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The University of Notre Dame announced Tuesday it will establish four new Notre Dame ACE Academies in a partnership with the Diocese of Orlando. Notre Dame ACE Academies are a network of academically excellent, financially sustainable Catholic K-8 schools that operate through the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

Four diocesan schools—St. Andrew School in Orlando, Holy Redeemer School in Kissimmee, and the Basilica School of St. Paul and Lourdes Academy, both in Daytona Beach—will join the Notre Dame ACE Academies network of schools on July 1. The announcement was made at an April 7th event by Orlando Bishop John Noonan, diocesan Superintendent of Schools Henry Fortier, and Rodney Pierre-Antoine, the Gary and Barbara Pasquinelli Family Director of the Notre Dame ACE Academies of the University of Notre Dame.

“To me, it's a beautiful marriage between the Diocese of Orlando and Notre Dame, so that we can continue to advance our schools in areas that need the resources, that need the support, because all of our children deserve the best,” Fortier said.

“Our students will benefit from this partnership with ACE,” Bishop Noonan added. “This ministry is for our young people—for their future."

The Notre Dame ACE Academies network of schools was founded in 2010 by ACE to demonstrate what is possible when pastors, bishops, and Catholic institutions of higher education enter into meaningful and lasting partnerships in which all parties have a substantial stake in student success. Currently, there are five Notre Dame ACE Academies, located in the dioceses of Tucson and St. Petersburg.

By designating these four additional schools as Notre Dame ACE Academies, ACE and the Diocese of Orlando seek to sustain long-term, comprehensive excellence through a unique model of Catholic schooling.  The Notre Dame ACE Academies model is built on the three pillars of ACE: forming professional educators, building community, and growing spiritually in the Catholic tradition.

“We enter this partnership with grateful hearts filled with Easter joy, inspired by this season of hope, renewal, and new life. We look forward to supporting Bishop Noonan, Mr. Fortier, and the school communities in their efforts to make God known, loved, and served,” Pierre-Antoine said. “We are eager to help these school communities become centers of excellence in both faith formation and academic achievement.”

The mission of the Notre Dame ACE Academies initiative is to provide a Catholic education of the highest quality to as many children as possible by mobilizing the resources of the University, the diocese, statewide parental choice programs, and local communities. ACE faculty and staff will work closely with the Notre Dame ACE Academies and diocesan leaders in Orlando to strengthen Catholic identity, boost enrollment and enhance school leadership, curriculum, instruction, professional development, financial management, and marketing.

"As principals in Notre Dame ACE Academies, we make root-belief-driven and data-informed decisions,” Heather Boyle, principal of Sacred Heart School in the Diocese of St. Petersburg, said. “It is at this pivotal moment of expansion to Orlando that we can continue to live out our mission and root beliefs through expansion. Together, Catholic school teachers and leaders in Tucson, St. Petersburg, and now Orlando will work collaboratively as one growing network to provide the highest quality education to as many children as possible."

Enrollment gains at the current Notre Dame ACE Academies have been dramatic and they contradict national trends in Catholic schools. Since the Notre Dame ACE Academies partnership began, Notre Dame ACE Academies in Tucson have increased enrollment by 40%, and in the Diocese of St. Petersburg enrollment has grown 30% since the Notre Dame program began.

Students are experiencing learning gains through the program as well. The existing Notre Dame ACE Academies are closing the achievement gap among many inner-city students. At St. John the Evangelist Catholic School in Tucson, for example, students experienced tremendous growth in both math and reading achievement in 2014. On average, each student gained approximately 1.25 years of growth in math and 1.13 years of growth in reading last year.

The schools in the Diocese of St. Petersburg are showing similar success. In 2012, students in the fifth grade at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Pinellas Park were scoring in the 30th percentile in math and the 50th percentile in reading. After two years, now as seventh graders, this same cohort of students is scoring in the 50th percentile in math and the 68th percentile in reading.

“We are excited to kick things off with our new partners and to grow our community of committed professional educators,” Pierre-Antoine said. “Our teachers and principals have demonstrated with zeal that it’s possible to close the achievement gap on the south side of Tucson, in west Tampa, and in Pinellas Park. We’re excited that our new partners in the Diocese of Orlando are just as committed to doing whatever it takes to put every student on the path to college and heaven.”

 Contact: Ricky Austin,

To learn more about the Notre Dame ACE Academies, visit: https://ace.nd.edu/academies

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You're invited to join ACE at the annual convention of the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) in Orlando from April 7-9. ACE faculty, team members, graduates, and friends will share their expertise for Catholic school leaders and teachers.

