Catholic education is in the midst of a transformation at schools across Minnesota.
Enrollment is up, and literacy is, too. Principals are pointing to the vital assistance of a nonprofit group: Catholic Schools Center of Excellence (CSCOE) in Edina.
Launched 10 years ago to assist struggling schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, CSCOE’s reach now extends to every Catholic school in the state, with more than 100 grants issued per year and academic and training expertise offered free of charge.
Best of all, principals say, the group listens: “It took schools that were surviving and took us to a place where we’re dreaming,” said principal Adam Groebner of St. Therese Catholic School in Deephaven.
At Ascension Catholic School in north Minneapolis, summer school students set out last week to break down algebra equations and revisit a children’s book with an underlying theme of the Black Panther Party.
These were kids about to enter fourth grade, and it was a “hard book,” teacher Peggy White said. But the students seemed ready to take on the challenge, having benefited from so-called “science of reading” techniques — skills built with the help of CSCOE.
Peggy White shows her kids a video about Martin Luther King Jr. as part of a reading lesson during a summer school program for furture fourth-graders at Ascension Catholic School. (Renée Jones Schneider/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Catholic Schools Center of Excellence [got its start in 2015](https://www.startribune.com/best-buy-founder-schulze-cranks-up-giving-at-his-1-billion-family-foundation/331890411) via a $15 million, three-year grant from the family foundation started by Richard Schulze, founder of electronics retailer Best Buy.