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As a child, Eileen McLaughlin G ’03 played school with dolls and wrote report cards on scraps of paper. Decades and an Emmanuel master’s degree later, she is responsible for 91 Catholic schools and about 32,000 students across the Archdiocese of Boston.
Invited back to campus by the School of Education on Nov. 3, McLaughlin told an audience of faculty, alumni and teacher candidates that her career has been rewarding, if not the path she first staked out.
“I played at teaching as a kid,” McLaughlin said. “I never played at school leadership. Never.”
What changed her course, and what she returned to throughout the conversation, was the value of seeking out thoughtful feedback that promotes growth.
After graduating from Boston College in 1998, McLaughlin set her sights on the classroom. She taught middle school at St. Ann’s School in Somerville and later English and social studies at Mount Alvernia High School, where she became chair of the English department. About a dozen years into her teaching career, Mount Alvernia’s retiring head of school urged her to consider the job. McLaughlin declined, worried she would lose her connection with students. Her mother, also a teacher, asked why she assumed that and suggested she talk with other principals to see whether she could do the job her own way.
“Something kind of kept persisting, and I think that’s how grace works in our lives,” McLaughlin said. “Things keep coming at us in different ways. I don’t think it’s about breaking down our defenses, but I do think it’s about clearing our lens.”
McLaughlin took the job in 2010, but the transition wasn’t easy, and managing a board and a budget sometimes left her drained. A turning point came through a fellowship at Boston College’s Lynch Leadership Academy, where she worked with a coach for the first time in her career. As a well-regarded teacher, she had rarely been observed or given feedback. Her coach watched her lead faculty meetings and asked a question that reframed the work.
“She asked, ‘Why are you using two different skill sets for the same learning?’” McLaughlin said. “That changed everything for me. And it brought back the joy.”
Catholic education has been a throughline for McLaughlin, who attended Our Lady of the Presentation School in Brighton and Mount St. Joseph Academy. None of the schools she attended remain open, though she stressed that none closed for lack of excellence. The goal of building excellent and sustainable schools drives her work as superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Boston.
Much of that work centers on people, particularly in the archdiocese’s 54 parish schools. She focuses on developing principals and pastors as leaders, and on building advisory boards with expertise in areas such as finance, marketing and fundraising.
McLaughlin also offered some pointers for new teachers. Her first piece of advice was simple: notice and wonder. McLaughlin said that when she visits classrooms now, she rarely watches the teacher. She watches the students, paying attention to their faces and body language and asking them what’s going on.
“Let me tell you, the minute your kids know that you’re watching them, they are engaged,” she said. “They’ll tell you what the obstacle is.”
That attention should be balanced with data and careful preparation, she added.
“I never regretted a lesson I planned for,” she said.
Roughly a third of Emmanuel’s student teachers this semester are completing practicums in Catholic schools. McLaughlin urged the teacher candidates in the audience to build relationships with colleagues who will push them to grow, “critical friends, not just cheerleaders.”
McLaughlin recalled a colleague who once said a student had “hit a wall” in AP Calculus. “You’re her teacher,” McLaughlin told her. “Get a ladder. Get the kid over the wall.”
That kind of challenge only works between colleagues who trust each other, she said, and her colleague held her to the same standard. She advised students in the audience to build those ties with each other and maintain them after graduation.
“Never lose your connection to Emmanuel,” she said.
Venting has its place, she acknowledged, but it can become contagious, and like eating a bag of potato chips, it rarely leaves you feeling better. Her parting advice was to cultivate the opposite.
“Look for joy,” McLaughlin said. “Find it and recognize it when it’s there, and tell somebody about it.”
