The Beyond Sunday Education Fund Structure and Process

Transcription

1 The Beyond Sunday Education Fund Structure and Process

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Roman Catholic Foundation of Eastern Missouri (Foundation) has created the Beyond Sunday Education Fund (Fund), an endowed fund, to increase access to Catholic education for middle-income families, while working to strengthen Catholic schools academic capacity and management systems to ensure their quality and competitiveness for all families in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. The Foundation s Board has approved enhanced distributions from the Fund in early years to meet immediate grant-making needs. The Beyond Sunday Education Fund will transform Catholic education in three key ways by providing: 1. Scholarship Support for middle-income families; 2. Academic Capacity Enhancement funding focusing on STREAM disciplines (Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Arts, and Math); and, 3. Transformational Innovation to enhance operational and business models in our schools. In its initial years, the Fund s primary focus will be on deepening scholarship resources in the region for Catholic families and, when funds are available, for non-catholic families seeking to attend Catholic schools. In grades K-8, the focus will be on tuition support. At the level of grades 9-12, this scholarship program will be augmented by an emphasis on Catholic community through the Foundation s Beyond Sunday Fellows program, a new program which will combine scholarship support with the creation of a network of Fellows focused on service and community. The intent is for the Fellows program to become a long-term network of Catholic adults, our future Catholic leaders, supporting one another in their faith and their lives. The Foundation s grant-making will also enable enhancement of academic programs and capacities. The subject matter will change over time but will begin with support to schools for STREAM curricula, i.e., the integration of the disciplines of Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics to assist students in the development of communication skills, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration, built on a foundation of our Catholic faith. * Grants in this area will build instructional capacity, with an emphasis on initiatives that can be replicated in schools across the Archdiocesan education system. The St. Louis Archdiocesan Catholic school system is largely parochial and therefore decentralized. Hence, there is a need to reinforce Catholic identity and innovate at the level of individual schools or groups of schools and then spread that knowledge across a larger number of schools in Eastern Missouri. The purpose of Transformational Innovation grant-making is to seed those non-academic innovations that can then become transformational throughout the education system, specifically in areas of Catholic identity, teacher retention and management. Grantmaking in this area will build over time, and the Foundation will provide technical assistance to early grantees to build experience with proposal development for innovation. Each grant area will have specific performance metrics. The Foundation will create an Innovation Performance Partnership with a Catholic institution of higher education to assist grantees with performance metrics in the Innovation grants area. All performance metrics will be reported annually by the Foundation, and performance learning will help modify grant strategy as necessary over time. A formal evaluation process in the fifth year of operations will provide a rigorous assessment of successes and failures and will be used to adjust grant-making strategy. * According to National Catholic Educational Association Momentum Magazine 2

3 THE BEYOND SUNDAY EDUCATION FUND The Beyond Sunday Education Fund (Fund) of the Roman Catholic Foundation of Eastern Missouri (Foundation) is an endowment designed to increase the percentage of Catholic schoolaged children enrolled in Catholic Schools in Eastern Missouri, including those schools special education programs. The Fund s structure will help ensure that such increases can be sustained over the long term. While the initial focus will be heavily oriented toward scholarship support, over time the Fund will also provide resources to strengthen academic capacity and innovate in management systems so as to grow and maintain Catholic schools as educational institutions of choice for families of all economic means in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Structure The Fund will have three grant-making purposes: 1. Scholarship Support 2. Academic Capacity Enhancement 3. Transformational Innovation At its maturity, the structure of the Fund is anticipated to approximate this illustration, with three funding pools and two advisory partnerships focused on encouraging highly skilled leaders and institutions to become Catholic school system partners. Academic Excellence Advisory Council Academic Capacity Enhancement Beyond Sunday Education Fund Scholarships K-8 Tuition Assistance 9-12 Fellows TTEF process management Transformational Innovation Innovation Performance Partnership Each of these grant-making purposes has its own objectives, targets, and measures of grant performance. The distribution of funds across these areas will be re-balanced annually by the Foundation Board to reflect education priorities and funding opportunities and to allow flexibility to meet priority needs or opportunities. The Fund s overall directions and strategies will be re-examined every five years as part of the Foundation s review of its grant-making priorities, ensuring that the Fund adjusts its focus in line with the changing needs and environment of the Catholic community in Eastern Missouri. This purposeful process of continual flexibility will allow for a critical focus on scholarships along with regular responsiveness to the opportunities and needs of the school system within the region s educational market. A Grants Committee has been formed and includes members of the Foundation Board as well as lay Catholic funders and leaders. This Committee oversees all grant-making activities and reports to the Foundation Board. The intent of the Fund is to support areas of need that will strengthen Catholic education for generations to come. The Fund will grow with continued fund raising. The Foundation s Board has approved enhanced distributions from the Fund for (with an option to extend for ) to immediately initiate grant-making at levels that are material and sustainable. The Foundation will set aside early contributions for these distributions. After the enhanced distribution period, contributions will be invested in the endowment. Over the longer term, the Fund will make distributions according to the Foundation s Investment Policy. At all times, grant-making decisions will be faithful to life-of-commitment implications, regarding scholarship resources, in order to ensure that the grant commitments can be maintained. The Beyond Sunday Education Fund represents an ongoing commitment to invest in Catholic education in Eastern Missouri. It will require continuous giving from those equally committed to assure robust Catholic educational institutions in the Archdiocese of St. Louis for future generations. 3

