MADISON — In March of 2020, like many schools in the nation faced with COVID lockdowns, the Diocese of Madison quickly pivoted to virtual instruction to meet students’ needs.
While those days were not easy, the diocese continued its commitment to educating all students by any means necessary.
As the pandemic wore on and online learning proved to be possible and generally successful, the Office of Catholic Schools, along with Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison, began to consider the option of an online school to meet the needs of students who may not have a Catholic school option where they live.
With 11 counties spread throughout Southcentral and Southwestern Wisconsin, the diocese knows that many parishes no longer have a Catholic school option.
As our goal is to make a Catholic school education available and accessible to all families in the diocese, and as we discovered that some of our students who struggle in the classroom excel at online learning, it made sense to explore the possibility of creating an online Catholic school.
Work on the project
In March 2021, research into creating an online school began.
While the project is still a work in progress, the Office of Catholic Schools has been working with a small team of educators to further explore this idea.
Last May, a short survey was sent out to parents of students in Catholic schools, principals, teachers, and pastors to get opinions and feedback about the online school idea.
The responses indicated a clear desire to pursue creating an online Catholic school, especially at the high school level.
As those surveyed were only persons already affiliated with an existing Catholic school, the next step is to survey those families with school-aged children who attend parishes without a Catholic school nearby.
After researching online schools in Wisconsin and across the country, the team is found structures for online schools ranging from completely online, both
synchronous (where students are online at the same time as their teacher and other students) and asynchronous (where students go online by themselves, at their own time), to a hybrid option where students attend classes online four days a week and meet up with other students in the area once a week to celebrate Mass, do science labs, have field trips, and thus create a true school community.
This model would use satellite campuses throughout the diocese where students would meet one day a week for in-person learning.
Complete a survey
As we are now in the second phase of our discovery process, we invite all families with school-aged children to complete the survey using the following links.
If you have a child in a Catholic school, the survey will come from your school.
If you are a parent of a religious education student, you will receive the surveys from your director of religious education or pastor.
Make sure that you take the survey only once.
If you are a parent in the diocese and do not receive a survey link from another source, take a moment to fill out the survey in English: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Z229SQY
or in Spanish: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Z28C7MJ
Thank you very much for your time and your input.
It will help in better understanding the needs of families within the diocese.