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An award presented this week to ACE founder Rev. Timothy Scully, C.S.C., is sparking new awareness of an ongoing legacy that goes beyond the remarkable achievements and aspirations of one man. This narrative of perseverance toward a brighter future for kids is described well in the Nov. 5 New York Post, in a commentary titled “Catholic Schools Work for Kids.”

Distinguished journalist and author Naomi Schaefer Riley outlines the ways in which Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE), during its first 20 years of service, has worked with schools in some 75 dioceses to bring hope to low-income, minority children.

Her commentary ties together three things for which ACE is deeply grateful: this expanding series of providential partnerships; Notre Dame’s commitment to educational excellence for all children, as highlighted by its Fighting for Our Children’s Future National Bus Tour; and Father Scully’s Nov.5 acceptance of the Manhattan Institute’s William E. Simon Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Social Entrepreneurship.

Riley quoted Timothy Cardinal Dolan: “Fr. Timothy Scully — and the work that he has done in founding the Alliance for Catholic Education — is one of the reasons why I believe Catholic education has a bright future in this country.”

Photo: Father Scully accepts prize from Howard Husock, Manhattan Institute vice president of policy research and director of its social entrepreneurship initiative. (Photograph copyright Elsa Ruiz)

The Year of Faith is a celebration of our calling to follow Christ and how we can come to know Jesus in our commitment to the ACE community and Catholic schools. Our prayer is that we can learn to find Jesus in the ordinary and routine things of our lives. ACE Teaching Fellows calls men and women to live a simple life as teachers in Catholic schools.

Take a moment and read Luke 17:11-19, which is the gospel for Sunday, October 13. This is the story about Jesus healing ten people of leprosy and how only the Samaritan returns to thank Jesus. Jesus says to him: Has no one but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God? And then he says, stand up and go; your faith has saved you.

It is interesting that Jesus connects being thankful with faith. I have thought about this and have come to see the ACE 20 pilgrimage is being thankful for what is happening and how ACE is born out of faith.

Fathers Tim Scully and Sean McGraw had an idea. They understood that Basil Moreau, the founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, brought men and women to collaborate in ministry, to assist in the needs of the Diocese of LeMans, France, and eventually to serve in the United States and many parts of the world.

There was a need to do something to help Catholic schools, which were crucial in the development of the faith life of many people. Thousands of sisters in religious orders had been the foundation of Catholic schools, but there was a problem—a declining number of nuns who were available to staff Catholic schools. Fathers Tim and Sean had the vision to see that young college graduates could continue the ministry of teaching. This brought about the birth of the Alliance for Catholic Education.

The first posters placed around the Notre Dame campus read, "Tired of doing homework? Then give some." Nobody, including the founders, knew how this would work out. But 20 years later, we know the work of the Holy Spirit has guided ACE. It has inspired young men and women to teach, live a simple life in community, and grow in their spirituality.

The ACE bus tour to 50 different cities is a pilgrimage in which we thank God for the blessings and the growth of a program that has called forth men and women and continues to do so—to follow in the footsteps of Christ the Teacher. It is to understand the words of Blessed Basil Moreau: "to make God known, loved, and served." This is done by returning to the Lord as the Samaritan did, and giving thanks. We are reminded to do this, whether on pilgrimage or in our daily activities. Giving thanks is an expression of faith that Jesus acknowledges in our Gospel.

View the Segment

In conjunction with the events surrounding ¡Es El Momento! and Education Week, Univisión aired a segment focusing specifically on Catholic schools in Los Angeles on the network news program, Aquí y Ahora, on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 7:00 p.m. EDT. The segment featured interviews with Sylvia Armas-Abad and Archbishop José Gomez of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, among other supporters of increased access to Catholic schools for Latino children.

“Working with both our Catholic high school and Catholic elementary students these last few weeks in preparation for the Univision Town Hall meeting has been a beautiful reminder of the importance and urgency of the Catholic School Advantage campaign,” said Armas-Abad. “This experience really deepens my commitment to share the gift of Catholic schools with the Latino community and continue to break down the barriers that keep them from enrolling their children in our schools.”

ACE Readers, an innovative reading program for Catholic elementary school children in Tucson, AZ, and the Tampa Bay area of Florida, aims to continue its sharp boosts in student proficiency scores this year, thanks to renewed grant support from Target.

The civic-minded retailer is conducting a campaign of generous grants to initiatives to improve literacy education for children across the country, and it finds a natural ally in the Notre Dame ACE Academies, a unique and innovative model of university-school partnership. The ACE Academies’ ACE Readers program is a recipient of a Target grant for the third consecutive year.

A research-proven childhood literacy program, ACE Readers is made possible by Target’s support. It combats the achievement gap that plagues students from at-risk communities. Now in its third year, the program is paying off, says Dr. Christian Dallavis, founding director of the Notre Dame ACE Academies initiative.

"Through programs like ACE Readers, the Notre Dame ACE Academies are proving that demography is not destiny,” said Dallavis, who recently assumed the role of ACE’s Senior Director of Leadership Programs while retaining oversight of the ACE Academies. “ACE, with the help of visionary benefactors like Target, is committed to creating extraordinary educational opportunities for all students.”

