Chicagoland

Efforts to increase Hispanic enrollment paying off

By Michelle Martin | Staff Writer
Sunday, March 31, 2013

Kindergartners Christopher Wimunc (left) and Miguel Palomino (right) listen as Cardinal George gives the opening prayer during a Mass on Jan. 31, 2011 for St. Gall School. Catholic elementary schools saw an increase in Latino enrollment following implementation of the Catholic School Advantage program. (Karen Callaway/Catholic New World)

Efforts to persuade Latino parents to send their children to Catholic schools appear to be paying off in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

This year, fully 20 percent of students in Catholic elementary and high schools are Latino, up 3.4 percent from the 2011-2012 school year, according to Juana Sanchez Graber, a marketing consultant and associate director of the Catholic School Advantage campaign, a project run in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic education.

The biggest gains were at the elementary level, where the Latino population is now 20.1 percent, up from 18.9 percent in 2011- 2012. The high school Latino population is 19.5 percent, up from 18.4 percent in 2011-2012.

“I would attribute the gains to the work of more of our schools making proactive outreach to the Latino community,” Sanchez Graver said. “Building awareness for our Catholic schools within the Latino community remains a priority. The work of parent ambassadors and ‘word of mouth’ continues to drive the increased awareness, along with Spanishlanguage marketing.”

The Catholic School Advantage program trains parent ambassadors — called “padrinos” (godfathers) and “madrinas” (godmothers) — to spread the word about the differences between public, private and parochial schools, and why they think parochial schools are a good choice, as well as encouraging other marketing efforts.

The program’s goal is to promote Catholic schools within the Hispanic community and increase Hispanic enrollment in the system.

While the number of Latino students increased in schools throughout the archdiocese, it grew even more in the 27 schools that are part of Catholic School Advantage, Sanchez Graber said.

Those schools saw 8 percent growth in the number of Latino students this year, she said, with 276 more Latino students. The Catholic Schools Advantage schools now are 59 percent Hispanic, up from 55 percent Hispanic last year.

One participating school is St. Leonard in Berwyn.

Principal Maureen Wilson said that simple steps helped, like making sure school information is available in Spanish. She and her staff and volunteers have also worked to get the word about St. Leonard out in the community.

Wilson became a first-time principal in a year when St. Leonard saw its enrollment drop by 40 students. She sought some advice from Ryan Blackburn, director of school marketing for the Office of Catholic Schools, and he put her in touch with Sanchez Graber.

“We listened to and implemented all of (Sanchez Graber’s and Blackburn’s) ideas ... parent ambassadors, more open houses, Spanish-speaking staff within the school, scholarships and working with parents to make our great Catholic school more affordable,” she said. The school created a prethree program, marketing materials in English and Spanish and posada for the community.

“This year, we increased enrollment by 41 students,” she said.

The best advice Wilson can give is to make sure the school is visible in the community.

“I wear my St. Leonard shirt everywhere. I recruited a family when I was in the laundromat waiting for my clothes to dry,” she said. “The best advertising is word of mouth.”

The CSA program emerged as a result of a January 2010 study published by Notre Dame that found: “Only 3 percent of Hispanic families enroll their children in Catholic schools. At the same time, there are almost 700,000 empty seats in Catholic schools throughout the country, which represents an enormous opportunity to provide an educational alternative to the Hispanic community.”

The most frequent obstacle is a fear that Catholic schools are too expensive, Sanchez Graber said.

This study also found that Hispanic students who were enrolled in Catholic schools were 42 percent more likely to graduate from high school and two and a half times more likely to graduate from a college or university than students in public schools.

The parents who actively campaign for the success of this program receive training to help them talk to other parents in their communities. Such initiatives have generated an increased enrollment of Hispanic children.

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