Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program

Every participant in ACE's formation initiatives has a story of faith and enthusiasm to tell. Recent references to the Alliance for Catholic Education in an array of media offer an up-close look at people who are passionate about Catholic schools.

Here's a quick tour of some "before" and "after" snapshots of lives, before or after the ACE experience. The "ACE Summer" of 2013 is just beginning, so these stories are just a few of the additional journeys that will bring inspiration to students, schools, and others nationwide.

· Allyn Doyle has graduated from Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH. She's an excellent scholar-athlete who will pursue a master's degree as part of the ACE Teaching Fellows program for formation of Catholic school teachers.

· Across the Atlantic Ocean, two Irish graduates of St. Patrick's College in Dublin—Ciara O'Brien and Hannah Snowe—are also among the extraordinary applicants selected to join the 20th cohort of aspiring educators in ACE Teaching Fellows.

· Jamie Tadrzynski, a dedicated teacher whose zeal for service most recently placed her at a Navajo Nation Reservation as a Mercy Volunteer Corps Missioner, is headed to Notre Dame as an ACE Teaching Fellow, and you can see her recently posted announcement about her blog.

· Rev. Timothy Klosterman, a young priest based in Los Angeles, recently wrote about his own journey and the fact that he has been accepted in ACE's Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, which forms future leaders for Catholic schools. For his story, see the second article in this package from the Los Angeles archdiocesan newspaper.

· Two newly ordained priests—Rev. Andrew Nelson and Rev. Luke Marquard—offer inspiring "after-ACE" stories; they are alumni of the 7th and 12th cohorts of ACE Teaching Fellows, respectively.

· Jared Dees is an ACE graduate who has continued to follow his passion for teaching and has published a book, 31 Days to Becoming a Better Religious Educator. He is interviewed by blogger Marc Cardaronella. Jared, too, is a blogger about faith-filled education.

Hundreds of educators and school leaders eager to enhance the future of Catholic schools will attend a unique collection of summertime conferences hosted annually by the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

The June and July conferences, some of which are currently accepting registrants, are part of ACE’s mission to sustain, strengthen, and transform Catholic schools. They are a growing component of the busy summers when ACE conducts the majority of its on-campus academic programming and graduate-level classes with the hope of inspiring the next generation of Catholic school teachers and leaders.

Preparation of outstanding college graduates to teach in Catholic schools is the organization’s best-known activity, now welcoming its 20^th cohort of aspiring educators as ACE prepares a major celebration of the nation’s Catholic schools to mark its 20^th anniversary.

The conferences are hosted by various ACE units that have grown in recent years to respond to particular issues and needs. Those interested in attending or learning more can visit these conferences’ respective web pages:

ACE Teaching Fellows Annual Conference (June 11-14). Participants in the Melody Family ACE Teaching Fellowship program convene to assess and catalyze their growth as master teachers, educational leaders, and generators of problem-solving research. Several benefactor-supported fellowships support highly promising educators who wish to continue their careers in Catholic classrooms while pursuing advanced knowledge and skills. Fellows cultivate these leadership assets along with their mentors during the conference.

Advocates for Parental Choice Symposium (June 14-19). This intensive formation experience gives participants a first-hand experience of people and places on the cutting edge in implementing school choice policies. Catholic school supporters will receive skills, insights, and working relationships to equip them as advocates in the parental choice movement. Major speakers on- and off-campus will increase these future leaders’ understanding of the social, legal, political, pedagogical, and moral dimensions of parental choice.

Play Like a Champion Today ® Sports Leadership Conference (June 21-23). This annual conference, titled “Character Education through Sports Leadership” for 2013, emphasizes developing the whole person through sports. Guest speakers offer professional development for coaches and athletic administrators at both the youth and high school levels. Hosted by ACE’s Play Like a Champion Today ® experts in sports as ministry, the conference gathers representatives of parochial leagues around the country to network and share best practices. Register for the Sports Leadership Conference.

