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Students at St. Paul School in Seattle, a school that serves lower income Asian Pacific Islander and African-American students, are achieving impressive academic gains using an innovative blended learning and school improvement model developed by the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) at the University of Notre Dame.

As measured by the Northwest Evaluation Association Measurement of Academic Progress (NWEA MAP), students achieved 147% of growth targets in math and 122% in reading during the first year of the program, similar to a school wide average of a year and a half of growth in math and a year and a quarter in reading. The average eighth grade student achieved 233% of growth targets in math—akin to two and one-third years of growth—over the past academic year.

“The initial results are particularly promising,” Rev. Timothy Scully, C.S.C, the founder of the Alliance for Catholic Education, said. “St. Paul students are performing remarkably well—we are thrilled by the promise this model shows, and believe it can be a powerful tool that more schools like St. Paul can deploy to continue the Catholic school legacy of providing students with an excellent education.”

Blended learning is an emerging model of computer-aided instruction that facilitates more personalized and self-paced learning to more effectively meet the learning needs of each student.  ACE’s approach to blended learning and school strengthening also includes improvements to instructional leadership, enrollment management, and marketing that draws lessons from ACE’s significant experience serving K-12 Catholic schools throughout the country.

St. Paul is seeing school-wide success with its new instructional model.  While the national norm for NWEA MAP performance is for fifty percent of students to meet or exceed their growth targets, seventy-three percent of students at St. Paul exceeded their targets in reading. Eighty-one percent reached the feat in math.

Financially fragile and under-enrolled, St. Paul also saw an enrollment increase of 10 percent over the past year and expects another 10 percent increase in the year to come.  As a part of the ongoing relationship between Notre Dame and the Archdiocese of Seattle, both the Archdiocese and the Fulcrum Foundation said they regard the partnership as a significant success and a model for school strengthening throughout the area.

TJ D’Agostino, who directs the project at Notre Dame, said the success St. Paul students are experiencing is due to teachers more effectively meeting the needs of each child with the benefit of powerful blended learning software, and school leaders continuously strengthening teachers with targeted professional growth in high yield areas like the use of data and deepening a culture of high expectations, key areas of focus for the training and support that ACE provides.

“Blended learning can be a powerful driver for schools to provide a customized education for every child,” D’Agostino said, “though it is most impactful when paired with other best-practices, like data driven instruction, professional learning communities for teachers, and ongoing instructional coaching.  We work closely with the principal and a team of lead teachers to implement these comprehensive strategies.  The results have been transformative.”

The Seattle Office for Catholic Schools and Fulcrum Foundation invited ACE to consider their community as the inaugural site for a new blended learning model, and the city was selected after analysis showed strong local support for the partnership and affirmed the schools’ capacity to serve area students effectively.

Scully, along with Rev. Sean McGraw, C.S.C., founded ACE 20 years ago to fuel Catholic schools with talent and energy. With a presence in every state in the country and programs that address all aspects of Catholic education, ACE has become the premier provider of talent and resources for Catholic schools. Embracing methods from other pioneers in the field, and supported by research on the potential of blending learning, ACE feels this model can be a useful tool to help struggling, inner-city Catholic schools.

St. Paul School is one of the first schools to leverage a premier university’s research and resources to deploy a blending learning and school improvement model. ACE hopes to expand the model of support to other cities in the future. 

The Alliance for Catholic Education is pleased to announce the recipients of its annual awards will go to six outstanding ACE graduates whose service to the mission of Catholic schools have yielded diverse, important accomplishments. The awards and their recipients are:

Michael Pressley Award for Excellence in Catholic Education: Keiran Roche, Libby Brands
Michael Pressley Award for a Promising Scholar in the Education Field: Edmond Bowers, Ph.D.
Maureen T. Hallinan Award for Excellence in Catholic Education: Annette Romans
Scott C. Malpass Founders Prize: John O’Malley and April Garcia

The Pressley and Hallinan Awards, named in honor of distinguished scholars who contributed immeasurably to Notre Dame’s commitment to forming world-class educators and serving under-resourced children, will be presented as part of ACE’s Commencement ceremonies on July 12, 2014.

The inaugural Scott C. Malpass Founders Prize, to be presented on July 23, 2014, as part of ACE’s Missioning events, salutes two graduates of the ACE Teaching Fellows. This prize recognizes individuals’ embodiment of ACE’s three pillars—educational excellence, community life, and spiritual growth—leading to entrepreneurial, high-impact contributions in their communities.

