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Two years ago, when a Catholic school serving some of the most at-risk children in Mobile, Ala. began its search for a new principal, there was only one obvious choice. No one knew the school better, no one had a better sense for its culture and history, and no one got along better with the students than assistant principal and counselor Jamie Crain.

But in her first year as principal at Most Pure Heart of Mary Catholic School, Crain struggled. She knew what needed to happen to keep the school running, but often found herself wondering if there were better or more efficient ways to manage the school and keep expectations high.

Crain had great relationships with the students, but needed help in creating a balanced budget. Her rapport with parents was superb, but she sought to make the school culture even stronger. And she was well-respected by the staff, but wanted guidance in how she could help them become more effective educators.

“Despite the struggles, I realized I was good at what I was doing, but it would be necessary to the get the training and credentials if I wanted to continue to have a positive effect on the school and community,” Crain said.

Crain turned to the Alliance for Catholic Education, which had been sending teachers to Heart of Mary for years. She applied to become a part of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, which prepares future leaders of Catholic schools.

“The Remick Leadership Program provided not only a great overview of those skills and habits that strong leaders should have, but also realistic ways to put them into practice,” Crain said.

The Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program is a 25-month opportunity that develops schools to nurture strong Catholic school culture, engage in effective executive management of school operations, and serve as an instructional leaders in a school community and culminates in a Masters of Educational Leadership. Crain recently completed her first summer of coursework in the program.

“I returned back to school doing the same things I had done the previous year, but with different eyes, and with a new vision.”

Most Pure Heart of Mary quickly saw the fruits of Crain's time at Notre Dame. Enrollment started the 2012-13 academic year at 115 students. In just over a year, enrollment grew nearly 40 percent, with enrollment on the first day of this school year at 160. Crain said she hopes to keep the enrollment growing, and credits the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program for giving her valuable tools for improving the academic atmosphere and Catholic culture of the school. With five of the public schools in Mobile designated as “failing,” parents are seeking safer, faith-based option.

“Our parents want a small teacher to student ratio, and they want a safe environment for their kids that the other public schools can’t always provide,” Crain said. “Although most of our families are not Catholic, the vast majority are Christian, and they all want their students to pray at school and learn about Jesus. The Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program has been immensely helpful in helping me become both a leader in the school and in the faith.”

Most Pure Heart of Mary has been serving the African American Catholic community of Mobile for 116 years. The school currently houses 11 regular classrooms that serve students in grades PreK-3 to eight. The school serves a low-income population, and with a Catholic school salary, Crain wasn’t sure how she would pay for the program. Thanks to a generous donor, she received a full scholarship and was able to embrace the program without worrying about financial barriers.

“Enrolling in the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program is definitely not something I would have pursued without the scholarship,” Crain said. “It’s such a tremendous blessing.”

Learn more about the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program below.

To apply, visit ace.nd.edu/leadership/become-a-leader/how-to-apply

Catholic schools and their students lost an extraordinary witness to the transformational power of Catholic education with the passing of Fr. TJ Martinez, S.J., into eternal life. With his tireless devotion to service, electric personality, and endless joy, Fr. Martinez exemplified the entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to the poor that lies at the heart of the Cristo Rey mission.

"Our most heartfelt prayers and condolences go out to the Martinez family and the Cristo Rey community," says Rev. Timothy R. Scully, C.S.C., founder of the Alliance for Catholic Education. "TJ embodied Saint Ignatius' exhortation to 'Go forth and set the world on fire' and he will be deeply missed."

In his ministry as the Founding President of Cristo Rey Jesuit, Fr. Martinez catalyzed the creation of a remarkable educational and life-changing opportunity for the youth of Houston, TX. Since the school's founding in 2008, Fr. Martinez and his team have grown Cristo Rey Jesuit's student population from 80 to nearly 500 students. They have partnered with more than 150 blue-ribbon corporations to support the renowned Cristo Rey Corporate Work Study program, and they have transformed a hurricane-ravished physical facility into a stunning and award-winning campus. Most importantly, in 2013 every member of the school's first graduating class was accepted to college.

Fr. Martinez's legacy will live on through his students and colleagues, and his service to Catholic education will inspire many for decades to come.

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought,” wrote the famed Catholic author G.K. Chesterton in 1917. That wisdom inspires the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) community in 2014 as we raise our thoughts and prayers of gratitude for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Providence continued to bless ACE in wonderful ways this year as we advanced beyond our 20th anniversary celebration, sharing in the kindness and gifts of people and communities around the world. Here is a sampling of this year’s memories of grace in service to children and Catholic schools. Our thanks go out to:

•    Pope Francis, who lifts our spirits and did so in a special way in remarks on Jan. 30, 2014 with these words: “I express my gratitude for the commitment which the University of Notre Dame has shown over the years to supporting and strengthening Catholic elementary and secondary school education throughout the United States.”
•    Other spiritual leaders and guides who have helped us to know, love, and serve God better, in particular Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi of Mobile, who presided at our Missioning Mass this summer, and Rev. Larry Gillick, S.J., who led our reflections at the ACE team retreat in September.
•    Our priests and religious sisters on the ACE team and all the consecrated religious at the heart of the Catholic school legacy, past, present, and future. Their invaluable contributions merit heightened attention during the Catholic Church’s Year of Consecrated Life, which starts this weekend, on the First Sunday of Advent.
•    Prof. Maureen Hallinan, whose inspiration lives on following her death on Jan. 28. This world-renowned sociologist, a faith-filled pioneer among scholars of education, was the founding director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives.
•    All those in the ACE community, as well as Catholic school champions around the country who contributed their zeal to Notre Dame’s Fighting for Our Children’s Future National Bus Tour, marking the 20^th anniversary of ACE’s founding. The tour concluded safely and successfully in June after logging 30,000 miles to visit 65 Catholic K-12 schools in 35 states.
•    ACE’s generous supporters, such as Mary Ann and Jack Remick, of Rochester, Minnesota, whose latest benefaction—a $10 million leadership gift in 2014—more than doubled the endowment of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program. The Institute for Educational Initiatives celebrated the gift’s transformative benefits by naming Visitation Hall as part of ACE’s home on campus.
•    Numerous leaders from many fields who visited ACE and brought new insights to Notre Dame audiences throughout the year. They included José Miguel Insulza, Secretary-General of the Organization of American States, and noted political scientist John DiIulio, who delivered the inaugural Fr. Tim Scully, C.S.C., Lecture on Education in the Service of Citizenship.
•    Archbishop George Lucas and Bishop Daniel Flores, whose joint presentation to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting in November increased nationwide awareness of Catholic school issues. They honored ACE with a mention of our service, and Fr. Joseph Corpora and Fr. Ronald Nuzzi were honored to serve on the planning committee for their presentation.