4 1. SCHOLARSHIPS Purpose Affordability is critical for Catholic families who may not qualify for other need-based scholarships. The purpose of the Beyond Sunday Education Fund Scholarship Program is to contribute to meeting the needs of middle-income families seeking a Catholic education for their children. Objectives and Targets The scholarship program will support middle-income families with tuition support for Catholic Elementary and High Schools in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. The initial target will be Catholic families registered in one of the Archdiocesan parishes. Families who are not Catholic will be considered if funding is available after meeting Catholic family needs. Support will be for tuition; families will be responsible for all fees. The scholarships will be given in two cohorts, K-8 and A commitment that begins in elementary and or middle school will extend through 8 th grade. A commitment in high school will extend through 12 th grade. Students may reapply for the 9-12 program at grade 9, but decisions about awardees will be made separately from K-8 support. Given the cost difference between K-8 and 9-12 schools, this will allow the Fund to more closely manage its resources, and also allow for an additional screening point for scholarship participants, aligned with the Fellows Program concept for grades 9-12 described below Fellows Program The program for grades 9-12 will be called the Beyond Sunday Fellows Program. The objective is to align the tuition support with continued Catholic community-building among high school students which extends throughout their lives. Scholarship recipients will be named Beyond Sunday Fellows. The goal is to have Beyond Sunday Fellows in every Catholic high school. As part of a Beyond Sunday Fellows network, these awardees will participate in an annual service project together and attend an annual retreat sponsored by the Foundation, which will build their identity as a group of young Catholic leaders. After graduation, the Foundation will continue to communicate with Fellows, perhaps coordinating annual reunions to ensure that they have the opportunity to continue to support one another in their Catholic faith. We hope the Beyond Sunday Fellows become volunteers and leaders in the parishes, schools, and agencies of the Archdiocese in the future. 4

5 Criteria In collaboration with the Today and Tomorrow Education Foundation (TTEF) each year moving forward, the Fund will consider new applications for grades K-8 and separately for grades Assistance will be spread across all ten deaneries. Awards at all levels are attached to the student. If students change schools, so long as the school is a Catholic school in the Archdiocese, the award is transferable. The Fund will rely on data from the U.S. Census Bureau for the income definition of middleincome households in the Eastern Missouri region. Applicants must demonstrate earned household income between the lower limit of the 3 rd quintile and the upper limit of the 4 th quintile for the region, as established by the U.S. Census Bureau. Continued support will require annual demonstration of income qualification at the stated levels. Families with students in Archdiocesan, parish, and private Catholic schools are eligible to apply for both the K-8 and the 9-12 programs. In all cases, the award to a private Catholic school student will be capped at half the amount of the level set for Archdiocesan and parochial schools. For the 9-12 Fellows program, consistent with the added intent to create a committed community of young people through Catholic education, applicants are required to write a brief essay and to provide contact information for two references: one from their pastor or a leader of a Catholic program or organization (e.g. youth group) of which the applicant is a member of, and the other from a teacher or their principal. Continued scholarship funding will require recipients to engage in the Fellows program s retreat and service project each school year. Application and Disbursement Process Every year the Foundation will announce the schedule for scholarship applications through social media, parishes, schools, and other Catholic media and networks. The Foundation will establish a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the TTEF to manage the K-8 and the 9-12 application and scholarship disbursement process. TTEF has a well-established system for tuition support management, and the Foundation will seek efficiency in its scholarship review and award program by leveraging this system. Applications will be made by families, but funds will be disbursed to schools in the name of each recipient. Roman Catholic Foundation staff will make recommendations to a Foundation Grants Committee for the tuition assistance based on the TTEF and Fellows processes described above. The Committee will have final approval of all funds awarded. TTEF will also manage the re-qualification and approval process for annual tuition assistance renewals. The Foundation will establish a specific coordination point within its staff to ensure that processes align with Fund criteria and intent. Roman Catholic Foundation staff will manage all other aspects of the Beyond Sunday Fellows program including Fellow communications, community service projects, annual retreat, reunions, etc. 5

