sponsored by the Graduate School of Education’s Center for Catholic School Leadership and the Office of International Catholic Education, examined global education issues in collaboration with bishops, universities, and religious congregations throughout the world. 

At this year’s conference, delegates representing more than 85 countries and 200,000 Catholic schools were present. Several years ago, Gerald M. Cattaro, Ed.D., executive director of the Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education, led the U.S. delegation at the 2015 World Congress in Rome.

“The world conference of Catholic education presented Catholic education at its best as a gift to all nations,” Cattaro said. “This year, we gathered at Fordham to share our vision for the future: to provide sustainable Catholic education, modeling the pedagogy of Pope Francis—pedagogy of heart, hands, and mind in an effort to better serve the marginalized, the poor, refugees, and those on the peripherals. In other words, to teach as Jesus did.”

The conference began with a 5:30 p.m. opening Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, attended by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States; Father McShane; and several other clergy and faith leaders. Over the next two days, the guests attended lectures and panels presented by key figures in education, including Marc Brackett, director of the Yale University Center for Emotional Intelligence, and Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, S.J., president of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar. Archbishop Angelo Vincenzo Zani, secretary of the Vatican Congregation of Catholic Education, presided over all the conference events.

Guests were invited to attend eight available “labs,” where guest speakers discussed their innovative teaching methods. Topics included creating more inclusive schools and protecting children against abuse. To accommodate all of the international guests, each lab topic was presented in English, Spanish, and French.

A Crisis of Compassion

One of the first labs, “For a new format of education, adapted to change, and grounded in a culture of dialogue,” featured TED Talk speaker Kiran Bir Sethi, Ph.D., the founder of an internationally-recognized teaching strategy, and Kari Flornes, Ph.D., a Norwegian philosophy professor who spoke about the importance of teaching empathic communication to children.

“For 15 years of our children’s lives in schooling, we tell them that their education will be incomplete if they do not learn about photosynthesis, quadratic equations, the height of Mount Everest, or even grammar,” said Kiran Bir Sethi, who founded the Riverside School in Ahmedabad, India, in 2001. “But in those same 15 years, we struggle with finding the time to get our children to care about inequality or child rights or compassion … or even love.”

Sethi’s solution is a four-step formula—FIDS (feel, imagine, do, share) for kids—that taps into children’s creativity, compassion, problem-solving skills, and collaboration. It is currently used in more than 65 countries to encourage students to solve local challenges like bullying, she said.

“We ask them to actually go in teams to implement the solution. And finally, we ask them to share—we ask them to share their story of change with the world to inspire others to say, ‘I can’ [too].”

In 2017, Sethi met Pope Francis in Vatican City and signed an agreement that introduced FIDS and her global movement, Design for Change, to more than 460,000 Catholic schools across the world.

The second speaker, Karni Flornes, an associate professor at Bergen University College in Norway, emphasized the importance of educators using empathetic communication in their classrooms.

Aspects of empathetic communication include teaching non-violence and no-hate speech in all subjects, speaking about controversial issues in the classroom, and actively coexisting with people who look different from themselves.

“[Children] have to practice dialogue between people of different views and learn it’s possible to live with diverse opinions,” Flornes said. “It’s not always possible to reach consensus. But it’s possible to live together without violence.”

She said that parents can also use empathic communication by seeing and following their children’s initiatives, sharing their personal experiences with them, and giving praise and showing recognition.

Sharing Global Ideas at the United Nations

The World Congress of Catholic Education conference culminated with a Saturday morning convocation and program at the United Nations general assembly, moderated by Cattaro.

In his introductory remarks, Archbishop Bernardito C. Auza, the Holy See’s permanent observer to the United Nations, said that society needs to be based on “humanism”—a concept that starts at home with the family. Educators must bolster that idea by building spiritual values in students, he said.

Later, a global panel of leaders presented problems and solutions in their native countries, including how to effectively teach sustainability in classrooms and educate students in local prisons. Jaime Palacio, a lay missionary from Peru, spoke about the challenges of educating children in the Amazon. Educators need to listen to the needs of the Amazon community, he said, and help them defend their land and culture. Another panelist—Jose Arellano, executive director of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines—considered ISIS’s recruitment of uneducated Muslim children in Asia. One way to prevent this is peacebuilding through education, he said, like the Madaris Volunteer Program in the Philippines.  

