Mount De Sales: This school sits perched on heights of excellence

Gregory Kane of the Balitmore Sun hightlights the achievements of Mount de Sales Academy, an all-girls Catholic school here in Catonsville, MD. (and my wife's alma mater). Congrats to the girls for placing in the top 50 of Catholic schools in the U.S. And read the article. I detect a slight backhand against the political correctness in public education. Maybe this nation can stand up an recognize what is really needed within public education to improve the standards. And no I don't mean religion.//JW sends.

It may have been Mount de Sales' "sound, traditional Catholicism" that helped the school become one of the top 50. The school's principal, Sister Elizabeth Anne Allen, explained the three criteria used for naming schools to the honor roll.

"They were academic excellence, Catholic identity and civic education," Allen said. "We felt those categories matched our strengths here."

Academic excellence was determined by the average SAT scores at Mount de Sales, the number of Advanced Placement courses offered and the percentage of students who enroll in college. Judges from the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, which developed the honor roll as an independent project, then looked at the school's curriculum, textbooks, availability of sacraments and retreats, and opportunities for spiritual growth as part of the religious identity component.

Judges then considered the school's government courses and the number of girls in community outreach programs to determine the level of civic education. Allen gave as an example of community outreach those Mount de Sales girls who volunteered to testify in Annapolis on the issue of parents being notified when their underage daughters seek abortions. It seems some young ladies at the academy have detected the great liberal disconnect on abortion: It's a woman's right that liberals want extended to girls, and they want that right to include girls not telling their parents.

"One of the girls said, 'My mother had to sign a permission slip for me to be here,'" Allen recalled. Such things do, indeed, solidify a Catholic school's Catholic identity, even if the girls weren't wearing their Mount de Sales uniforms during their testimony.