6 Performance Reporting Process The Foundation will create a performance reporting process to integrate the application, disbursement and renewal data as well as data on applicants, awardees and family characteristics (income level and changes over life of award, awardee position among siblings, gender, ethnicity, etc.). Over time, this will allow tracking of the school and geographic distribution of applications and awards to ensure coverage within the ten deaneries and the desired balance between parochial, Archdiocesan, and private Catholic schools and students. The Fellows reporting system will be tied to a Fellows tracking system to allow assessment of the characteristics of Fellows who remain engaged in the Fellows network after graduation and their educational, professional, and faith paths. This will both help the Foundation understand the dimensions of program reach and provide data that may be of use to other Catholic educational foundations interested in linking Catholic tuition scholarship programs to the creation of young adult Catholic communities. The Foundation s annual report will include a detailed review of performance data. 6

7 2. Academic Capacity Enhancement Purpose In the long run, the Beyond Sunday Education Fund seeks to ensure that Catholic education not only impassions the heart but inspires the mind. The Catholic educational program must reflect best emerging infrastructure and standards that provide an academic experience commensurate with, or superior to, competing institutions. Critical areas of academic study will change as the economy changes, and new skills will be required as the advancement of knowledge creates new frontiers of understanding. These changes will need to be included in educational curricula to ensure competitiveness. In Catholic education, there is a growing movement to integrate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) with the arts ( A ) and Religion ( R ). Hence STREAM is Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Arts, and Math: STREAM is the intentional integration of the individual disciplines...to assist students in the development of communication skills, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration, built on a foundation of our Catholic faith (NCEA Momentum magazine). STREAM is an example of current approaches to academic substantive integration. Over time, and within the specific needs of specific schools, there may be additional approaches to academic excellence. The Fund s purpose is to contribute to the long-term competitiveness and sustainability of Catholic education. Thus, its support for academic capacity enhancement must enable current academic approaches and be open to new approaches and needs. Objectives and Targets The objectives of Academic Capacity Enhancement funding are three-fold: 1. Measurably and continually improve the quality of teaching and learning materials, equipment and classroom capacity, and teaching methods in the elementary, middle and high schools in the Archdiocese; 2. Improve the competitiveness of Catholic schools relative to other schools in the St. Louis area; and, 3. Encourage collaboration among schools to ensure efficiency and enhance access to the academic specialties of STREAM. These grants will be targeted at K-12 school capacities in all ten deaneries. Grant recipients will be limited to parochial and Archdiocesan schools and education programs. Grants to the Catholic Education Office will be considered to establish baselines of capacity across the system which will facilitate the establishment of capacity enhancement priorities. 7

