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So Far, So Good: levels of academicachievement in Catholic schoolsAndrew B. Morris aa Archdiocese of Birmingham , Diocesan Schools Commission ,89 St Bernards Road, Olton, Solihull, West Midlands, B92 7DG,UKPublished online: 06 Jul 2006.

To cite this article: Andrew B. Morris (1998) So Far, So Good: levels of academic achievement inCatholic schools, Educational Studies, 24:1, 83-94

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Educational Studies, Vol. 24, No. 1, 1998 83

So Far, So Good: levels of academicachievement in Catholic schoolsANDREW B. MORRIS [1]Archdiocese of Birmingham, Diocesan Schools Commission, 89 St Bernards Road,Olton, Solihull, West Midlands, B92 7DG, UK

SUMMARY Recent evidence from Diocesan and Office for Standards in Education inspectionsunder the Education Act 1992 seems to suggest that while pupils in Catholic schools in Englandand Wales obtain high levels of academic success at Key Stage Two and Key Stage Fourcompared with those attending other schools in the maintained sector, their achievements inAdvanced level examinations are lower than one would expect. The article points to evidence ofa similar long-standing pattern of performance of pupils in Catholic schools and speculates onsome possible causes of the phenomenon.

Introduction

In the wake of the Second Vatican Council scrutiny of Catholic schools wasprimarily focused on their role as agents of Catholic socialisation rather thantheir academic credentials. However, interest in academic standards has a longhistory, even if, in the eyes of many Catholic commentators in England, it hasoften been a secondary issue. In recent years, as the pressure to measure schoolperformance has grown, Catholic schools, along with others, have becomesubject to the public preoccupation with academic achievement. In general, theyappear to be particularly successful compared with similar schools in themaintained sector. Though the present level of public scrutiny may be new,evidence of their relative academic success is not. That evidence is not straight-forward and concern has been expressed that their high levels of achievementare not necessarily sustained beyond the statutory school leaving age.

Early Years of State Education

In the early years of state-sponsored universal education Catholic schoolsperformed well academically compared with Board schools despite receivinglower levels of financial support (Barnard, 1961; McClelland, 1983). In 1875,they achieved the highest levels of complete passes at Standard One of allschools, Board schools coming second in the league table. Again, in 1880, Boardschools were second to the Catholic schools in complete passes in reading,

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writing and arithmetic, with the Catholic, British and Weslyan schools achievingthe best results in reading (Adams, 1882). This apparent success was not of apassing phenomenon. Finan reports, ' . . . in 1884 the average passes in reading,writing and arithmetic were rather higher in the Catholic schools than theaverage for the country as a whole' (Finan, 1975, p. 8). However, the relativeacademic superiority of Catholic schools seems to have been limited to theyounger pupils and did not extend beyond Standard One (Adams, 1882).

The Post-War Years

There is further evidence of high levels of achievement in Catholic primaryschools 80 years later. A study of the educational opportunities of Middles-borough schoolchildren shows Catholic children gaining a disproportionatelylarge number of places in the grammar schools of the area. The findings couldnot be accounted for by any concomitant social advantages enjoyed by theCatholic community (Floud et al, 1956). Similarly, Hornsby-Smith reports asurvey of nearly 16,000 8-year-old pupils attending schools in the Inner LondonEducation Authority during 1968. Those attending Catholic schools have amean reading score of 99.2 compared with 96.9 in Church of England schoolsand 94.5 in local authority schools (Hornsby-Smith, 1978).