In a video message played at the United Nations, Pope Francis also addressed conference participants. For 12 minutes, he spoke about the future work of Catholic schools, expressed his gratitude toward Catholic school educators, and greeted the millions of students who study in Catholic schools worldwide.

“Young people, as I said at World Youth Day in Panama, belong to the ‘today’ of God,” Pope Francis said, “and therefore are also the today of our educational mission.”

— Jeanine Genauer contributed reporting.

Through GSE’s Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education, students employed as full-time professionals in faith-based non-public schools can receive a 40 to 50 percent tuition discount for up to six credits each semester.

“From 2010 to the spring of 2019, over 1,200 students have benefited,” said Cristiana Ritchie-Carter, associate director of the Center. “Not just across New York City—all around us.”

The scholarship program, which developed through long-standing relationships with the Catholic community, continues to help teachers, principals, superintendents, counselors, bishops, and professors from almost every continent, Ritchie-Carter said. Perhaps more importantly, it has made master’s and Ph.D. programs more affordable for full-time educators.

Cutting Costs for Teachers of Students at Risk

Such is the case for teachers at Cornelia Connelly Middle School of the Holy Child, an independent Catholic school for at-risk girls across New York City. The school serves almost 100 low-income students whose average household income amounts to $26,742. In the 2017-18 school year, the school paid $16,415 for each student’s education, while families paid only $660. That means their teachers don’t earn as much as public school teachers in a suburban setting, said the school’s principal.

“What I’m able to offer our staff is not necessarily comparable even to the public school model,” said Shalonda Neeley Gutierrez, FCRH ’96, the school’s principal. “Fordham’s partnership with the 40 percent-off tuition really opens up the doors for our teachers.”

One of those educators is Emma Linsenmeyer, GSE ’20, a fifth-grade teacher at the middle school.

“When I was looking at different programs, Fordham stood out to me because of this opportunity,” said Linsenmeyer, who studies general and special education at Fordham. “There was nowhere else [in New York City]that was offering that kind of benefit to teachers in my position.”  

One of her colleagues, Katherine Hager, GSE ’18, said the scholarship saved her almost $20,000 in tuition over a two-year span. Hager, a fourth-grade teacher who received her master’s degree in childhood literacy, said her Fordham education has also taught her how to tailor her content to her young students.

“My time at Fordham really enabled me to take time to reflect on my teaching and my practice that I had done prior to Fordham, and decide how I could change it to be more culturally relevant and relatable for my students,” she said.

Her classroom currently has 18 girls: the majority of them Latina and the first in their families to potentially graduate from college. Thanks to her professors at Fordham, Hager said, she made sure her students had access to books like “Drum Dream Girl”—a story about a Cuban girl named Millo Castro Zaldarriaga—that they could relate to.

“I made it an effort of mine to be sure that the students were reading books where they were seeing themselves in the characters, and they could connect to what they were reading in a way that was close to home,” Hager explained.

Returning to Jesuit Roots

Another alumna who benefited from both the scholarship and a Fordham education is Noelle Beale, Ph.D., GSE ’12, regional superintendent for the Catholic schools of Central Westchester and adjunct professor at GSE.

Student loans can snowball as time passes, particularly for those who pursue postgraduate degrees, Beale said. Thanks to the GSE tuition discount, she was able to avoid borrowing money for her doctorate degree.  

“By the time you get to pursuing a doctorate, you have undergraduate expenses. You have graduate expenses. And so to then add doctoral expenses would be a very significant amount of money,” said Beale, who earned a doctorate in educational leadership, administration, and policy from Fordham. “If I had to have paid the entire tuition out of pocket, I likely would have needed to incur some student loan debt.”

Her Fordham education has also redefined her role as an administrator. She now navigates student discipline issues in a more holistic way, she said. The same applies to the way she speaks with students and staff.

“The way in which I view things,” said Beale, who also received her bachelor’s degree from Fordham College at Rose Hill, “is very much about that concept of the whole person: that we educate body, mind, and soul.”

“There are questions unresolved, and young people simply don’t have the mental energy or desire to figure it out,” said Bishop Caggiano. “And so they walk away.”