Equitable Services Institute (June 23-28). Students in Catholic schools across the country are not getting federally funded services to which they’re entitled; this institute assists diocesan superintendents, principals, and other educational leaders to address this problem. Attendees will receive updated information about complex federal funding policies plus practical roadmaps for the process of consultations by which educators obtain equitable shares for their students from Title 1, Title 2, and Title 3 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Information and registration are available online.

Principals Academy (June 24-28). A four-day enrichment experience for Catholic school principals, entitled “Fueling the Fire of Leadership in Catholic Schools” for 2013, will engage expert faculty and practitioners as they develop an action plan to increase motivational practices for instruction, enrollment, and school identity. Principals will explore tangible, evidence-based strategies to increase teacher motivation and self-efficacy, improve supervision processes, and encourage teacher self-evaluation to improve the professional learning environment of schools. Register for this academy hosted by ACE Consulting.

Latino Enrollment Institute (June 25-28). The Catholic School Advantage campaign will invite principals from around the country to discuss strategic possibilities and pursue practical strategies to increase enrollment, particularly among Latino children, in Catholic schools.

Superintendents Strategic Leadership Conference (July 9-12). ACE Consulting will host its annual conference for diocesan schools superintendents, providing expert speakers and facilitating in-depth conversations to explore key issues faced by the invited school leaders.

School Pastors Institute (July 9-12). Pastors whose parishes include schools are invited to this annual institute to learn to manage and leverage better the distinctive relationship between a parish and its school. The Institute develops many skills and perspectives that a pastor will need in overseeing a parish school,its people, and its finances. Insights presented will support pastors’ reflections on the value of Catholic schools to parishioners and to the Church’s future.

Mary Ann Remick Leadership Conference (July 12). This conference, a capstone event for those earning their master’s degrees in educational administration through the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, is a unique and informal venue for South Bend-area educators to discuss current research with ACE leaders and experts from across the country. The graduate students preparing to serve as principals present the action research they have conducted, and local visitors attending free-of-charge exchange ideas on school challenges and solutions.

ACE Summer Forum (July 12-14). The ACE Summer Forum is a professional development opportunity for Catholic school supporters and ACE graduates, focusing on urgent needs in Catholic schools and how aadvocates can address them. This summer, Forum participants will discuss raising local awareness for Catholic schools and connecting local initiatives to the broader ACE movement.

ACE 19 Parent Retreat (July 24-26). Parents whose sons or daughters have just finished their first year in ACE Teaching Fellows often have many questions about these first-year teachers’ experiences. ACE Advocates hosts a special retreat for these parents at Notre Dame to get their questions answered and to see the broader context of the journey their ACE teachers are taking. The retreat also allows these parents of the ACE 19 cohort to hear presentations, worship together, and swap stories.

Rev. Ronald Nuzzi, Ph.D., senior director of ACE's Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, has received the C. Albert Koob, OPraem, Merit Award, with which the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) honors an individual who has made extraordinary contributions to Catholic education in the United States.

The NCEA presented the 2013 Koob Award to Father Nuzzi during the group’s annual convention, attended by 8,000 Catholic educators April 2-4 in Houston.

“I am honored and humbled by this gracious award from my good friends and colleagues at the NCEA,” said Father Nuzzi in a statement. “I am especially grateful for the many faith-filled colleagues with whom I share this important ministry, here at Notre Dame and across the country.”

Father Nuzzi made reference to his work in the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE), where he has served since 2002 as the founding director of the formation initiative preparing the next generation of principals and other leaders for Catholic schools. The Remick Leadership Program has become the largest program of its kind in the country.

"It is a blessing beyond measure for me to contribute to the success, perseverance, and development of Catholic school leaders in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Ireland,” Father Nuzzi said. “There is much work to be done, a new generation to reach, a new evangelization to proclaim. I hope that all of our efforts—those led by Notre Dame, ACE, the NCEA, and other Catholic institutions—may continue to bring life to Catholic schools and especially to those teachers and leaders who are so dedicated to the future and to our children.”

Later this year, Father Nuzzi will lead a new ACE initiative assisting Catholic schools as they assess and renew their Catholic identity in the spirit of the New Evangelization. ACE will seek a new director for the Remick Leadership Program, in which Father Nuzzi will continue as a faculty member.

