• In the 2018-19 school year, the Archdiocese of Washington, which includes the District of Columbia and the five surrounding Maryland counties, has 92 Catholic schools – eight early learning centers, 53 archdiocesan parish-sponsored elementary schools, 12 independent elementary schools, two archdiocesan high schools, and 17 independent Catholic high schools.
• Also according to statistics gathered by the Catholic Schools Office, 26,171 students are enrolled in Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Washington in the 2018-19 school year. Additionally, more than 23,500 students attend parish religious education and youth ministry programs in the archdiocese.
• The Archdiocese of Washington is providing more than $6 million in tuition assistance for this school year.
• Since the United States Department of Education began the National Blue Ribbon Schools program in 1982, 34 Catholic elementary or high schools in the Archdiocese of Washington have been named as Blue Ribbon Schools, and nine of those schools in the archdiocese have received the honor twice.
• According to the 2018 Catholic Impact publication of the Archdiocese of Washington, in the archdiocese’s Catholic schools, 39 percent of Catholic school kindergarten and first grade students performed above average in math and 37 percent performed above average in reading. In addition, 38 percent of second through eighth grade students performed above average in math, and 47 percent performed above average in reading.
• Also according to the 2018 Catholic Impact publication, Catholic schools in Maryland this past year saved the state an estimated $290,869,581 in taxpayer dollars. Catholic schools in Washington, D.C., saved the District of Columbia $117,151,840 in taxpayer dollars.
• Public sources of funding for students attending Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Washington that school year included $947,200 provided to 476 students receiving the Maryland BOOST (Broadening Options and Opportunities for Students Today) Scholarship, and $6,723,811 provided to 673 Catholic school students in Washington, D.C., from the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.
• 68 percent of students attending Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Washington this past year were Catholic, and 32 percent were non-Catholic.
• For the 2018-19 school year, the Archdiocese of Washington has 87 seminarians studying for the priesthood. The Archdiocese of Washington sponsors two seminaries – Saint John Paul II Seminary in Washington, and the Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary Redemptoris Mater in Hyattsville, Maryland.
• Within the Archdiocese of Washington are three Catholic universities located in the nation’s capital: Georgetown University, founded in 1789 as the nation’s first Catholic institution of higher learning; The Catholic University of America; and Trinity Washington University.
(For information on Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Washington, go online to https://adwcatholicschools.org/.)