If you're planning to attend the convention, remember to stop by Booth #558 to say "hello" and reconnect with the ACE community.

A cocktail reception for all graduates and friends of ACE will follow the opening day's activities. You can RSVP here.

Tuesday, April 7th

Fr. Nate Wills, C.S.C. - 10:30am-11:45am - Room W110-A - Introduction to Blended Learning

Fr. Ron Nuzzi, Ph.D., and Jim Frabutt, Ph.D. - 10:30am-11:45am - Room W306-A - Exceptional Guests At the Table: Catholic Identity in Support of Diverse Learners

Mary McDonald, Ed.D. - 10:30am-11:45am - Room 304-H - What Did You Learn in School Today? A Practical Guide for Ensuring Student Engagement

Andrew Remick - 1:15pm-2:30pm - Room W307-D - Full Service Schools: Comprehensive Strategies for Supporting Students and Families

Colleen Santoni - 1:15pm-2:30pm - Room W304-H - Growth Mindsets in the Classroom

Wednesday, April 8th

Kevin Kijewski, J.D. - 9:15am-10:30am - Room W107 - Enrollment Growth through an Early College High School

Jeff Kerscher, Betsy Rafferty, and Francisco Castillo-Fierro - 9:15am-10:30am - Room W307-B - Going Blended: Are You Ready?

Ryan Clark, Ph.D. and R. Joseph Waddington, Ph.D. - 9:15am-10:30am - Room W306-A - “Seeking Excellence”: A Framework for Using Longitudinal Student-Level Assessment Data in a Network of Urban Catholic Schools 

Anne Stricherz - 11:00am-12:15pm - Room W204-B - Sports and Spirituality: From Prescribed to Described

Betsy Rafferty - 11:00am-12:15pm - Room W304-H - Data-Driven Instruction: How Using Data Changed My Career

Juana Graber - 11:00am-12:15pm - Room W103-A - Parent Ambassador

Steven Virgadamo - 11:00am-12:15pm - Room W102-B - Applied Behavioral Sciences in Cultivating and Soliciting Volunteer and Philanthropic Resources

Megan Adzima and Grace Carroll - 1:30pm-2:45pm - Room W307-C - The Seats Are Filled...Now What?: The Challenge of Latino Retention and Satisfaction in Schools after Successful Recruitment

Fr. Nate Wills, C.S.C. - 1:30pm-2:45pm - Room W104-A - Blended Learning: Beyond the Basics

Dan Faas and Greg O'Donnell - 1:30pm-2:45pm - Room W305-B - Re-imagining Catholic School Leadership: Building a Pipeline for Systemic Transformation

Martin Scanlan, Ph.D. - 1:30pm-2:45pm - Room 305-A - ¿Como? (¿Y por qué?): How (and why) to Build a Bilingual Catholic School

Michelle Doyle - 1:30pm-2:45pm - Room W306-B - Title III Services: A Valuable Resource As Catholic Schools Enroll Latino Families

Kristin Sheehan - 1:30pm-2:45pm - Room W106 - Teaching Catholic Virtues through Sport: the Play Like a Champion Way

Frank DiLallo - 3:15pm-4:30pm - Room W306-B - Working with Parents After an Incident of Bullying: A Key Element of Positive School Climate

Darren Thelen - 3:15pm-4:30pm - Room W304-H - Improving Reading Achievement for More Readers

Thursday, April 9th

Kevin Foy - 9:30am-10:45am - Room W203-B - Missionary Discipleship: A Framework for Faith-Driven Service Learning

Anita Guilherme - 9:30am-10:45am - Room 104-B - Preventing School Closure by Strategic Planning and Marketing: The True Story of an SOS Campaign

Megan Adzima - 9:30am-10:45am - Room W107 - Increasing Latino Enrollment in Our Catholic Schools

Jason Linster - 11:00am-12:15pm - Room W304-E - Blended Learning and Your School

Kristin Sheehan - 11:00am-12:15pm - Room W204-A - Realizing the New Evangelization through Catholic High School Sports

Dan Faas - 11:00am-12:15pm - Room W304-H - ¡Ayúdame!: Reaching Your English Language Learners in the Catholic Classroom

Are you presenting at NCEA? Let us know about it here and we'll help spread the word about your talk! 

How do summer day camp experiences—like the programs offered annually in local Catholic schools, with help from the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE)—affect a typical Notre Dame faculty or staff member's family?

For one thing, you may find three teenage boys sitting around your dinner table trading tips about building bridges, says Tracy Faulkner, administrative assistant in Visitation Hall.

