ACE Advocates News

Dear Friends,

Happy Easter!  I pray that you are enjoying this beautiful season of grace! 

As ACE Advocates, we are “building a movement in service to Catholic schools.”  Those are familiar words to you by now. But what does it mean to “build a movement”?  How is our movement different than a group of Notre Dame football fans, or supporters of a political figure?

Much more than a group of like-minded people or a set of programs, movements are--like the word indicates--about energy and activity. They channel hearts and minds toward a visionary goal.  It’s impossible to put clear borders around a movement because it relies on the faith, creativity, talent, and tenacity of its members. And in our case, the power of the Holy Spirit.

The world and its needs change, but movements have been present for all of history.  Our Church began when Jesus invited his disciples to, “Come and see.”  The Civil Rights Movement was borne out of the conviction that all men and women deserved basic rights, and was fueled by a prophetic dream.  Current headlines are filled with examples of movements for freedom sweeping across the Middle East.

In 1998, after visiting Notre Dame for the annual Missioning Mass, Cardinal John O’Connor of New York challenged ACE to think of itself as more than a set of programs, but as an “apostolic movement in service to Catholic schools.”  In issuing this challenge, O’Connor was recognizing both the work of the Holy Spirit and the desperate need present in the world and in the Church for faith-filled, prayerful, industrious champions of Catholic schools.  And the need for our movement has never been greater than it is today.

Animated by a commitment to prayer, community, and service, we serve as leaven in and for Catholic schools.  It was the Holy Spirit that called us together, and the same Holy Spirit impels us forward.  Thank you for being a part of our movement in service to Catholic schools!

Warmly,
Chuck Lamphier


PS – We hope to see you this summer!  Join us for the Summer Forum on Expanding Access to Catholic Schools or the Catholic School Advantage Campaign Training.

For Mark Kocovski, supporting Catholic schools goes beyond his commitment as an ACE teacher: he wants to ensure a strong learning foundation for his children.
 
People eagerly camp out for concert tickets or great holiday sales; why not something as vital as your child’s moral formation?  When it came time to enroll his first child in school, Mark wanted to guarantee his daughter a spot in the brand new Catholic school opened by his parish in Granger, Indiana. His was the first car in the St. Pius parking lot at 5:30 am, long before anyone else arrived for the 8:30 registration call. The result: Mary Kate Kocovski became the first preschooler at St. Pius X Catholic School.
 
In the three years following, Mark has shown that same level of commitment to supporting his children (2 now attend) and their teachers through his regular volunteering and participation in their school. The kindergarten class is used to seeing Mary Kate's dad along with other class moms help out with centers; the preschoolers have welcomed him for such activities as Thanksgiving harvests and classroom fiestas. Mark's love for learning in the context of faith, strengthened by his two years as a middle school teacher in ACE, continues to grow and find more avenues for development with his children (Mary Kate, 6, Caroline, 4, and Luke 18 mos).
 
"Eruditio et fides," learning and faith, reads the brick donated to St. Pius by Mark and his wife, MJ. Every one of Mark's 21 years of education have been in classrooms of Catholic institutions, from kindergarten through law school. His professional life has led him back to his alma mater to continue the Catholic mission of the University of Notre Dame through his leadership in the office of Human Resources.  “Catholic schools,” Kocovski says, “can be an option for everyone. It’s about where you put your priorities.” His are clear. He and his wife work to make sure their kids can enjoy the Catholic school advantage. Their children will always attend Catholic schools, the couple says, and Mark will do all he can to make sure those schools are excellent in every way.

Ever wonder what a Catholic education is really worth? A recent study by an economist at Kingston University attempted to answer this question by examining the impact of Catholic education on wage earnings later in life.
 
Using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) – a random selection of approximately 3500 students who graduated from Wisconsin schools in 1957 – Dr. Kim estimated the impact of the kind of school attended (i.e., public or Catholic) on factors such as rigor of academic coursework, quality of teachers, college attendance, and ultimately, wages earned in 1974 and 1992.
 
Major findings from this study indicated that “Catholic school students earn significantly more [than public school students] 17 and 35 years after graduation” and that “Catholic schools tend to have more highly educated teachers and offer a more extensive curriculum in math and foreign language courses” (Kim, 2011, p. 547). Catholic school students also completed more years of college than did public school students.
 
