“In recent years there has been an explosion of growth in a renewal of authentic Catholic education. By chronicling the many success stories of schools who are leading the way, The Catholic School Playbook provides a clear and practical blueprint for the future of Catholic education. This is an extremely important book and a must-read for all Catholic educators. I am convinced that unless Catholic schools move in the direction mapped out in this book, they are doomed to fail.”

“The Catholic School Playbook is required reading for Catholics who know that we are living in a time to build. Failing Catholic schools need to be reformed, and new Catholic schools need to be established. Michael Ortner and Kimberly Begg provide readers with the data, stories, and first-person accounts on building and sustaining an authentic Catholic school in the midst of our current malaise. The result is a book that is as inspirational as it is essential.”

“Are you interested in being part of the renewal in Catholic education? The Catholic School Playbook tells you how to score. A clear and concise and encouraging book.”

“Catholic schools that are truly Catholic make a significant contribution to the New Evangelization and to the renewal of American culture. Inner-city Catholic schools are the best anti-poverty program the Church has ever devised. So the flourishing of Catholic schools is essential to both the Church and the country. May the examples in this ‘playbook’ inspire many others to take up this great cause.”

“This volume is exactly what Catholic dioceses need at the present time, when, after decades of decline, Catholic schools are undergoing fresh demand and wondering how best to meet it. Michael Ortner and Kimberly Begg have produced a guidebook for school leaders that ranges from the highest ideas and Christ-centered curricula to the nuts and bolts of funding, community events, and parent involvement. Teachers and administrators who are overwhelmed by the secular demands of achievement and worldly success will find in The Catholic School Playbook tools that will help them resist those dehumanizing twenty-first-century trends. Most important of all, Ortner and Begg show the way to another kind of success, a school Catholic through and through, which is what so many parents have wanted all along. Every bishop in America who has seen his enrollments dropping and teachers leaving should take this book as an itinerary of recovery and flourishing.”

“In these pages, Michael Ortner and Kimberly Begg weave the threads of the story of the renewal of Catholic education—a grassroots response to the prompting of the Holy Spirit—into a beautiful and compelling tapestry. Through the voices and experiences of parents, teachers, leaders, and thinkers, this comprehensive account not only delivers a coherent and convincing vision of Catholic education, but also provides a roadmap of practical steps for bishops, pastors, and school leaders who seek to align their schools more closely with the Church’s distinct vision of education.”

“The Catholic School Playbook is the ‘common sense’ manifesto for Catholic education. It is the critical link between what has been a quiet, under-the-radar educational renewal movement in mainstream Catholic education. In a decade, every Catholic school administration will have read it.”

Mission: The Heart and Soul of a School 

Building Community: A Living Encounter with a Cultural Inheritance

Finances: The Business of Operating a Sustainable School

Overseers: The Highest Level of Support for a School Community