The Faulkner children—Jake and Ben (junior and freshman, respectively, at Saint Joseph High School) and William (in seventh grade at Saint Joseph Grade School)—have been known to have that discussion more than once. In recent years, each of them has attended a science camp that is one of the options for middle-school students registered for summer camps hosted by the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend in partnership with ACE.

"They compared notes," Tracy says of her sons. "When one of them was about to start the camp, they still talked about the bridges they had teamed up to build years before. An older one would say, oh, don't make that mistake" with a truss or beam or anything crucial in the contest between bridges' weight-bearing capacities.

All three of them remembered their experiences, whether a given camp season focused on the science and math of bridge design or rocket-building or ecosystem stewardship, Tracy recalls this year's middle-school focus areas, besides science, include "Managing Your Fantasy Team," "The Heroine," and "Monsters in the Movies."

She remembers how engaged the boys became in their camps: "When you can get a child to get up early in the morning in the summer, you know they want to be there."

The boys' teachers immersed in the study of their craft with ACE clearly want to be there, too.

"They're the most amazing group," Tracy says. "They get their energy off the kids' excitement." These Notre Dame graduate students, led by mentors and veteran faculty at schools including Christ the King, St. Adalbert's, St. Vincent's in Elkhart, and Saint Joseph High School, pursue a Master of Education degree and bond with the camp students in exploring subjects they love—like math, language arts, and science.

"It's almost as if [the ACE Teachers in science camp] were older lab partners, as if each student had a lab partner who was older and could reach the top shelf and get the cool stuff," Tracy recalls from her sons' reports.

Because of a team approach in projects, a very favorable teacher-to-student ratio, and a camp environment with minimal pressure (alongside rigors of discipline and safety), "the teachers found a way to make every child fit in," she says.

William remembers the fun of group puzzles and contests in another one of the summer camps he attended, back in third grade, Tracy says. He learned more about everyday math, and the morning-only, three-week sessions allowed all three Faulkner boys to enjoy other kinds of summer fun.

A low-priced, low-pressure injection of learning into students' summers "keeps them ready for the classroom in the fall," she says. While not an all-day, season-long immersion, every morning session adds "something positive" to the summer. "It gets them up and moving, and it's a good way to start their day."

Options for the days of summer 2015 are more numerous, reflecting growth in this Catholic School Educational Program, hosted by the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend for more than a decade. The number of students served through the many alternatives has grown from about 100 to more than 250.

ACE summer camp assistant director Patrick Kirkland says the goal is to welcome a larger number of students this year, from all backgrounds and all of Michiana.

A high school summer school format has been added for grades 9-12, and a range of focus subject areas is offered for middle school. Registration is now open. Children from faculty and staff families of the Notre Dame community are among those invited to register at http://ace.nd.edu/summercamp/.

As for the Faulkners, Tracy already knows William will be among the camps' repeat-registrants. "He'll go to one of them this summer," she says. "We're really looking forward to it."

Sitting on a dusty street corner just off of Interstate 10 in Tucson, Ariz., is Santa Cruz Catholic School, where students have taken to heart Jesus’ command to love thy neighbor—neighbors who, for them, are often homeless.

According to the 2013 Homelessness in Arizona Annual Report, “the density of Pima County’s homeless population remains the highest in the state and higher than the national average,” with one of every 131 people having experienced homelessness. Many of these people live in South Tucson.

Fifth grade and ACE Teacher Rose Raderstorf said she spends the first few weeks of the school year at Santa Cruz discussing Catholic Social Teaching with her ten- and eleven-year-old students.

“My kids had never heard of it, but they quickly latched on to the ideas of respecting human dignity, preferential option for the poor, and solidarity,” Raderstorf said.

The class worked to make these teachings relevant to their own lives. Raderstorf patiently listened as the children worked to find ways that they could truly show love for the poor, even as young people, even with limited resources. One student suggested making sandwiches for the people living in Santa Rita Park a few blocks down the street.

 “He said, ‘we should make sandwiches for the people living in the homeless park. Then we should take it to them and eat with them so they have someone to talk to,’” Raderstorf said.

Santa Cruz is one of the Notre Dame ACE Academies in Tucson, a network of partner-schools with the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education that aim to provide a Catholic education of the highest quality to as many children as possible in under-served communities. Many Santa Cruz students benefit from the school’s free and reduced lunch program, yet they worked together and made sacrifices to supply the materials needed to make the sandwiches.

"The first time we made sandwiches as a class, a few parents, students and I took them to the homeless park across the street after school,” Raderstorf said. “We had so many left over that a parent suggested we take the extras to Casa Maria.”