On the other hand, it seems Catholic secondary schools at that time didnot necessarily have similar levels of success. Their academic standards wereregarded by some of Her Majesty's Inspectorate (HMI) in the north-west ofEngland as offering a poorer education than similar county schools (Wake 1986).However, it is argued there is no hard quantitative evidence of them generallyhaving a significantly lower academic or intellectual orientation than otherschools in the maintained sector (Hornsby-Smith, 1972). Indeed, an investiga-tion by the Catholic Education Council of the destinations of secondary schoolleavers at the end of the academic year 1963-64 shows a higher proportion ofpupils from the Catholic sector entering full-time further education comparedwith pupils from non-Catholic schools. But despite the academic standards inprimary schools and the staying-on rates noted above, the pattern of under-achievement at the highest educational levels which Adams noted in the nine-teenth century seems to be repeated, with a much lower proportion of Catholicboys going to universities than would be predicted given the indications of earlierhigh levels of achievement (Catholic Education Council, 1967).

More Modern Times

In the 1980s, there are signs in early research studies into school effectivenessthat Catholic schools might be particularly successful. Mortimore and hiscolleagues report several items that reflect well on voluntary schools in theirseminal work on junior school effectiveness. They find that, in the developmentof cognitive skills though not in oracy, they are more effective than countyschools. Voluntary aided schools tend to be more in tune with the twelve

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key factors of effectiveness that Mortimore identifies. Pupils' demeanour andbehaviour also appear to be better. Significantly the study concludes, voluntarystatus helps but does not ensure that schools become effective (Mortimore et al.,1988).

There are similar indications in the secondary sector. The negative view ofCatholic secondary schools standards held by some HMI in the 1950s and 1960sis no longer evident in the published reports (Wake, 1986) and research againsuggests the possibility of Church schools having greater levels of academiceffectiveness. Rutter and his associates include four voluntary aided schools intheir survey of twelve Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) secondaryschools. Though they do not make a detailed investigation of the importance ofdenominational status on the relative performance of pupils, they feel able toconclude that voluntary schools tend to have slightly better outcomes than theothers, but that the differences are not statistically significant (Rutter et al,1979).

Unfortunately, the Rutter and Mortimore studies do not distinguish betweendifferent denominational schools. In more recent times such differentiated datais available both from individual local education authorities (LEA) and nationalstatistical analyses. The better-than-average reading scores achieved by pupils inLondon Catholic primary schools noted in the late 1960s by Hornsby-Smith(1978) is still evident 20 years later (Nuttall, 1990; Sinnott, 1992). At thesecondary level, the national publication of schools examination results comparesthe percentage of pupils in each school obtaining five or more GCSE examinationpasses at grade A, B or C since 1992. Despite the limitations and deficienciesinherent in conclusions based on analyses of raw examination results (Goldstein,1984; McPherson, 1992), a superficial study indicates that Catholic schoolsappear to perform well on the official government measure of successful schooling(Clare, 1994; Morris, 1994; Twiston-Davies, 1995; Longley, 1996).

A limited amount of firmer evidence about the examination achievementsof pupils in Catholic secondary schools has emerged as a by-product of researchby LEAs into their schools' effectiveness. This research takes into account manyof the reservations expressed about the use of raw data as a valid means ofcomparison and considers the effects of appropriate pupil factors such as gender,socio-economic background, ethnicity, measures of ability or previous levels ofacademic attainment. The relative superiority of Catholic schools' academicperformance is most noticeable. For example, the former ILEA concluded thatthe examination performance scores of students attending Catholic schools in1987 were higher than those of students attending county schools (Nuttall,1990) and going to a Catholic school in the ILEA at the time of the researchcould mean the difference between getting an A grade rather than a C grade inGCSE for children of the same ability (Hackett, 1990).

On the other hand, a smaller study of the same year's results undertakenfor the Association of Metropolitan Authorities (AMA) finds no systematicdifferences between county and voluntary schools or between mixed and single-sex schools in 42 schools in four of the ten authorities in the former ILEA once

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pupil variables had been taken into account (Nuttall et al., 1992). However, asecond larger study, by the same research group for the AMA, which analysedthe 1991 examination results of 116 schools, confirms the earlier findings thatpupils in voluntary schools, excluding Church of England schools, performsignificantly better than those in county schools (Thomas et al., 1993). Thomasand her colleagues include data from the four metropolitan authorities originallysurveyed for the 1990 analysis plus a further five, one of which is outside theformer ILEA. Separate, independent analyses by individual London educationalauthorities of their own secondary schools' 1992 examination results at 16 +following the demise of ILEA appear to reinforce the evidence from the LondonBoroughs included in the AMA surveys (Tower Hamlets, 1992; Benton &McGechie, 1993).

