The following is an overview of ACE's academic programs, professional services and outreach.
Academic Programs
ACE Teaching Fellows
The foundational program of the Alliance for Catholic Education, ACE Teaching Fellows comprise the nation's largest program forming talent specifically for Catholic elementary and secondary schools. It combines an intensive schedule of academic classes, held during the summer at Notre Dame, with two years of applied learning teaching in classrooms in under-resourced Catholic schools, especially in the South. Excellent academics preparation combined with community-building and spiritual growth form the foundation that supports approximately 180 teachers in more than 100 elementary and secondary Catholic schools in over 30 cities each year. Those selected through the highly competitive application process can earn a cost-free Master of Education degree, preparation for teaching licensure, and a stipend toward living expenses. ACE teachers, who live in ACE community houses in their apprenticeship areas, represent a diverse set of backgrounds, experiences, and undergraduate academic disciplines.
Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program (RLP)
In response to the critical need for transformative school leaders in Catholic schools across the country, and supported by a generous endowment from Mary Ann Remick, the Leadership Program develops aspiring Catholic school principals through a 25-month formation program in the context of community and spirituality. An academic internship offers valuable leadership experience, supplementing classroom and online learning, and the program culminates in a Master of Arts degree in Educational Administration. The Remick Leadership Program has become the largest of its kind in the United States and has prepared over 380 educators who now lead Catholic schools in 41 states and 95 dioceses.
English as a New Language (ENL)
A one-year, 18 credit hour certification program at the University of Notre Dame, the English as a New Language Megan and Enrique Hernandez, Jr., Fellows program seeks to answer Christ's call to welcome the strangers among us by increasing the number of Catholic school teachers with expertise in teaching students who speak a language other than English at home. Combining on-campus and online learning and culminating in a specialized endorsement from the State of Indiana, the ENL program prepares Catholic school teachers to support English language learners by promoting cultural inclusion, implementing innovative teaching strategies, and making lesson and assessment modifications, all while retaining their positions during the academic year.
Program for Inclusive Education (PIE)
The Program for Inclusive Education envisions Catholic schools that are prepared to educate all children regardless of academic, behavioral, social, emotional, or physical need. We seek to equip Catholic schools with a culture, a foundation, and resources for inclusive education.
Professional Services
Notre Dame ACE Academies
The Notre Dame ACE Academies establishes an in-depth partnership between ACE and at-risk urban schools, based on an innovative model of structure and support. Each of the schools — four in the Diocese of Orlando, two in the Diocese of Tucson, Arizona, and two in the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Florida — implements structural features that facilitate school improvement and share a common Catholic ethos. Teachers and principals at the schools receive support from the Notre Dame team while participating in ongoing professional and personal formation, and together they strive to offer a Catholic education of the highest quality to as many children as possible.
American Indian Catholic Schools Network
The American Indian Catholic Schools Network—an initiative of five Indian Mission Schools, in partnership with the University of Notre Dame—seeks to create a foundation of mutual leadership that encourages and supports each member school in its ministry, while strengthening our collective ability to fulfill our mission. Our shared efforts will help us promote awareness of our common goals, address common needs and challenges, leverage best practices and build trust among our members.
Outreach & Engagement
Catholic School Advantage Campaign
Based on the findings of the Final Report of the Notre Dame Task Force on the Participation of Latino Children and Families in Catholic Schools, ACE launched the Catholic School Advantage campaign, a national movement aimed at dramatically expanding access to Catholic schools for Latino and other at-risk, under-served children over the next decade, providing a faith-filled educational pathway to fuller participation in America's civic life for a greater segment of the country's population. Seven dioceses have partnered with the Alliance for Catholic Education to pursue innovative interventions in their schools and parishes.
ACE Advocates
ACE Advocates works to organize and mobilize ACE graduates and Catholic school supporters to make a lasting impact in areas with critical need, including school, diocesan, and philanthropic leadership, parental choice policy, and Catholic identity. Born out of the conviction that ACE graduates have an opportunity to provide much-needed leadership and entrepreneurial innovation for Catholic schools, ACE Advocates provides regional action networks in 25 cities, which serve as hubs for a movement of Catholic school supporters. It also offers a vairety of formation programs and spiritual resources aimed at developing a new generation of transformational leaders.
Program for Educational Access (PEA)
The Program for Educational Access is a multi-disciplinary enterprise dedicated to empowering low-income families with sustainable financial access to a quality Catholic education. Developed at the invitation of Church leaders, education reform scholars, policy makers, and Catholic school officials, PEA facilitates meetings of bishops and other leaders nationwide to promote innovative strategies for enhancing K-12 Catholic education, and hosts workshops to explore the moral, legal, legislative, and political dimensions of the modern parental choice movement.
ACE Press
ACE Press seeks to disseminate scholarship along with educational and spiritual texts and resources in support of the Alliance for Catholic Education's mission to sustain and strengthen Catholic elementary and secondary schools. Established in 2006, more than twenty published titles include current research by ACE faculty and national authors, the reports of the Catholic School Advantage campaign, and instructional texts and prayer resources for teachers and administrators.