Casa Maria is a Catholic Worker Community which runs a soup kitchen and distributes over 500 lunches and 100 bags of groceries each day. In addition to providing nourishment, the Casa Maria community offers other services and ministries to the homeless community in South Tucson.

“While we were there, the director of Casa Maria told our class that they had run out of food that day and were not going to be able to give lunches to the 500-600 people that would be there the next afternoon. He told the kids that they were a God-send, and truly helping make miracles happen.”

Inspired by their own ability to do good in the world, Raderstorf’s fifth grade students now take sandwiches to Casa Maria each month. More than just feeding their neighbors, the fifth grade students are experiencing fellowship with those people so often overlooked or ignored by others.

“The last time we made sandwiches, we went to Mass with the Casa Maria community,” Raderstorf said. “We sat on over-turned milk crates, right next to the people who would later be eating our sandwiches for lunch.”

After Mass, one student wrote, “the best part of today was going to Mass with the people who were going to eat our sandwiches. They just smiled so big when they saw all the sandwiches. It was so cool that we did this, it gave me that butterfly feeling in my stomach.”

In many schools, service becomes something out-of-the-ordinary: a field trip, a focused event during Catholic Schools Week, or a graduation requirement. For Raderstorf's fifth grade class, service is becoming a routine and a source of joy. They now hope to share that experience with others and are bringing more classes from Santa Cruz along to share the Eucharist and share their service with the homeless population of South Tucson.

In addition to material resources and academic programs, Notre Dame encourages each Notre Dame ACE Academy to develop a strong set of root beliefs and core values at the heart of each school's mission, which, for Santa Cruz, includes: "We are called to love because God loves us;" "We are called to be a family—sean una familia;" and "We are called to live the gospel." One signs that adorns the hallways and classrooms of Santa Cruz and the other Notre Dame ACE Academies reads: “Love God. Love others. That’s it!”

Raderstorf’s class shows that even those who have little to give can be incredible forces of good in the community and can show love and companionship to those so often abandoned or criticized. Their work is not complicated by motives or incentives. Instead, they are simply loving God by loving others.

“The church has it right,” Raderstorf said. “We all need a little child-like faith.”

For Irish immigrants coming the United States in the 19th Century, St. Patrick's Day meant a great deal—it was a day to celebrate their heritage, a heritage that was treated with contempt in many circles of American society. 

In a column from the Wall Street Journal, Bill McGurn explains why St. Patrick's Day can serve as an important reminder of the Irish people's "singular achievement in their adoptive homeland"—Catholic schools:

Just as they did in the days of the great Irish migrations, Catholic schools in our own time hold out perhaps the best hope for the assimilation and upward advancement of a new wave of immigrants: Latinos.

"What the Irish were to our country in the 19th century, Latinos are for our nation in the 21st century," says the Rev. Timothy Scully, CSC, cofounder of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

'Former Mayor Ed Koch once famously remarked that ‘When masses of immigrants reached our shores in the 19th century, they were greeted by two women: Lady Liberty and Mother Church,’ ” says Father Scully. “What Mayor Koch was referring to, of course, were the parish schools. What the Catholic schools did for the Irish then, Catholic schools must and will do for Latinos today.”

* * *

The reality, however, is that Latinos have a larger problem . . . Begin with this: Only 16% of the Latino high-school students in America are college ready, according to Notre Dame’s Task Force on the Participation of Latino Children and Families in Catholic Schools. Barely half graduate from high school in four years.

So what kind of dream is it to design programs geared to college when most Latino kids are written off before they can even start?

* * *

Unlike the Irish, Latinos don’t come here with the advantage of English. Unlike the immigrant Irish of yesteryear, they haven’t embraced the Catholic schools: Overall Latinos count for only 3% of the Catholic-school enrollment in the U.S.

But if the challenges are daunting the benefits are clear: Latinos who attend Catholic schools are 42% more likely to graduate from high school. They are 2½ times more likely to graduate from college. And the Catholic nature of the schools means there is some natural overlap with the Latin American cultures from whence these new arrivals have come.

Put it this way: Is it really all that hard to believe that a Latino schoolgirl might be more comfortable mastering English and embracing American culture if she is learning in a school where she sees, say, a print of Our Lady of Guadalupe—patroness of all the Americas—hanging on the wall?

“On St. Patrick’s Day we celebrate the mutual blessings that America was for the Irish and the Irish were for America,” says Father Scully.

“We believe one day the same will be said of Latinos now arriving on our shores. At least if the Catholic schools have anything to do with it.”

Read the full story Feliz Día de San Patricio at the Wall Street Journal.