Speaking at an event called Passing on the Faith, sponsored by the Graduate School of Education’s Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education, Bishop Caggiano talked about the reasons young people are leaving the church now more than ever, their changing pathways to vocation and the Catholic faith, and what Catholic educators can do to help the next generation stay engaged.

His lecture was largely a reflection on what he learned at the 2018 synod in Rome on “Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment”—an assembly of bishops from around the world who, with Pope Francis, discussed how to minister to today’s teenagers and young adults.

Eroded Trust and Unresolved Answers

“Disaffiliation in the United States is beginning [as early as]  the age of 7,” Bishop Caggiano, said, citing numbers from a 2018 national study conducted by Georgetown University and Saint Mary’s Press. When disaffiliated Catholic youth—those aged between 15 and 25—were asked at what age they no longer identified themselves as Catholic, 74 percent of the surveyed group said between the ages of 10 and 20.

Part of the blame lies on the many problems plaguing our world today, Bishop Caggiano said. Among them are the “abuse of minors and vulnerable adults,” especially in the church; “polarization”; and lack of “dialogue.” Such issues, he said, have “destroyed many young people’s lives and created this vacuum of trust, particularly with the leadership of the church.”

Their trust has eroded in other ways, too.

“Affiliation occurs when a relationship is built up over time, precisely by questions that are answered satisfactorily,” Bishop Caggiano said. He compared it with falling in love.

“There are a thousand questions that come to mind: Is he or she the real deal? Can that person be trusted?” Bishop Caggiano said.

It works the same way with disaffiliation. Young people and young adults ask religious figures many questions, Bishop Caggiano said. But often, those questions are left unresolved. They pile up. And, just as wood chips away over years, so too does their affiliation for the faith.

The Art of Listening, Accompanying, and Mentoring

Bishop Caggiano urged his audience of Catholic educators—principals and superintendents from local archdioceses and dioceses, administrators from Catholic secondary schools, campus ministry staff who serve at Fordham and nearby high schools, and GSE students—to think about three things he learned from the 2018 synod.

First, if you listen deeply to young people and young adults, he said, you can open a real dialogue. Second, accompany them on their journey, even if you might be on the wrong path. And third, make sure you are a mentor worth following.  

Listening isn’t the same thing as hearing, he began.

“It’s not what we have learned—keeping your mouth closed until somebody else finishes talking, and then saying what you were gonna say, regardless of what they [the other person]  said,” Bishop Caggiano said in his native Brooklyn accent, while the audience laughed.

“You listen with your mind and ears; you listen with your heart,” he said. That means you not only hear a person speak but also pay attention to their body language—their facial expression, posture, the words not spoken.

And, he added, that also means letting them be heard.

“How much do you place into your ministry the importance of allowing them to raise their questions without prejudice?” he asked. “How often do you and I allow that to happen in a safe space?”

Lesson number two: Accompany young people along their journey to Christ. One way to do that, Bishop Caggiano said, is to consider the younger generation’s appreciation for the beauty of the liturgy. He asked the audience to think about how to intentionally incorporate beauty in their teaching—music, art, architecture, and literature—and showcase the cultural diversity of the church.

“When one experiences beauty, there is this natural, unfolding, opening of the heart to embrace it,” he said.

Lastly, the bishop reminded them of the importance of mentorship.

“We need to find better and more diverse ways,” Bishop Caggiano told the Catholic educators in the room. “To allow these young people and young adults to answer the call—to explore the greatness of what it means to be a human being.”

Speaking at the 23rd annual Catholic School Executive Leadership Dinner hosted by the Graduate School of Education and the Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education, Father Antonio Spadaro, S.J., stressed the importance of unity through integration, education, and diversity among all people, regardless of faith or background.

Father Spadaro is the Editor-in-Chief of La Civiltà Cattolica, a Jesuit journal based in Rome that has been continuously published since 1850. He is also a Consultor at Pontifical Council for Culture and has published over 15 books, the latest being Cybertheology: Thinking Christianity in the Era of the Internet (Fordham Press, 2014).

Father Spadaro reflected on Pope Francis’s address to the United States Congress about immigration and migration, saying that “no one should feel like a stranger in the land of the free and the land of the brave,” a place with roots that are “mixed, complex, and multifaceted.” Only when we accept ourselves as immigrants will we accept ourselves and unite as the people.