It can be argued that there are special factors associated with the Londonarea which make it unsuitable as a basis for any generalisation of its perceivedtrends. A similar argument can be used about the surveys of school examinationperformance in the Metropolitan Boroughs since they are numerically dominatedby the former ILEA schools. However, there is also evidence from outside themetropolitan areas supporting the view that Catholic secondary schools areparticularly effective in achieving examination success. Research into GCSEperformance in Nottinghamshire in 1991 and 1992 uses a statistical modellingtechnique which identifies the schools most effective in enabling pupils to achieveexamination success (Jesson et al., 1992; Jesson & Gray, 1993). Although it isnot reported in the published account, in private correspondence with me, theeducation authority indicates that the four Catholic schools in Nottinghamshireare in the small group of particularly effective schools in 1991 and three of thefour are again in the group in 1992 (Everett, 1993).

The accumulated evidence from Office for Standards in Education(OFSTED) inspections, carried out under the provisions of section nine of theEducation Act 1992, provides the potential for national comparisons of differenttypes of school across local authorities and across sectors. Analysis of comparablelevels of performance presented at a Diocesan Schools Commission SpringConference in Oxford (1996) suggest that, in the judgement of school inspectorsbased on OFSTED criteria, Catholic schools provide a higher standard andquality of education than other schools at both primary and secondary levels(Agamber, 1996). The differences are most noticeable at the secondary level. Amore detailed analysis of the secondary school data shows a significant differencein schools' mean scores on the two measures and the overall superiority of theCatholic schools' ethos is particularly evident, suggesting that it might be acontributing factor to the higher education standards achieved by their pupils.Ethos, as defined by OFSTED, is a composite of judgements on the quality ofmoral and cultural education, pupil behaviour and punctuality and the overalllevels of attendance. In addition, in other factors, such a the overall effectivenessof the school as a community, the quality of the spiritual life of the school andof the relationships within them, the superiority of Catholic schools is marked(Morris, 1996, 1998).

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But at the same time as mounting evidence indicates the general academicsuperiority of Catholic schools and Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schoolscites a disproportionately high number of Catholic schools among those identifiedas being particularly successful (Woodhead, 1996, 1997), analyses of OFSTEDand Diocesan inspection reports also suggest that standards of achievement atAdvanced level are less satisfactory, with just under half being at or abovenational and local standards (Catholic Education Service, 1996). On the otherhand, there is some evidence that Catholic pupils may achieve even poorerAdvanced level examination results if they move outside the Catholic system fortheir post-16 education (Morris, 1995).

A Recurring Pattern?

The patterns of academic achievement in Catholic schools noted by Adams over100 years ago seems to persist. Just as in the 1880s the high levels of pupilachievement at Standard One were not sustained, so today, while educationalstandards at Key Stage Two and Key Stage Four are high, that relative successdoes not seem to be reflected in levels of pupil achievement in Advanced levelexaminations. To date there have been no systematic studies of the phenomenon,so the remainder of this paper suggesting possible causal factors for the observa-tions I have made must be regarded as highly speculative.

Religious Behaviour—a factor in Catholic school achievement?

All approaches to education are rooted in concepts of humanity. The CatholicChurch asserts that we are by nature and vocation religious beings (Catechismof the Catholic Church, 1994, para. 44). If it is the case that religion is integralto human existence, it may be that schools which routinely involve theirpupils in experiential religious activities provide a healthier and more 'natural'environment in which they can develop. This, in turn, may help make theschools more effective places of learning.

