Mission Driven and Data Informed Leadership

The contemporary challenges facing Catholic schools and Catholic school leaders are widely known. Effective and systemic solutions to these mounting challenges are less widely known or discussed. This article highlights the skills, knowledge, and dispositions associated with mission driven and data informed leadership—an orientation to school level leadership that we believe holds great promise for the renewal and revitalization of Catholic schools. The conceptual framework developed in this article takes specific shape through an examination of the problem-based learning strategies embedded in the curriculum of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program in the Alliance for Catholic Education at the University of Notre Dame, and three exemplary action research projects completed by program graduates and current leaders in Catholic schools.