The key steps to unity, according to Spadaro, are integration, education, and working with diversity.

Integration, specifically in school settings and especially for immigrant, special education, and marginalized students, is crucial in unifying the people. Spadaro focused on language and bilingualism as fundamental to integration. Learning a language creates a bridge to a new culture and its people. “To help someone learn a language means to help people develop in their relationships with the world,” Spadaro said.

Education is paramount in improving ourselves, building the nation, and building the future — there is no community without education. Quoting Pope Francis, Spadaro said “our educational task must awaken the feeling of society as home. Education serves to inhabit the world as a home.”

Additionally, there is no the people without working with diversity. People are dynamic and, again quoting Pope Francis, Spadaro said “the culture of a people does not consist of the frozen repetition of itself. It is an open process that tends to open, to integrate, to multiply, to share, to dialogue, to give and to receive.” Schools, he continued, must lead the way in working with diversity.

He invited attendees to build up diversity of our communities and create unity “on the basis of our diversity of languages, cultures, and religions. We must lift our voices in the way of anything that stands in the way of that unity.”

The annual leadership dinner honors people and programs who are doing exceptional work on behalf of all students and families, particularly underserved and marginalized groups. This year’s awardees included the following:

Peter Fusco, Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons School (Diocese of Albany)

Sr. Patricia Mary Lynch, RSM, Blessed Sacrament School (Diocese of Albany)

Stephen Anderson, St. Joseph School (Diocese of Bridgeport)

Patricia Griffin, St. Ann Academy (Diocese of Bridgeport)

Rudolph Cyrus-Charles, Saint Gregory the Great Catholic Academy (Diocese of Brooklyn)

Linda Freebes, Sts. Jocachim and Anne Catholic School (Diocese of Brooklyn)

Leona Arpino, Maria Regina School (Diocese of Rockville Centre)

Fr. Elias Carr, All Saints Regional Catholic School (Diocese of Rockville Center)

Darlene Delvecchio, St. Patrick School (Archdiocese of New York)

Diverse America, Office of the Superintendent of Schools (Archdiocese of New York)

Sr. Jacquelyn Balasia, Mother Seton Regional High School (Archdiocese of Newark)

Mary McErlaine, Mother Seton School (Archdiocese of Newark)

Dr. Diane Rodriguez, Associate Professor of Curriculum and Teaching and founder of Every Girl is Important

Crafted through the lens of Catholic identity, mission, and culture, the program shapes globally-minded, technologically-sophisticated, empathetic leaders dedicated to social justice and equity for all learners.

The 30-credit program is designed for Catholic or faith-based educators seeking to advance into administrative and/or leadership roles. Applicants employed at religious schools may be eligible for a 40 percent scholarship.

“This is a golden opportunity for emerging Catholic school leaders to facilitate the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision shared by the school faith community
,  said Gerald Cattaro, Ed.D., executive director of GSE’s Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education.

“We are committed to exploring faith-based identity issues and to educating all students. We emphasize high standards of learning and continuous, mission-focused school improvement.”

Coursework covers a variety of areas, including management, strategic planning, ethics, and technology. Students will complete 440 fieldwork hours in education settings.

Center associate director Cristiana Ritchie-Carter, Ph.D., said that consulting with Catholic school superintendents from across the country revealed a need for Catholic dioceses to create a pipeline for school leadership.

“Our online program meets the needs of today’s learners and is a means to bring together diverse people, form community, and provide excellent academic content,” she said.

For more information, contact the center at [email protected].

Among these participants are more than 80 members of a U.S. delegation led by Fordham’s Gerald Cattaro, EdD, executive director for the Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education within the Graduate School of Education (GSE).

The celebration also commemorates the 25th anniversary of Ex Corde Ecclesia, Pope John Paul II’s apostolic constitution on Catholic colleges and universities.

“I am pleased to learn that the [Congregation for Catholic Education] wishes to constitute on this occasion a foundation entitled Gravissimum Educationis, with the aim of pursuing ‘scientific and cultural ends, intended to promote Catholic education in the world,’” Pope Francis wrote in a chirograph issued Oct. 28, the anniversary of Gravissimum Educationis.