Such a view is given some support by recent empirical research whichsuggests that religiosity, defined as frequency of church attendance and personalprayer, is a significant predictor of positive attitudes towards school in general,individual academic lessons and overall academic achievement (Francis, 1992;Flynn, 1993). Francis gives three possible explanations for the observed connec-tion. He suggests the relationship can be conceptualised 'as part of a widerpositive view of the social dimensions of life supported by a religious tempera-ment . . . as part of a wider conformist life style . . . or as part of the widerprojection of individual differences in personality on to the social environment'(Francis, 1992). If such conjectures are valid, how might they explain theapparent general superior effectiveness of Catholic schools?

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A Positive Religious Temperament

A number of empirical studies suggest that pupils attending Catholic schools inBritain have a more positive attitude towards Christianity than similar youngstersattending other denominational or non-denominational schools. The findingsseem to be consistent across the primary and secondary sectors and with pupilsin England, Scotland and Ireland ((Francis, 1979, 1986, 1987; Gibson, 1989;Greer, 1981). Evidence from Australia and the United States of America suggestthe possibility that the more positive attitudes are not simply a reflection ofhome background. Catholic schools seem to have an independent effect inpromoting such attitudes (Fahy, 1982; Flynn, 1974, 1985; Leavey, 1972a,b;Greely & Rossi, 1966).

In his extensive review of studies of the religious influence of schools Hydereaches a number of general but firm conclusions. He notes the consistentreports from Britain, the USA and Australia showing greater levels of religiousbehaviour by school pupils claiming adherence to Catholicism than pupils ofother denominations or religions. While these do not prove the existence of anindependent school factor, he argues that its effect on the religiousness of pupilsis highly probable (Hyde, 1990). He concludes:

The cumulative effect of these studies in the United States, the UnitedKingdom, and Australia shows that, while parents have the strongestinfluence on their children's religiousness, the school also has anindependent influence which arises from the school climate. It is notthe result of formal education but is due to the attitudes that arefostered and the effectiveness of pastoral care. (Hyde, 1990, p. 333)

If his conclusions are sound, how do they help explain the apparent relativedecline in pupils' attainment in the later years of their Catholic schooling?

Religiosity in Childhood and Adolescence

If it is the case that positive religious attitudes reinforce positive attitudes toschools studies, any decline in religiosity may have a negative impact on academicachievement. An early study of Catholic children's behaviour suggests thatwhatever their initial disposition towards the practice of their faith it falls duringadolescence.

Fitzpatrick notes signs of such rebellion or rejection of Catholicism and alack of understanding of the Catholic church as an institution within her smallsample of fourth form pupils (n = 48) in two London Catholic comprehensiveschools (Fitzpatrick, 1974).

Francis conducted a much larger study of pupils aged between twelve andeighteen years in five Roman Catholic state-maintained comprehensive schoolsin two Midland conurbations (n = 3000). His findings show a consistent patternof decline in the mean attitude scores towards religion as pupils progress throughschool, with girls having a more positive attitude at all stages (Francis, 1987). A

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more recent study of pupils aged between eleven and sixteen in five Catholicsecondary schools in Northern Ireland in = 939) finds the same consistentdecline in attitude scores throughout the five years with girls again more positivethan boys at all stages (Greer & Francis, 1991).

The reasons for the decline are not clear. Twenty years ago, Hornsby-Smithclaimed that the influence of school is worn away by the attitudes and values ofa hostile or non-supportive adult world. His view of the incompatibility ofreligious and secular values is echoed in more recent times by Cardinal Humewho argues:

We are in a battleground of competing ideologies, fighting for theminds and imaginations of the young, offering rival views of humanfulfilment and happiness. (Hume, 1995, p. 3)

However, the fact of rival ideologies does not explain why the positive attitudesof younger children declines, nor why it should decline more rapidly in boysthan in girls.

Formal Teaching and a Conformist Life Style?

