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Notre Dame ACE Academies Bringing Hope in Catholic School Partnerships in Tucson

Written by William Schmitt on Wednesday, 29 August 2012.

Signs of Success as 3 Notre Dame ACE Academies enter third year with a mix of initiatives

Two inner-city Catholic schools in Tucson have welcomed back students with a particular sense of change and hope in the air, entering a third year of unusual innovations and investments that pay off for the children and the city.

The two elementary schools—St. John the Evangelist and Santa Cruz—were designated in 2010 as Notre Dame ACE Academies, representing an in-depth partnership with the University of Notre Dame and its Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).

That partnership has ushered in state-of-the-art reading and math programs, along with support services to help faculty members adopt the various innovations for the maximum benefit of each student. School culture has become more focused on Catholic identity, featuring a drive for personal excellence that proclaims "College and Heaven" as each child's primary goals. More families in the largely Hispanic and low-income neighborhoods have lined up to enroll their children, and scholarship availability for enrollments has jumped, thanks to Arizona's parental choice tax credit program and resultant contributions from both corporations and individuals.

"These schools were chosen for an in-depth partnership, in consultation with Bishop Kicanas of the Tucson Diocese, based on their extraordinary potential to educate more kids more effectively—to address the achievement gap among at-risk students and to produce in these neighborhoods future leaders for Tucson and for society," says Dr. Christian Dallavis, director of Notre Dame ACE Academies. "Two years into the partnership, we see strong signs that our team effort is working, based largely on investments by the schools and parishes and parents, plus the corporations, benefactors, Notre Dame faculty and staff, and the enthusiasm of the students themselves."

One sign of progress is reading achievement scores. The number of students in the Notre Dame ACE Academies scoring "proficient" or "advanced" on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills has increased by 13% in just two years. Those students whose needs are the greatest are making the most progress; during 2010-2011, students whose baseline reading scores were "basic" or "below basic" gained 14.3 months of learning in a 10-month school year.

This summer, 130 students attended a voluntary, two-week reading camp—one week called "Books and Beats" plus one called "Camp Read S'More"—which was made possible by a generous grant from the Target Foundation. The unique camp program helped to reduce the achievement gap by keeping students engaged in reading during the summer season when the momentum of learning is sometimes lost or reversed. More reading initiatives are in place for the regular school year as a part of "ACE Readers," a research-based childhood literacy program developed by Notre Dame faculty. Some 9,000 new books and classroom library resources are in the hands and backpacks of children in Notre Dame Academy classrooms this fall.

New scholarships to help low-income families afford tuition for their children "have reached a little more than a million dollars over the past two years," says Dallavis, "although it's still not nearly enough to meet the demand." St. John the Evangelist provides an example of what he means. Enrollment at St. John is up more than 50% since being designated a Notre Dame partner school, and this fall more than 200 children are enrolled at the school, with many more families seeking scholarship assistance. Notre Dame ACE Academies are requesting that more individuals and corporations direct their tax credit contributions to the schools in accord with Arizona laws. Those laws changed this year to double the amount that individuals and married couples can designate for school-choice scholarships from their state tax liability.

AT&T, New York Life, and Robert W. Baird & Co. are among the corporations that have made contributions to support the Notre Dame ACE Academies scholarships. For example, AT&T's $800,000 contribution created hundreds of scholarships for children to attend the two schools.

The University of Notre Dame's investment, through its Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE), brings to the Tucson schools' faculty members a variety of resources and expertise, drawing upon ACE programs that have prepared teachers for Catholic schools around the country for nearly two decades. Teachers from ACE have served in several Tucson elementary and secondary schools for more than ten years.

"As a Catholic university, Notre Dame has an interest in Catholic K-12 education that prepares faithful citizens," says Dallavis. "We need schools that prove demography is not destiny. Families who want an alternative to their local public school deserve a solid option so that more Tucson children will go on to college and will help build the future of their neighborhoods and this city."

It's a win-win situation, he says. The scholarships strengthen the quality of education children receive while also relieving overcrowding in public schools, saving money for the state and local district, and sustaining the ability for parents to choose the school that is best for their children. "Most families exercise parental choice by choosing to buy a house in a particular school district, or by sending their kids to private schools," says Dallavis, "but too many low-income families have never had the same opportunity to make that choice for their children—until now."

Dallavis discussed Notre Dame ACE Academies in an August 30 interview on the KVOI radio talk show, "Wake Up Tucson."

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