A STUDY OF PARENTAL EXPECTATIONS OF A CATHOLIC SECONDARY SCHOOL RELIGIOUS EDUCATION PROGRAM

This study investigated parental expectations of the threefold components of a Catholic Secondary School System's Religious Education Program: Staffing, Instructional Organization and Content. It was hypothesized that there would be no significant relationship in parents' expectations concerning these three areas with respect to parents differing in the demographic categories of sex, ethnic background, age and marital status. The study also investigated the relative importance given by parents to the eight required themes within the school system's religious education curriculum.;In order to test the first three hypotheses, individual chi-square tests were performed for each question according to the four demographic categories of parents. No statistical test was discovered to deal with the last hypothesis and thus descriptive summary tables were used to reveal parents' rankings of the required themes.;A significant relationship was discovered in a majority of tests conducted in each of the three areas of staffing, instructional organization and content with respect to each of the four demographic categories. In answering the question of the relative importance of each of the eight required themes of the religious education curriculum, a similar pattern of response was revealed among respondents differing in sex, age and marital status, while some varying patterns appeared among respondents of different ethnic backgrounds.;The results of the study indicated the continuing interest of parents in the various aspects of the religious education program, as well as the specific expectations of parents separated according to specified demographic categories. The results further imply the need to educate parents in certain areas of the religious education curriculum and to create procedures for eliciting more elaborate parental responses to a variety of issues related to the religious education program.;The subjects of the study were the parents of 10,990 students entering ninth grade in the Secondary School System of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in September, 1980. All of these parents received an original instrument created for purposes of this study.