As Father Nuzzi commented in a video posted April 2 by the NCEA, his perspectives on Catholic education have been shaped by his own service in parish and diocesan schools and at Notre Dame, as well as scholarly work at Saint Louis University and the University of Dayton.

He cited the inspiration he draws from the Catholic school teachers and leaders being formed in ACE—their “great commitment to the faith, a serious commitment to Catholic education, a quest and hunger for social justice.” Their energy, he said, gives him “great hope for the future.”

Father Nuzzi, a priest of the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, has a distinguished academic background. He has authored or edited a number of books, including two published in recent months: Striving for Balance, Steadfast in Faith: The Notre Dame Study of U.S. Catholic Elementary School Principals and Building Assets: The Strategic Use of Closed Catholic Schools. Both were co-authored by ACE faculty members Dr. Jim Frabutt and Dr. Anthony Holter. The same team produced No Greater Work: Meditations on Church Documents for Educators in 2010 and Faith, Finances, and the Future: The Notre Dame Study of U.S. Pastors in 2008.

Books including the two-volume encyclopedia Catholic Schools in the United States and Handbook of Research on Catholic Education were edited by Father Nuzzi along with Thomas C. Hunt and Eillis A. Joseph.

The number of four-year-olds in early-childhood education programs in the United States has skyrocketed from about 127,000 in the 1960s to 2.7 million today, says Dr. Jim Frabutt, a member of the faculty in ACE’s Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program. Catholic schools are sharing in that trend and in the emerging opportunities, he adds.

Frabutt, who discussed his research on the topic in a presentation last week to the National Catholic Educational Association’s annual convention, says pre-kindergarten programs are “a real growth area in Catholic education.” He spoke on the Son Rise Morning Show, giving a national Catholic radio network audience a glimpse at the NCEA presentation he gave with Rachel Waldron, a graduate of the Remick Leadership Program.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for family evangelization,” Frabutt told Morning Show anchor Brian Patrick on Friday, April 5. He said research on Catholic preschool programs in 15 arch/dioceses, including interviews with diocesan superintendents, uncovered not only growth in the programs, but nearly unanimous hope that this would help Catholic schools reach out to parents of these young children in the spirit of the New Evangelization.

At the same time, the opportunity to connect these children and their parents to Catholic schools and the Church spotlights the need to further “professionalize” the teaching and operation of the pre-K programs, Frabutt added. As with all Catholic schooling, the programs must serve the development of the whole child, including cognitive, emotional, social, and moral growth.

Regarding pre-school education, he said, “we need to invest in the people who are delivering it and the skill with which we’re doing so.”

Frabutt is the author of a new book—Beyond Academics: Supporting the Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Health of Students in Catholic Schools—on Catholic schools’ attention to development of the whole child.       

The NCEA presentation by Frabutt and Waldron was titled “Educating the Youngest Hearts and Minds: The Landscape of Catholic Preschool Education.”

Rev. Ronald Nuzzi, Ph.D., senior director of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program at Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE), will lead a new ACE initiative focusing on Catholic schools and the New Evangelization beginning in August, 2013. This Catholic School Identity Renewal Initiative will help Catholic elementary and secondary schools across the country to deepen their Catholic identity and to strengthen their faculty faith formation efforts.

Father Nuzzi's leadership of this initiative requires his departure from the directorship of the Remick Leadership Program, although he will continue to teach in the program. ACE will undertake a search for a new director of the program, which has become the largest of its kind, preparing tomorrow's knowledgeable, faith-filled leaders for Catholic schools.

The new initiative to take shape under Father Nuzzi's guidance will respond to Church leaders' growing focus on the vital role of Catholic schools in the New Evangelization. This effort to help schools make their identity more vibrant is a natural outgrowth of ACE's nearly 20 years of service to sustain, strengthen, and transform Catholic schools. More details will be forthcoming about ACE's work in this area.

Father Nuzzi, a priest of the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, came to ACE in 2002 as the founding director of the principal formation initiative that later would be named the Remick Leadership Program. This graduate-level leadership preparation initiative has recently recruited its 12th class and has already prepared more than 200 master's-degree graduates to lead Catholic schools nationwide.