CHICAGO — Catholic schools already have a good reputation for academics. So how can an archdiocese attract more students to them?

By making them more Catholic, of course.

Take the Archdiocese of Chicago for instance. It boasted 366,000 students in the 1960s in its schools, today numbers have dwindled to approximately 107,000. Last year alone, the number of schools was reduced from 276 to 258 due to closings and consolidations.

But the archdiocese is joining a growing national trend that sees strengthening Catholic identity of the schools as a way to revitalize them.

Cardinal Francis George recently announced a comprehensive strategic plan called Genesis, which calls for changes to further academic excellence, strengthen Catholic identity and improve the faith formation of students and adults. The plan also includes a financial component: The archdiocese will push for a voucher program and increase efforts to “encourage stewardship.”

Nicholas Wolsonovich, superintendent of schools for the Chicago archdiocese, talked of challenges schools have faced due to the increase in lay involvement.

“Years ago, faith training for Catholic school teachers was never a concern because schools were staffed predominantly by women and men religious who had been formed in the faith by their respective religious congregations.”

Many lay teachers, on the other hand, have gone to public high schools and secular colleges.

“As we bring in more teachers we would like to make sure they are equipped and have the training so they can pass on the faith to young people,” Wolsonovich said.

Genesis calls, in part, for the certification of teachers in religious education and a standardized test to assess the religious curriculum.

Wolsonovich said the system, as is, is not broken, but has room for improvement. Others, however, are not so positive when speaking about faith formation in parochial schools nationally.

“It is clear to most people that over the past few decades Catholic elementary and secondary schools and other Catholic instruction programs have largely failed to adequately form young Catholics,” said Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, a organization dedicated to strengthening the Catholic identity of colleges and universities.

“Many of the students who come to Catholic colleges, many out of Catholic schools, do not have the necessary formation to engage in theological education at the level they ought to,” Reilly said. “They don’t know many of the basics of the faith.”

Reilly charged that parochial schools have watered down their Catholic identity, in part, to attract a broader segment of the population.

That view is shared by many Catholic parents who choose to send their children neither to parochial or public schools. Downers Grove, Ill., parent James Wool and his wife opted to home school their five children.

“[Diocesan schools] forgot that your faith is your whole life,” Wool said. “I think that is what they have lost track of. Religion is not just another subject you learn. Maybe that is what happens when things get institutionalized.”

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there were 1.1 million students home schooled in the United States in 2003 compared to 850,000 in 1999, the first year the agency collected statistics nationally.

Eileen Cubanski, executive director of the National Association of Private Catholic and Independent Schools said that the Catholic population of home schoolers is the fastest growing segment.

She added, however, that home schooling families and the independent schools should be seen merely as alternatives and not as competition to diocesan schools.

Yet, independent Catholic schools are “thriving,” Reilly said. “They draw from much wider areas geographically, and they have hinged their identity on strong Catholic teachings.”

For some schools, this means a return to a classical education and placing theology at the heart of the curriculum. At the Lyceum, a secondary school in Cleveland, liberal arts classes are like seminars and readings are mostly primary sources, like the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“Many schools will not simply read the Bible but will read textbooks in which Bible stories are selected or retold,” Mark Langley, the Lyceum’s headmaster, said. By reading the Catechism, students “know this is what the Church is saying as opposed to some particular author telling them this is what the Church is saying. I believe that is an important thing.”

At the Academy of St. Therese, a primary school in Gales Ferry, Conn., the curriculum is entirely integrated with the faith, according to acting administrator Mary Brundage. A geography lesson might incorporate a service project for Haiti and Latin America.

“It is important as a teacher to remind students to integrate all of their faith values into everything they are doing,” Brundage said.

It would seem that the Chicago archdiocese is embracing some of the same concepts that are at the heart of these schools.

“Scripture will be taught more systematically. We reach back into Catholic tradition,” Esther Hicks, director for Catholic school identity and missions, said. “Another goal has to do with the sacramental life of the Church and providing for students the opportunity to understand that it is not just that we receive the sacraments but that we live them.”

Similar plans have been implemented in other dioceses. In San Francisco, one focus has been the faith formation of adults. In addition to a certification program, the diocese sponsors after-school workshops for teachers. When asked if there has been improvement, Maureen Huntington, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, said, “Two years is not long enough to identify systemic change.”

“We need more time to move a whole institution in another direction, but the teachers are very committed to the program and participate on a regular basis.”

Monta Hernon writes from

La Grange Park, Illinois.