It should be noted, and the author rightly acknowledges, that these data were collected during a markedly different era of Catholic education. Most teachers would have been women religious who were likely to have received more education than the general public and even other educators. Additionally, graduates of Catholic high schools in 1957 were likely to be white and to have parents that graduated from high school or college.  And yet, controlling for these and other variables such as IQ, Kim demonstrated that Catholic schools provided students a high quality education that had a significant, positive effect on wage earnings at mid- and late career time points.
 
Click here to access the abstract of the journal article.

Kim, Y-J. (2011). Catholic school or school quality? The effects of Catholic schools on labor market outcomes. Economics of Education Review, 30(3), 546-558.

The Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) family is delighted to share in celebrating the ordination of Rev. Paul M. Ybarra, C.S.C., as a priest in the Congregation of Holy Cross. Paul, who taught in a Catholic school and earned an M. Ed. degree as part of ACE, was ordained on Saturday, April 30, 2011, along with Rev. John Britto Antony, C.S.C.

Fr. Paul recently offered ACE Advocates his reflections on ACE and his road to the priesthood:

Q. Had you considered the priesthood before your ACE experience?

Father Paul: I had considered the vocation of the priesthood as a real possibility. But to be honest, I was full of excuses for not going through with it. I thought I wasn’t holy enough. What I had planned in my own mind for my life was marriage, kids, and a life of leisure. I kept putting the whole idea of vocation off because it just didn’t jibe with what I was being presented from the culture at large. I was very self-centered and couldn’t see others beyond what they could do for me.

In some respects the whole ACE experience fooled me. I kept thinking about what I was going to receive, the degree, the job as a teacher, the adventure of going to a city that I did not know, and the continuation of the my time at Notre Dame, a place which had become a second home and nurtured me as an undergrad.

But I found that ACE did more for my maturity and growth as a Catholic, as a man, and as a human being than my four years at Notre Dame, because every day I was accountable to more than my own self interests, I was accountable to the children I was sent to serve.

Q. What about your ACE experience began (or furthered) your consideration of the priesthood?

Father Paul: I found I worked harder than I had ever worked before in my previous 22 years of life. I believe that was because the results of my hard work were not totally under my control. The students presented so many variables that I had to begin to judge success not just on my own ability but also on the ability of each and every one of the 120 some students I taught from 5-8th grade. I had to begin to redefine success as serving others and meeting the needs of each individual student.

That required a lot of prayer, a lot of preparation, and ultimately trust in God—that true success lay in mutual relationship with my students. And within that all I found that as a Catholic school teacher, I needed to be accountable to my own faith life, my preparation as teacher, my community, and to my students if I was ever going to lead them.

Q. How do you think your experience as a teacher in the ACE Teaching Fellows program will influence the work you do as a priest?

Father Paul: I am still a teacher, I am still passionate about what I teach. ACE molded me into a man for others. I give my best not because of any desire for anything in return, but because I was sent.

ACE sent me across the country to teach children in a community I did not know. They sent me with love and support, with friendship, the four wonderful people who struggled as I struggled and who wanted desperately to be good for the children, the parents, the schools, and the Catholic Church that they served.

I continue to live out of my ACE vocation to this day, since I am still being sent, still living in community, still learning, and still turning to God for mercy and love. I am just doing that as a Holy Cross priest formed by ACE.

Some great news for students in Washington, DC:

"The fiscal year 2011 spending bill that Congress approved yesterday (April 14, 2011) and President Obama will sign into law today reauthorizes the program that allows low-income students in the District of Columbia to use federally funded scholarships to attend religious and independent schools.

The bipartisan budget plan includes the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Act that the House approved as a stand-alone bill last month. Enactment of the legislation means that new students will be able to attend schools starting this fall using scholarships worth up to $8,000 in grades K-8 and up to $12,000 in grades 9-12. Priority will be given to students whose scholarships were rescinded when Congress closed the program to new students in 2009.

Inclusion of the SOAR Act in the compromise legislation came at the insistence of House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), a passionate and steadfast supporter of the program from the start. Its enactment offers a future full of hope for disadvantaged students, and perhaps not only in the nation's capital. An article in today's edition of The New York Times suggests that the legislation is helping to fuel the revival of school vouchers across the country."

Joe McTighe
Executive Director
Council for American Private Education