The planned strategies and policies of schools are mediated through teachers,their teaching style, personality, choice of material and organisational methods.While it is generally accepted that individual teachers have an influence on apupil's behaviour and academic achievement, research evidence linking particularschool outcomes with a specific teaching style or personality has not been clearlyestablished. Early experimental work in America (Lewin et al., 1939) suggeststhat the leadership style of teachers can have significant effects on studentoutcomes but the research used very small groups in situations that are farremoved from normal academic classroom learning. In England, the debate overthe relative effectiveness of 'traditional' versus 'progressive' teaching methodsinitiated by Bennett remains contentious, not least because of the difficulty ofidentifying a pure teaching style. However, in his study linking primary pupilprogress to teaching style, Bennett notes the great stress formal teachers placeon the promotion of high levels of academic attainment and the comparativesuperior progress of the pupils in their charge. In contrast, he finds informalteaching methods often result in poorer academic progress, particularly amonghigh ability children. Of particular interest is his finding that Catholic schoolsare more formal than others, as are the chosen pedagogical methods of theirteachers (Bennett, 1976).

Rutter and his colleagues argue that a school's ethos is an important causalelement in its effectiveness. They define ethos as an amalgam of values, attitudesand behaviours in the sense of 'what actually happens' within the institution(Rutter et al, 1979). It can operate in different ways. For example, within aChurch or a Marxist state it is likely to be seen as implementing the standardsof traditional authority. Such an ethos has been termed 'custodial' (Hogan,1984). While it might still be made manifest in similar ways to Rutter's concept,

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its purpose is to defend certain existing attitudes and understandings and,therefore, will feature a constant watchfulness for infringements of acceptednorms. In a school, when coupled with the formal teaching methods describedby Bennett, it is likely to be particularly focused and have a high potential forachieving its chosen objectives.

From the psychological point of view, religious behaviour can be regardedas one form of coping response to human experience. It represents a more orless deliberate adjustment of thought, emotion and action to daily life based ona systematic body of beliefs or dogma which can have beneficial material effectsfor those who believe (Thouless, 1967). Brown argues that the weight of evidencesuggests an individual's acceptance or rejection of religion may depend onpersonality characteristics or be related to growth and maturation. His ownfindings support a cognitive theory of religious behaviour and suggest that thestrength of religious belief is associated with acceptance and membership of aChurch which, in turn, supplies the essential social support that is required forits maintenance (Brown, 1962, 1973). Argyle suggests that where religiousbeliefs are adopted because they meet the individual's desire for cognitive clarity,such needs are most successfully met by a dogmatic set of beliefs. He points outthat, of the recognised churches, the most dogmatic and rigid are held by RomanCatholics (Argyle, 1964). Consequently, the religious orientation of Catholicschools would seem to provide a particularly supportive educational environmentfor its own faith community.

In the light of those findings, it may be that the nature of Catholic schools,acting as they do as an arm of a dogmatic and hierarchical Church, is one withinwhich a more formal teaching approach is likely to be in close harmony with acustodial ethos. Together they may be particularly supportive of pupils' academicachievement in the primary and early years of secondary schooling, but muchless appropriate for meeting the more open-ended demands of Advanced levelexamination courses and study methods and particularly so for the possiblysceptical and enquiring minds of young adults.

Social Factors—vestiges of a working class ghetto?

While school organisation and ethos may be significant factors in pupil achieve-ment, they are not as influential as familial social circumstances. Francis arguesthat school processes are not static, but are partly formed by the pupils engagedin them and suggests that their behaviour must be related to the motivationsand intentions arising from personal histories. Consequently, effective schoolsare likely to develop an environment in which there is a high degree of congruencewith the values, beliefs, significance and history of the particular communitythat it serves (Francis, 1980; Burgess, 1980).