8 Application and Disbursement Process The Foundation will manage the call for proposals, assessment, and awards process, in collaboration with the Archdiocesan Catholic Education Office. The call for proposals will be annual. Schools, groups of schools, or the Catholic Education Office may submit applications to the Foundation. Every application must include a letter of endorsement by the Archdiocesan Superintendent of Catholic Education. Parish schools must include a letter of endorsement from the pastor or leader of a parish with which the applicant is involved. Application requirements will include operating budget detail to ensure that proposed improvements are financially sustainable after the Foundation s grant support ends. They must also contain specific and appropriate performance measures relative to capacity, quality or competitiveness. Levels of funding will be determined by available resources, but the intent is for those resources to be allocated to grants of sufficient size to make measurable progress against objectives. Hence, this grant-making area is likely to make fewer grants of larger sizes, and these grants may need to be multi-year commitments where infrastructure improvements are needed. The Foundation will manage grant disbursements based on a grant agreement with the awardee school(s). Grant agreements will include performance measure reporting. Recognizing that schools may not have the internal capacity to develop state-of-the-art grant proposals, especially in areas of rapidly changing science and technology, the Foundation will develop an Academic Capacity Advisory Committee to this grant area. This Committee will be comprised of Catholic leaders from industries and academic and professional institutions in Eastern Missouri with relevant areas of expertise. Its members will be available to schools to assist in identifying capacity improvement initiatives, and to the Foundation for the development of the grant-making process and for grant application assessment. The Foundation will manage the creation and staffing of this Advisory Committee. Performance Reporting Process Measurable changes in STREAM capacity, quality and competitiveness may extend beyond the life of a grant. Grants may extend beyond one year. Grant-making will be reported annually, but performance of the academic support grants themselves will be reported on a biannual basis because the educational results of capacity building grants are likely to take multiple years for adequate results to be seen and measured. 8

9 3. Transformational Innovation Fund Purpose While affordability and academic quality are critical to the health of Catholic schools, continued viability also depends on strong Catholic identity of programs, recruiting and retaining excellent teachers, and overall management and systems quality. The Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Louis are largely parochial and therefore decentralized. Hence, there is a need to innovate at the level of individual schools, or groups of schools, and then to spread that knowledge across a larger number of schools in Eastern Missouri. The purpose of Transformational Innovation grant-making is to seed those innovations that can then become transformational throughout the education system. Objectives and Targets The measurable objective of Transformational Innovation is to identify and scale experiments in three areas of organizational transformation which will contribute to education system growth and sustainability: 1. Catholic identity: Christ-like environment and strong catechesis 2. Teaching: Transformational innovation in pedagogy and teacher retention 3. Management: Structures, systems and processes necessary for high quality educational administration and marketing and enrollment management Funded innovations must have a measurable impact on enrollment and/or teaching and administrative quality and must be replicable across the school system. Funds will be available for schools in all ten deaneries and grant recipients will be limited to parochial and Archdiocesan schools and education programs. Criteria Applications may be submitted by schools, groups of schools, or The Catholic Education Office (for cross-school experiments). To be considered, applications must include explicit measurable performance indicators which can be tracked to determine the effectiveness of the innovation against a measurable objective. Innovation grant awards will be competitive based on the merits of the application. The focus of the applications must be the improvement of a specific aspect of quality, cost, or management that is material to improving enrollment, teacher retention, marketing or academic competitiveness, or management efficiency. Recognizing that successful applicants may not have sufficient internal resources to conduct a performance assessment, the Foundation will set aside, as necessary, a sub-grant for each grant made to fund the services of an assessment specialist through the Innovation Performance Partnership (IPP) described on the next page. 9

10 Application and Disbursement Process Until such time as the grant-making process has created a sufficient number of models of innovation initiatives that can generate independent proposal submissions, the Foundation will provide technical assistance to schools or groups of schools wishing to apply for an innovation grant. Applications may be submitted by individual schools or groups of schools for initiatives that have the potential to transform Catholic marketing or educational management in ways that drive enrollment growth and sustainability. The Foundation will manage the call for proposals and assessment, and the awards process, in collaboration with The Catholic Education Office; the call for proposals will be annual. Performance Reporting Process The performance objective is to determine what innovations might merit further expansion in the school system. Depending on the scale of the effort, the Foundation will consider creating an Innovation Performance Partnership (IPP) with a Catholic university (possibly the Institute for Catholic Education at St. Louis University). This may include collaboration with graduate students in ways that both assist the Foundation and provide academic credit or benefit to the graduate student. The intent of the IPP would be to provide a cost-efficient mechanism for applicant individuals or schools to obtain necessary help with performance measurement. 10 March 2016

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