Keiran Roche, of the ACE 13 and RLP 11 cohorts, has led one of the most extraordinary school transformations in the nation over the past two years. As principal of St. John the Evangelist Catholic School, a Notre Dame ACE Academy in Tucson, he has helped foster strong gains in reading and math achievement among students while doubling enrollment. The children at St. John, who live in the sixth poorest metropolitan area in the nation, have closed the achievement gap in less than three years. Roche previously served as a middle school teacher in Mobile, Alabama.

Libby Brands Vereecke, a graduate of ACE 13, taught at St. Catherine’s School and Sts. Peter and Paul School in Tulsa before her dedication to the neediest diocesan schools led her to become the director of development for the schools of the Diocese of Tulsa. She provided direction to the Tulsa Community Foundation and helped to bring ACE teachers back to the diocese in 2012. The Catholic education community of Tulsa knows her well for persistent, exemplary servant leadership. She and her husband, Matt, also a former ACE teacher and RLP graduate, continue to dedicate their life’s work to Catholic education.

Edmond Bowers is research assistant professor at the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts University in Boston. He previously taught middle school Science at St. James Major School in Mobile, Ala., as a member of the ACE 8 cohort, before spending a year with the ACE Ireland Program in Dublin. He earned a Ph.D. in applied developmental and educational psychology at Boston College. His cutting-edge research focuses on the influence of non-parental caregivers on the life-skills development of adolescents, as well as on parental roles in youth development.

Annette Romans did her first teaching in South Bend as a member of the ACE 11 cohort where she remained to become an essential part of the reshaping of school culture at St. Adalbert Catholic School. Over the past several years, her roles have included second grade teacher, resource teacher for the language lab, Title 1 teacher, ACE supervisory teacher, and board member for the school. She earned her certification for teaching English as a New Language through Holy Cross College, and she started an innovative student ambassador program at St. Adalbert. Her transformative and inspiring initiatives to teach those most in need resonate with the spirit of Maureen Hallinan.

John O’Malley is the principal of Youth Horizons, an urban Catholic school in Ireland. He coordinates ACE's initiatives in that country and is earning his Ph.D in educational leadership. He was instrumental in establishing the Diploma in Catholic Education at St Patrick's College in Maynooth, Ireland, which is the only qualification in Ireland designed to prepare teachers to teach in Catholic schools. His gifts of vision and collaboration have attracted partnerships that bridge the United States and Ireland and have built an especially active ACE Advocates region in Ireland. His initial formation as a teacher, as a member of the ACE 9 cohort, brought him to Pensacola, Florida.

April Garcia taught second grade at Holy Rosary School and St. John Berchmans School in San Antonio as a teaching fellow in the ACE 12 cohort, but she moved on to leadership positions in the Catholic schools of Los Angeles during and after her studies in the RLP 10 cohort. She established a highly innovative Early Literacy Program at Mother of Sorrows School, which she presented this year at the National Catholic Educational Association convention. She now serves as program director for Onward Readers, which prepares principals, teachers, and reading specialists and equips them with a research-based curriculum to reduce the achievement gap among disadvantaged students.

The Pressley and Hallinan Awards, now joined by the Malpass Founders Prize, go to distinguished educators annually on the Notre Dame campus during the busy “ACE Summer,” a time of formation for Catholic school teachers and leaders.

Michael Pressley was a prodigious and world-renowned scholar who served as the inaugural academic director of ACE’s Master of Education degree program. He died in 2008. All Pressley Award recipients reflect his dedication to service and scholarship for the benefit of children and Catholic schools across the nation.

Maureen Hallinan was the founding director of Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives. She was internationally recognized for scholarship in the sociology of education, as well as an equally inspired and beloved witness to faith. This award honors an ACE graduate whose continuing commitment reflects her transformative service to the Church and Catholic schools.

The Scott C. Malpass Founders Prize, named for the University’s vice president and chief investment officer, will be presented annually to two ACE Teaching Fellows graduates whose God-given talents of leadership, innovation, and commitment to service on behalf of the Gospel have shaped their vocations and transformed their communities.

After traveling 30,000 miles to visit more than 16,000 Catholic school students throughout the past year, the Alliance for Catholic Education’s celebration of the gift of Catholic schools is just beginning.

The Fighting for Our Children’s Future National Bus Tour visited 65 K-12 Catholic schools across 35 states to celebrate the vital role these and thousands of other Catholic schools play in serving poor and marginalized students and their communities. According to ACE’s founders, those 30,000 miles are just the first step in changing the narrative on Catholic schools — a narrative that has been plagued with school closures for the last decade.