“The Church recognizes the ‘extreme importance of education in the life of man and how its influence ever grows in the social progress of this age.”

Convened by the Congregation for Catholic Education, the Congress is meant to revitalize the church’s commitment to Catholic education. The Congress will explore the future of Catholic schools and universities, focusing especially on issues that relate to identity, mission, communities, and challenges ahead.

The U.S. delegation led by Cattaro comprises Catholic school leaders from across the country, including superintendents and directors of education from dioceses and archdioceses and professors, deans, and administrators from Catholic colleges and universities.

Fordham’s other participants are Virginia Roach, EdD, dean of GSE, and Anita Batisti, PhD, associate dean and director of the Center for Educational Partnerships.

The Congress concludes on Nov. 21 with an audience with Pope Francis at Castel Gandolfo.

Perhaps not everyone would connect the work of Catholic educators with activities such as swimming with sharks or rolling about the sand, Cashin said, but the school leaders who gathered at Fordham on May 28 have proven through their efforts that the two professions share some key philosophies.

Like Navy SEALs, educators embrace diversity, confront danger, persevere despite hardship, and demonstrate remarkable self-discipline, Cashin said in her keynote address at the 21st annual Catholic School Executive Leadership Dinner, hosted by the Graduate School of Education (GSE). This year, GSE recognized 13 principals whose schools have exemplary service programs.

A key navy philosophy is not to judge anyone by the size of her flippers, said Cashin, a clinical professor of educational leadership, administration, and policy. For educators, this means not allowing others’ gender, nationality, skin color, and other superficial elements hinder collaboration.

“We don’t choose many of the characteristics we have,” she said. “We have to remain open to diversity and not prejudge people. Working on that is essential to building community.”

She went on to describe an activity during SEAL training known as “the sugar cookie.” The SEALs put on their dress whites, perfecting every detail of their uniforms, and then are told to dive into the ocean and roll in the sand.

“The activity is not about having the perfect uniform—it’s about whether you can take it when you have done everything perfectly and then you’re made to run in the waves,” Cashin said. “The lesson is in humility and getting yourself up against all odds.”

For both Navy SEALs and educators, there will always be sharks to contend with. “They are taught that if the sharks start circling, never swim away. Stay your ground and face the danger head on,” she said.

Finally, Cashin said, at the heart of successful leadership is a very simple navy philosophy: Always make your bed.

“How could you be successful without self-control, or being disciplined?” she said. “And besides, even if you have a lousy day, you go home and your bed is made. You know you started out right.”

Outgoing GSE Dean James Hennessy, PhD was recognized for his longtime service to the school. Hennessy, who has served Fordham for 41 years, is stepping down after 10 years as dean to return to the GSE faculty.

“Service learning is very important, but it rests upon solid education,” said Hennessy, who received the Pro Universitate Medal at this year’s commencement ceremony.

“My great hope is that institutions like Fordham and Catholic universities across the country will continue to support K-8 Catholic education, because that is where our future leaders in ministry will come from.”

The office’s modest size and relative calm are deceptive, however. The center actually has nearly 80 employees who provide outreach across New York City—and Batisti is at the helm. In addition to serving as associate dean at the Graduate School of Education (GSE), Batisti is the founding director of the center and CEO of the center’s Partnership Support Organization (PSO). The organization is one of only two housed in a New York City university and it provides technical assistance and support to 35 public schools serving more than 19,000 students.

A veteran educator, Batisti is a former administrator in the city’s public school system and has been an adjunct professor at Fordham for 25 years. She recently turned her sights toward early childhood education, a topic that has drawn national attention in the year since President Obama called for high-quality preschool for every child in America. The need for pre-kindergarten education has been proven, Batisti said; satisfying that need in the form of free, full-day, universal pre-K is another challenge entirely.

Nevertheless, Batisti is optimistic that universal pre-K can become a reality, beginning here in New York. This year, GSE and the Center for Educational Partnerships are spearheading a research-based pilot program focusing on early childhood literacy—an initiative that can help bolster the city’s vigorous efforts to provide pre-K for every 4-year-old in New York City.

Why is pre-K so important for children?

