J. Stephen O'Brien's book, Mixed Messages: What Bishops & Priests Say About Catholic Schools (Washington, D.C.: National Catholic Educational Association, 1987), is the published result of the author's attitude survey of American Roman Catholic bishops and priests, which was designed to specifically measure "the perceptions of the Roman Catholic bishops, pastors, and future pastors of the United States concerning the (1) value, (2) effectiveness, (3) funding practices and (4) future structure of Catholic schools" (pp. 53-54). It is a ten-year follow-up to a similar study conducted by A.M. Greeley, et at., Catholic Schools in a Declining Church (Kansas City: Sheed & Ward, 1976).
According to O'Brien, "Greeley found evidence that some pastors and future pastors were not supportive of Catholic schools. The [present] question was whether that finding was still true ten years later" (p. 53). In his role as Executive Director of the Department of Chief Administrators for the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), O'Brien prepared a lengthy survey which was mailed to each of the 273 bishops of the Church as well as to a random sample of 660 priests (every 57th name listed in The Official Catholic Directory (1985) beginning at a randomly selected point) out of a total population of 37,572 (p. 116).
The survey was divided into two parts, the first specially constructed to obtain specific information about the bishops and priests and their vocational background, including previous attendance at Catholic elementary and secondary schools and colleges. The eleven limited-response questions in the first part were changed slightly for surveys sent to the priests (see pp. 118 and 122). The second part of the survey contained 42 questions with responses limited to a four-point Likert scale which ranged from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree, but without an "Undecided" selection. According to O'Brien, of the 19 responde...