As a Eucharistic community, ACE recognizes that “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving,” so this holiday prompts our prayers for continued blessings upon countless people involved in our mission. Our expressions of gratitude, in the words of an ACE maxim, are "just getting started.”

In this day and age, growing up with ten brothers and sisters is certainly uncommon. When two of those children—twins, in fact—become teachers, it becomes more rare still.

But when that vocation leads to a call to the priesthood for both, it’s the making of something incredible.

One might think that Brendan and Brogan Ryan, growing up as twins in a family of thirteen, would have had their fill of community by the time they graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2008. Instead, they chose to serve as teachers as a part of the Alliance for Catholic Education, where they’d be living with other teachers in communities around the United States.

“ACE required a total commitment,” Brendan said. “We moved to a new place, with new people, to work very hard for very little money at something we could not really prepare for, but we persevered because we were serving a purpose that was bigger than we were. This translates to life in the seminary—there are a lot of unknowns and ups and downs, but I believe that I am here because of something that is external to me, and that call is what I fall back on.”

Brendan spent a year after ACE teaching at a Bishop Hartley High School in Columbus, and then chose to enter the seminary to become a priest in the Congregation of Holy Cross. Brogan became an accountant for two years after serving as a teacher before hearing his call, and following his brother to Holy Cross.

“My time in ACE furthered my discernment of religious life,” Brogan Ryan said. “I found that community life really supported me in my teaching and that's one of the things that drew me to Holy Cross—community life that supports ministry. Praying together as a community also pushed me to grow in my own spiritual life and added a depth to relationships with community members.”

Brendan said that living in community in ACE just reaffirmed his desire for a strong, committed community life moving forward.

“I was already thinking about religious life when I began ACE, so in many ways, it furthered my consideration of religious formation,” Ryan said. “Living with others in community for a common mission was not just something I tolerated for two years, but something I came to appreciate greatly and was looking for after ACE.”

For those ACE graduates now in religious formation and particularly for the Ryans, teaching not only helped them realize their call, but also continues to give them the strength they need in difficult times.

“I learned in ACE that the benefit of community goes beyond eating and praying together. My community members were the ones who were there to celebrate good days and be present after bad days. They were the ones who showed up to watch my baseball team play and the ones who carpooled even when it would be easier to drive separately—its a whole constellation of little things that makes community life special.”

Excellence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is critical for our nation’s continued social and economic well being and security. In order to foster growth in these disciplines, the University of Notre Dame’s Center for STEM Education is launching the Trustey Family STEM Teaching Fellows Program.

Study after study has shown that, more than any other factor within the control of schools, instructional practice best predicts successful student achievement. In addition, while teaching practice remains the single most important factor in a child’s academic development, maintaining a qualified and effective teaching force remains challenging. National studies indicate that nearly half of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years. A disproportionate number of these teachers focus their teaching on the STEM disciplines and often leave the profession for more lucrative financial opportunities in the private sector.

Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives plans to develop targeted strategies to address this dual challenge. First, the Trustey Family STEM Teaching Fellows program will develop strategies to recruit ambitious early career STEM educators to participate in an innovative and comprehensive professional formation program to enhance their teaching skills. Second, over time, the program aims to develop a national corps of professional educators who are committed to long-term and continuing and rigorous formation in instructional leadership in STEM disciplines.

“The importance of the STEM disciplines for the future of our children and our country cannot be overstated, and the Trustey Family STEM Teaching Fellows program is enabling Notre Dame to work toward dramatically increasing the quality of instruction for tens of thousands of students,” Rev. Timothy R. Scully, Hackett Family Director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives, said.

“We know that nothing impacts student learning more than great teaching, and there is no more important area in which we can help the youth of our country than in providing them a rigorous and engaging STEM learning experience,” Director of Notre Dame’s Center for STEM Education Dr. Matt Kloser said. “This program is committed to measuring the impact of its efforts, improving the program based on data, and keeping teachers engaged in a supportive and mission-driven network of STEM teachers.”

The Trustey Family STEM Teaching Fellows program will help the Institute continue to develop hundreds of STEM educators who will serve a critical and growing need in elementary and secondary schools across the country, with a particular focus on Catholic schools.

This program will help early-career teachers of STEM disciplines in K-12 Catholic schools improve their instructional practice and leadership through a three-year professional development opportunity. The program looks forward to serving teachers from Catholic schools and especially graduates of the ACE Teaching Fellows program.

The Trustey Family STEM Teaching Fellows program is the most recent initiative of the University of Notre Dame’s Center for STEM Education, which, through research and the translation of research into practice, seeks to increase student interest and learning in the STEM disciplines.

For more information: Dr. Matt Kloser,