Between 1778 and 1829, the structure of anti-Catholic legislation that haddeveloped since the Reformation was dismantled. The social leadership of theold remaining Catholic aristocracy ceased to be of real significance in thecomposition and activity of the Catholic community as it became concentrated

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in the emerging industrial cities, swollen by Irish Catholic immigrants from the1790s onwards and the gradual population drift from the countryside (Bossy,1975). It has been estimated that in 1770 there were about 80,000 Catholics inEngland and Wales. By the middle of the nineteenth century there were some750,000, mainly poor, immigrant and working class. About a quarter of thosewere living in the northern cities of Preston, Wigan, Liverpool and Manchester(Bossy, 1975). The huge influx of Catholics into the cities hastened the develop-ment of schools to meet their specific needs. Their establishment became thefirst priority for the bishops following the restoration of the hierarchy in Englandin 1850 (Province of Westminster, 1852). The Catholic maintained schoolsystem of today can be traced back to that decision.

For the next hundred years the social status of the Catholic populationchanged very little. Communities clustered in the mainly urban areas of Durham,the North Riding of Yorkshire, Cumberland, Northumberland, Lancashire,Cheshire, Warwickshire and London. Only in Lancashire and Durham werethere also large rural populations (Bossy, 1975). After the Second World War,while Catholic communities retained many of the characteristics of a workingclass sub-culture, the social separation of previous years began to disintegrateand a Catholic middle class started to emerge (Hornsby-Smith, 1972; Archer,1982; Norman, 1986).

The development of the Catholic middle classes can be largely attributedto the Catholic school system and many parents of pupils currently in Catholicschools are likely to be the first generation to have received the benefits of auniversity education. Consequently, although Catholics today can be identifiedas essentially religious rather than social groupings, it can be argued that asignificant proportion are still working class and the vast majority have a recentworking class background. It has long been established that pupils from thelower social classes are more likely to leave formal education at an early age(Ministry of Education, 1954, 1963; Douglas, 1964; Douglas et al., 1967). Thismight have been a factor in the poor educational progress of older Catholicpupils observed in the 1950s and 1960s. It may be there are vestiges of workingclass culture still latent in today's Catholic communities which leads to negativepupil attitudes towards continuing their education beyond the statutory period,reducing motivation in those that do go on to Advanced level studies and sodepressing their standards of achievement.

Summary and Conclusions

Today, the evidence for the marked academic effectiveness of Catholic schoolsat 11 + and 16+ is becoming more accepted. Though less clear, evidence of apossible failure of pupils in Catholic schools to retain the same levels ofexamination success at 18+ appears to be well founded. Reasons have not yetbeen established.

In addition to the possible causes for the apparent phenomenon discussedabove, another factor which might usefully be considered is the pupil profile of

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sixth forms in Catholic schools. I have argued elsewhere that there may be acausal link between successful Catholic socialisation, which seems to be moreeffective in schools which seek to serve a single faith community, and levels ofacademic achievement (Morris, 1996,1997). Catholic schools in the Archdioceseof Birmingham show a tendency towards recruiting significant numbers of non-Catholics into their sixth forms. If that is common in other dioceses, it may bethat the increase in non-Catholic pupils, especially if they have not experienceda Catholic environment previously, inhibits the expression of those distinctivecharacteristics that seem to promote high levels of academic achievement in ourCatholic schools by younger age groups.

I have suggested that the phenomenon may be endemic. However, therehas been no large scale research in this area. The evidence I have put forwardto support the hypothesis is not particularly extensive and my indications ofpossible causes are speculative. The evidence of academic under-achievementby older pupils may not be as conclusive as it currently appears and myhypothesis of a recurring pattern of achievement entirely illusory. But if theresearch is not carried out the position cannot be clarified and future planningfor Catholic educational provision and the best teaching methods to be employedin them could be built on little more than gut feelings. Consequently, while toomuch should not be read into this article I believe that it concerns an areadeserving serious study.

N O T E

[1] The contents of this article are the personal responsibility of the author and must not be takenas the official view of the Archdiocese of Birmingham.

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