From the start of the partnership in Tucson in 2010 to the most recent round of assessment in April 2013, the three ACE Academies there have seen a 21% increase in the number of students reading at the “proficient” or “advanced” level. At the same time, the percentage of students reading “below basic” decreased by more than half, from 7.8% to just 3.4%.

Students who began with the ACE Academies in preschool are showing the greatest benefits of the partnership: kindergarten, 1^st grade, and 2^nd grade are reading in the 76th percentile, and kindergarten students score in the top 10% among their peers across the country.

These clear signs of success prompted Target to renew its annual grant to support ACE Readers in the 2013-14 school year. This is the third year of ACE Readers through all grades in ACE Academies Tucson schools and the second year of the same literacy instruction innovations in two ACE Academy schools in the Diocese of St. Petersburg, FL.

These five Catholic schools adopted the comprehensive ACE Readers literacy approach as a key component of the critical changes occurring in their classrooms. Broader shifts in pedagogy, management, and school culture, undertaken through the ACE Academies partnership, contribute to the scope of their recent success and the transformation at each school.

The Target grant to ACE supports the pursuit of comprehensive literacy gains. ACE Readers combines research-proven methods to strengthen reading curriculum, instruction, and assessment to ensure every child is reading at or above grade level by grade three. New resources and focused teacher development spanning the kindergarten to 8^th grade curriculum are transforming literacy education for hundreds of Latino children from low-income families, many of whom do not speak English at home.

“To ensure more students are reading proficiently by the end of 3^rd grade, and in turn graduating from high school on time, Target is dedicated to providing resources to help bring learning to life,” said Laysha Ward, president of community relations at Target. “We’re proud to partner with Notre Dame and the ACE Academies as part of our ongoing commitment to invest in innovative education programs that help keep children on the path to high school graduation so they’re ready for post-secondary education and a career.”

Target will provide grants to educators, schools, and nonprofit organizations across the country to remain on track towards achieving their goal of giving $1 billion to education by the end of 2015.

The Notre Dame ACE Academies partnerships in Tucson and Tampa Bay go hand-in-hand with other ACE initiatives, including the Catholic School Advantage campaign to increase Latino families’ access to a high-quality Catholic school education. Since its founding 20 years ago, ACE has generated dozens of innovations to sustain, strengthen, and transform Catholic schools with a special emphasis on service to under-resourced schools and disadvantaged children.

DALLAS (Oct. 3, 2013) -- This morning, the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE), Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, and the George W. Bush Institute will host a timely conversation on the unique and integral role that faith-based K-12 schools play in urban settings.

This event, titled “Sacred Spaces: Faith Based Schools and American Cities,” will take place at the George W. Bush Institute on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.

The event brings together policy makers, philanthropists, school leaders, and academics for an honest and action-oriented conversation on what faith-based schools mean to the development and revitalization of many of our cities.

Speakers will include George W. Bush Presidential Center President Margaret Spellings, former Washington DC Mayor Anthony Williams, former St. Petersburg, Florida Mayor Rick Baker, Boston University’s Charles Glenn, and Notre Dame’s Rev. Timothy R. Scully, CSC.

“At a time when the dialogue about K-12 education often seems unnecessarily polarized and stultifying, this is an opportunity for leaders across the political and ideological spectrum to re-imagine what faith-based schools can mean to our cities," said Rev. Timothy R. Scully, CSC, ACE’s founder and Director of Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI).

“Across the country, we see so much evidence that faith based schools are indispensable instruments of both intellectual formation and social transformation. These schools truly are sacred places serving a valuable civic purpose, and we owe it to our communities and our children to do whatever it takes to support their revitalization.”

“Many faith-based schools are national treasures, particularly those that are producing meaningful results in the inner city with disadvantaged students,” said Secretary Margaret Spellings, President of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. “At a time when more than three-fourths of the fastest-growing jobs require at least a high school diploma, we need every school in America to have success rates like many of our urban faith-based schools.”

The invitation-only event will be webcast live, beginning at 9:30 a.m. CT, at www.bushcenter.org/live.

The University of Notre Dame’s involvement in the event marks the kickoff of the Fighting for Our Children’s Future National Bus Tour, a cross country effort to raise awareness for the profound impact that K-12 schools have on the future of our children’s lives, and to celebrate the unique role that Catholic schools play in nurturing the soul of our nation. The branded bus, scheduled to visit nearly 50 cities over the next nine months, begins the tour in Dallas, with visits to local schools on Oct. 3 and Oct. 4. For more information, visit http://ace.nd.edu/20.

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About the Alliance for Catholic Education

The University of Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education impacts the lives of several hundred thousand children nationwide by preparing highly talented teachers, principals and school leaders, while offering an array of professional services for US Catholic Schools—the world's largest private school system. ACE works in partnership with hundreds of schools to ensure that the students in their communities, many of them from low-income families in high poverty communities, have access to a high-quality education.

About the George W. Bush Institute: 

The George W. Bush Institute advances freedom through education reform, global health, human freedom and economic growth. In all its programming, the Institute integrates initiatives that empower women and military service personnel. The Bush Institute is the policy arm of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, which includes the Presidential library and museum, located on the campus of SMU in Dallas.

For more information, please visit www.bushcenter.org, Facebook (www.facebook.com/TheBushCenter) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/TheBushCenter).

This story, like the event it describes, is the result of a partnership expressing shared concern for the availability of an excellent education for all children.