During the 2023-24 school year, the Catholic Schools Support Network (CSSN) launched as a pilot partnership consisting of 30 opt-in Catholic elementary, middle, and secondary schools within the Archdiocese of Boston, along with several academic, spiritual, and financial partners. Founded in July 2023, CSSN followed a year-long, system-wide data collection process in 2022-2023, facilitated by EY-Parthenon and sponsored by The Lynch Foundation. Through focus groups, data collection, and analysis, trends revealed that schools had a strong desire for increased collaboration and additional support. Schools pay an annual fee based on their student body size to become members of CSSN. 

CSSN is dedicated to ensuring that students within the Archdiocese of Boston receive an academically rigorous, holistic, and sustainable Catholic education. The network’s mission is to help guide students to reach their fullest potential. 

In its inaugural year, CSSN implemented a two-pronged approach based on the belief that “a rising tide lifts all boats.” The Network set clear, network-wide priorities for schools on their path to excellence, while also providing differentiated support tailored to each school’s unique needs, capacity, and internal priorities. 

Following the findings from the EY-Parthenon data collection, school leader meetings, and brainstorming sessions at the August Summit, CSSN identified the following strategic priorities: 

• Operate financially sustainable models 

• Expand talent structures 

• Establish data-driven foundations 

• Offer opt-in opportunities 

Schools on the path to excellence are encouraged to leverage data to establish a vision for rigorous teaching and learning. They are guided to build an instructional culture that supports this vision, assess student achievement, and engage stakeholders at regular intervals. By analyzing outcomes, schools can identify critical next steps and take action to advance instructional quality. To enable this, CSSN also focused on ensuring that schools have strong internal finance systems to support successful programs and long-term sustainability. 

In addition, CSSN emphasized the importance of talent structures, helping schools attract, hire, develop, invest in, and retain top teachers and staff. Recognizing that each school has its own unique needs and environment, CSSN offered opt-in opportunities to help schools leverage their strengths, improve their opportunities, and share best practices. These areas included admissions and marketing, affordable college partnerships, and school team collaboration. 

The impact of CSSN has been overwhelmingly positive. A large majority of school leaders reported that CSSN has increased collaboration across schools and strengthened outcomes. As of the end of the pilot year, over 300 school leaders and educators were actively engaged in the network, with more than 400 collaboration opportunities sponsored by the network.