“The story being told in Catholic schools should be one of zeal, one of joy and one of promise,” Rev. Timothy R. Scully, C.S.C., founder of the Alliance for Catholic Education at the University of Notre Dame, said. “We set out with the mantra that ‘Catholic schools are good for America,’ that they are absolutely vital for our children, our communities and our nation. The stories we have witnessed on the road and the amazing people we have met along the way have deepened our commitment to Notre Dame’s mission to serve these sacred places.”

Father Scully noted that research clearly shows a continuing Catholic school advantage. Ninety-nine percent of Catholic school students graduate high school on time, and 85 percent attend college. Studies also show that Catholic school graduates tend to be more civically engaged, more likely to vote, more tolerant of diverse views, more committed to service as adults and less likely to be incarcerated than their peers.

Despite this advantage, Catholic schools have struggled in recent years. ACE’s tour, and its mission to strengthen, sustain and transform these schools, set out to raise awareness of the success of this proven model and of the profound impact the schools have on nearly two million students who attend them.

“The future of Catholic schools is bright, but our work is just beginning,” said Rev. Sean McGraw, C.S.C., who co-founded ACE 20 years ago with Scully. “We continue to engage in an effort to provide solutions to what is certainly America’s greatest civic challenge: ensuring that every American child, especially the most vulnerable, has the opportunity for a quality education.”

The National Bus Tour kicked off in Dallas in October 2013 in conjunction with the Notre Dame Shamrock Seriesfootball game before visiting schools and honoring local education champions in the Midwest and on the East Coast. In November, as the bus rolled into New York City, the Manhattan Institute honored Father Scully with the William E. Simon Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Social Entrepreneurship for his founding and leadership of ACE.

The bus headed south in February to revisit ACE’s roots and long-standing partnerships throughout the Gulf Coast. March featured visits throughout Oklahoma, Colorado and Texas, while April included trips to Chicago and Minnesota. The tour wrapped up the 2013-2014 academic year in May with trips through West Coast cities.

On Monday (June 9), the University of Notre Dame will welcome the bus and the ACE team home, and will honor two members of the South Bend and Notre Dame communities — Jay Caponigro and Maritza Robles — with the University of Notre Dame Champion for Education Award. ACE will also present the Notre Dame Sorin Award for Service to Catholic Schools to Brian and Jeannelle Brady, without whom the bus tour would not have been possible. The homecoming coincides with the start of the ACE Summer, when more than 800 teachers, school leaders and Catholic school supporters — including 95 new teachers who make up ACE ACE Teaching Fellows’s 21st cohort — converge on Notre Dame’s campus for leadership formation and other opportunities focused on building a brighter future for Catholic schools.

Contact: Bill Schmitt, 574-631-3893, , @ACEatND, @theACEBus

A crowd of approximately 60 people joined the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown, on Friday May 23 to mission Ireland's two newest ACErs, Ian Corbett and Louise Travers. 

The duo will be joining ninety-three recent college graduates as members of ACE's 21st teaching cohort. Ian will be joining the Sacramento, California community, while Louise will be teaching in Chicago, Illinois.

To read more about ACE's 21st class of teachers, please visit this link.

The Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) has announced the members of its newest cohort of teaching fellows – a group of ninety-five recent college graduates whose record of academic achievement, dedication to serving marginalized communities, and zeal for empowering children through Catholic schools was described by the Program’s founder, Fr. Tim Scully, CSC as “a truly extraordinary sign of hope.” Fr. Scully, who also serves as a Fellow of the University and a Professor of Political Science, notes that this class, ACE’s 21st, was selected from one of the most competitive applicant pools in the Program’s history.

ACE 21 includes graduates from colleges and universities throughout the United States and abroad, including Notre Dame, Georgetown, the University of Wisconsin, Ateneo de Manila University, New York University, and St. Patrick’s College of Dublin. Through their two-year teaching fellowship, each member will earn a fully-funded graduate degree from Notre Dame while serving as a classroom teacher in one of ACE’s partner schools and living in intentional community with other ACE teachers. ACE now partners with more than 100 Catholic schools serving marginalized populations in 31 cities throughout the country. Since the Program’s launch in 1993, ACE has formed more than 1,200 such teachers – approximately 70% remain in K–12 education, while others have gone on to successful careers in business, engineering, medicine, law, and the academy.

“The cornerstone of our work in ACE is forming talent – that is, supporting aspiring teachers and leaders with the aptitude, imagination, and zeal to help strengthen and transform Catholic schools and empower marginalized children” said John Schoenig, ACE’s Director of Teacher Formation and Education Policy. “We couldn’t be happier with this new group of ACE teachers. In so many ways, they represent precisely what we aspire to as a program."