later to participate in the conduct of the fieldwork. Carriedo, like Holland,
was also a doctoral student in administration at HGSE and had previously
been a principal in the San Diego public school system. The members of
the research team thus brought diverse views to the field study. Holland
had the perspective of a close insider, Carriedo added a comparative public
school orientation, and Bryk acted as the critical outside researcher.

The school visits helped us frame our overall research activities. They
also provided the major source of data for our analysis in Part II of the
common features that characterize Catholic schools.

In tandem with this field research activity, we began statistical analyses
of High School and Beyond data and other related information. Valerie Lee,
who was also a doctoral student at HGSE at that time, joined in this effort.
Lee and Bryk collaborated on an evolving set of analyses that are interwoven
throughout the book. In Part II, these analyses help generalize our field
observations about the special organizational features of Catholic high
schools. In Part III, they document the diversity among Catholic high
schools in terms of students' background. operational characteristics of
the schools, the kinds of experiences students have, and the academic,
affective, and social consequences that accrue. Similarly, these analyses
provide the core empirical evidence in Part IV, where we link the distinctive
academic and social organization of Catholic high schools, described in Part
II, to high levels of teacher commitment, student engagement, and a more
effective and equitable distribution of student achievement.

Lee's participation in the project further broadened the perspective of
the research team. Prior to enrolling at HGSE, she had over a decade of
experience as a teacher in a variety of schools, including nonsectarian
private schools, U.S. public schools, and a four-year stint at the Marymount
(Catholic) school in Paris. As the only member of the research team who
had not been raised as a Catholic, Lee was particularly uneasy about the
"Catholic dimension" of the schools we were studying. She regularly
questioned whether any of their "Catholicness" really mattered much in
accounting for their special effectiveness in educating disadvantaged chil-
dren. Her perspective was a major influence in critiquing our first efforts
on this topic and in the final development of the argument presented here.

By 1986, most of the main themes of this book were identified. Both
Holland and Carriedo had moved on to careers in public school administra-
tion. Holland is currently Superintendent of Schools in Belmont, Massachu-
setts, and Carriedo is Assistant Superintendent for Research and Planning
in the San Diego public schools. Lee, who had joined the faculty of the
School of Education at the University of Michigan, and Bryk, who had

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