Secondary Education

Catholic Secondary Education At a Glance

Regional Office

1011 First Avenue
New York, NY 10022

Total Number of Schools

44 Total Schools

99% of our seniors graduate and 99% of graduates are accepted to post-secondary education

Recent Developments

NEW! We are excited to share with you the good news coming from our Catholic high school community! Click here to view our latest newsletter, “The Scoop on Secondary Schools, Volume 10.”

In this issue, you will find highlights of the programs and initiatives being offered in Catholic high schools throughout the Archdiocese of New York.

Please click here for more information about TACHs registration, TACHs preparatory programs, and high school virtual tour links.

About Catholic High School

The 43 Catholic secondary schools throughout the archdiocese offer rigorous, high-quality academics in an environment formed by the faith and values of the Catholic Church.

In the Archdiocese of New York, 99 percent of our high school seniors graduate and 99 percent of graduates are accepted to post-secondary education. We are enormously proud of those statistics and commit ourselves each year to maintaining that standard of excellence. Our high schools focus on ensuring the success of every child that walks through its hallways.

Fifteen are coeducational, 17 are all girls schools, and 13 are all boys schools. Their common thread is academic excellence developed in a Christ-centered environment that builds character while teaching to each student’s individualized learning style.

Our high schools educate a diverse student body, each student unique and special in their own way. In the 2018-19 school year, 45 percent of students were Caucasian, 30 percent were Hispanic, 15 percent were African American, and five percent were Asian. Our schools are steeped in Catholic tradition but always welcoming to children of other faiths. Fully 22 percent of our high school students were non-Catholic in 2018-19 school year.

Nearly 100 underclassmen from five Catholic high schools on Staten Island designed and constructed bridge models and programmed robots as part of an engineering conference held at Notre Dame Academy on Staten Island in April.

Engineers from General Electric and Global Infrastructure Partners were on hand, along with engineering graduate students from Manhattan College, to guide the students in their work throughout the day.

Preston High School in the Bronx hosted an engineering conference in October at its brand new lab dedicated by Engineering Tomorrow, a nonprofit organization that promotes engineering education in high schools. The 2,000-square-foot lab offers students a hands-on learning environment with advanced technology, including: 3D printers, wind tunnels, catapults, stress strain testers, robotics equipment, and advanced audio visual equipment that can broadcast to schools around the archdiocese. All archdiocesan high schools will have access to the lab. Schools participating in the October conference included Academy of Mount St. Ursula, St. Raymond Academy for Girls, Msgr. Scanlan High School, All Hallows High School, Cardinal Hayes High School, and Mount St. Michael Academy, all located within the Bronx.

To continue improving upon the many opportunities we employ to deepen the faith of our students, a committee has been established to re-examine the Life and Leadership Day for high school students. Ahead of the November event, the committee will analyze methods to enhance students’ knowledge and understanding of their responsibility to be promoters and defenders of respect for life. Topics under consideration to be explored through breakout sessions include: social justice, abortion, euthanasia, care of the infirmed, and human trafficking.

Search the listings above to find a Catholic high school that meets your family’s needs, or attend a regional High School Information Night to meet representatives of many schools.

High School Leadership Conference

The third annual high school student leadership conference – an interactive dialogue titled The Media Landscape: A Catholic Lens fostered a thoughtful discussion on reconciling the current media culture of incivility and “fake news” with our calling as Catholics to seek truth and compassion. Student representatives from 32 Catholic high schools heard from a panel which included: Director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Los Angeles, Sr. Nancy Usselmann, FSP; Auxiliary Bishop of New York and former principal of Monsignor Farrell High School, Msgr. Edmund J. Whalen; Cardinal Spellman High School student, Georgia-Renee Boahmah; and Regis High School student, Obinna Nwako. Rob Astorino, former Westchester County executive, CNN commentator and Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s delegate to the Mother Cabrini Foundation, served as the moderator.

The discussion included opportunities for questions and comments from the audience, and students openly discussed topics such as the Covington Catholic controversy, how minorities are portrayed in the media, and the line between free-speech and hate-speech. Our annual A Catholic Lens conference inspires our students to speak their minds, understanding that they are each individual who are a part of something greater, and helping each other to navigate this world—through a Catholic Lens.