AB: In 2000, the U.S. Department of Education convened a National Reading Panel to evaluate the best ways to teach children to read. One of the recommendations was to give young children greater access to school. This gave way to many pre-K classes and all-day kindergartens. As a result, because children were going to school earlier, people felt their reading needs were being addressed. But then the question is: What are kids getting by going to school at younger ages? It’s easy to provide more access, but the panel’s other recommendations, such as strategies for teaching vocabulary and reading comprehension, were harder to implement.

I’m happy that Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Fariña are focusing on early childhood, especially for students in high-needs situations. Because the problem is that by the time many of these students reach kindergarten, they have an almost 30 million-word gap [compared to their peers]. If this gap isn’t addressed as early as possible, it becomes harder and harder for them to catch up. Coming in to school with a rich vocabulary is very important both for comprehension and for higher-order thinking and questioning.

How is GSE responding to this national need?

AB: In June, the center received a planning grant from the Brooke Astor Foundation to devise early childhood reading strategies. We’ve selected three high-needs elementary schools that our PSO works with—one each in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx—in which we’re going pilot a program designed by GSE faculty members Arlene Moliterno, Lynn Huber, Chun Zhang, and Fran Blumberg. Starting in October, staff developers who are licensed in early childhood literacy will offer 38 days of in-classroom coaching to five teachers at each school. The idea is to provide the teachers with strategies for teaching vocabulary and comprehension, because if the teachers teach better, the students will do better.

What are your expectations for this project?

AB: If this works, we will apply for an implementation grant, which can run for up to three years and allow us to work with many more schools. Right now, we are using this planning grant to fine-tune and pilot the strategies that we’ve developed. If we get this right, I know Fordham will be able to replicate it. The New York City school system is the largest in the nation, with about 1,600 schools and 1.1 million students. So if an initiative like this will work here, it will work anywhere. I think Fordham will be able to come out with a solid model on early childhood vocabulary strategies that any pre-K program will be able to adapt and learn from.

What are GSE and the Center for Educational Partnerships doing to support parochial schools?

AB: The parochial schools in Brooklyn and Queens have large numbers of English-language learners, including newly arrived immigrant students. We recently received a grant from the diocese for a multiethnic teacher leadership program, which will allow a cohort of parochial school teachers to get a master’s in administration at GSE and special training in multi-ethnic and bilingual education. We are beginning an exciting collaboration between the Diocese of Brooklyn and the GSE’s Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education.

None of that is possible, however, if a school cannot draw students in the first place.

To address this basic challenge, the Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education, part of the Graduate School of Education, and Bloomingdale’s co-sponsored an in-service training session on Dec. 20 regarding the marketing of schools.

Thirty Catholic elementary school principals from the Archdiocese of New York, the Diocese of Brooklyn and the Diocese of Rockville Centre gathered at Bloomingdale’s corporate headquarters to gain entrepreneurial and marketing skills geared toward promoting their schools.

“School leaders in the 21st century not only have to be competent instructional leaders, but in Catholic schools they need to develop an entrepreneurial spirit as a core competency as well, so that they know how to promote their schools,” said Patricia Kelly-Stiles, Ed.D., associate director of the center.

“As a result of demographic changes, Catholic schools throughout the New York City metropolitan area are challenged to recruit adequate numbers of students so that the schools can continue to thrive,” she said.

Led by Kelly-Stiles and Gerald Cattaro, Ed.D., executive director of the center, along with Bloomingdale’s Richard Pittelli, vice president of financial control, and Michelle Pogue, manager of education, communication and recognition, the training drew on the retail giant’s corporate models to give the principals tips on marketing their schools.

“It’s important for the principals because one of their main functions is to attract students to the schools,” Cattaro said. “They have a terrific product and the real challenge is to get the word out there… We can learn from business.”

The participating principals will assemble again in May to reflect on the strategies they implemented since the December training and how their schools have benefitted.

Moreover, Kelly-Stiles added, these strategies are essential not just for Catholic school administrators, but also for anyone who serves in an administrative role in education.

“[For] people studying for school leadership positions, knowing how to promote their schools is becoming more and more prevalent and I would anticipate seeing some of those elements infused into the existing courses,” she said. “Twenty-first century leaders have to have an entrepreneurial spirit whether they are in business, retail or education. It’s part of what one is called to do.”

— Joanna Klimaski