A PROPOSAL TO THE WILLIAM E. SIMON FOUNDATION
The Alliance for Catholic Education’s
Program for Educational Access
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Request The University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) requests a three-year grant of $1,220,000 from the William E. Simon Foundation to support the work of the Program for Educational Access, an advocacy, leadership formation, and policy implementation enterprise that helps design, enact, and implement publicly funded private school choice programs to expand educational opportunities for marginalized children.
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OVERVIEW
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Formed in 2010, the Program for Educational Access (PEA) represents an innovative partnership between the University of Notre Dame’s ACE Program, policy makers, and Catholic Church leaders. Animated by the belief that parents are the first and best educators of their children, by the conviction that parental choice policies can empower families and inject needed competition into a failing educational monopoly, and by the belief that urban Catholic schools—which are all too quickly disappearing from the American educational landscape—represent a critical component of educational reform efforts, the PEA supports policies that make high-performing faith-based schools financially accessible to families on the margins of society. The PEA is a policy unit housed within Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE). ACE is a comprehensive teaching, research, and outreach program that revitalizes K–12 Catholic education through the recruitment and formation of premier talent and with an array of initiatives specifically designed to help transform the Catholic school sector. In 1993, Rev. Timothy R. Scully, CSC, and Rev. Sean McGraw, CSC, founded ACE in response to the welldocumented shortage of qualified teachers in Catholic schools in the southeastern United States. ACE evolved into a two-year teacher formation program culminating in an M.Ed. that trains highly talented graduates of elite national universities, such as Princeton, Harvard, Vanderbilt, Stanford, and Notre Dame, to serve such schools. Over time, this effort (now called ACE Teaching
Fellows) grew to support more than 190 ACE teachers in more than 100 elementary and secondary schools annually. Since its inception, ACE has formed nearly 2,000 teachers, more than 70 percent of whom remain in education today. ACE Teaching Fellows proved to be a first step toward a more transformation-oriented engagement in K–12 education. In 1998, ACE began replicating its model of teacher formation, establishing the University Consortium for Catholic Education (UCCE), which now comprises 15 universities and produces more than 500 teachers annually. In 2002, ACE established the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program (RLP), a leadership formation program compelled by a vision of school transformation driven by strong Catholic school culture, thoughtful executive management, and a
relentless focus on improving student achievement. RLP has become the largest leadership program of its kind, with 340 Remick Leaders serving in 39 states and 97 (arch)dioceses worldwide. By 2004, ACE had become the largest provider of talent in the Catholic school sector. Two years later, ACE convened the Notre Dame Task Force on K–12 Catholic Education, which resulted in a monograph titled Making God Known, Loved, and Served. This publication was the result of a historic collaboration between philanthropists, policy makers, and Church leaders to develop a strategic plan to revitalize K–12 Catholic education. This task force resulted in the development of an array of new programs in service to Catholic schools and schoolchildren. ACE’s programming portfolio is organized in three domains: forming leaders, expanding access, and enhancing school vitality. Through its leadership formation programs—such as the ACE Teaching Fellows and the Remick Leadership Program—ACE recruits and develops transformation-oriented teachers and leaders for Catholic schools and school systems. Through its access efforts—such as the Program for Educational Access—ACE helps develop and implement instruments of public policy to expand access to high-performing faith-based schools. Through its school vitality initiatives—such as the Notre Dame ACE Academies (NDAA) network—ACE expands the landscape of highquality Catholic schools dedicated to serving at-risk families. 5
RE-IMAGINING EDUCATIONAL CHOICE The PEA represents a critical component of Notre Dame’s efforts to narrow the achievement gap in the United States by ensuring that disadvantaged children have access to Catholic schools— schools that have lifted generations of young people out of poverty and formed them into productive citizens. As has been true for every element of ACE’s programming portfolio, we continue to develop the PEA at the invitation of (and in close collaboration with) Church, civic, and philanthropic leaders who recognize the unprecedented magnitude of both the crisis and the opportunity that now confront American schoolchildren. 6
For far too long, education policy in the United States focused exclusively on futile attempts to reform the monopolistic American public education system from within, rather than harness the creative energies of the Church, the market, and education entrepreneurs to ensure that all young people have access to the highquality schools that they deserve. Although inflationadjusted spending on K–12 education has increased by more than 100 percent in the past generation alone, most children today are less likely to have access to a quality school than their parents did. In denying these children the ability to attend any schools other than failing schools operated by the government, we have withheld the very educational opportunity that they need to fulfill their God-given potential and live productive, meaningful lives. In the face of such challenges, however, signs of hope abound. The states that have pushed most thoughtfully to expand educational choice have seen quite promising results. In particular, private school choice policy continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. Over the
past five years, twelve new states have enacted a choice policy, and student enrollment has grown by more than 100 percent. With more than 400,000 children currently enrolled in forty-three choice programs (and more than $1billion in annual state and federal funding supporting school choice), choice policy has moved from the fringes of education reform firmly into the mainstream. The PEA plays a unique and integral role in the modern reform movement. Leveraging Notre Dame’s singular capacity to work with the leadership of the Church and Catholic schools, our mission is to expand and implement public policy that helps make highperforming faith-based schools financially accessible to families on the margins. Whereas the act of “taking a position” on an issue as politically divisive as educational choice would be anathema almost anywhere else in higher education, Notre Dame’s appreciation for parents as the primary educators makes the advocacy for, implementation of, and research on public policy that expands educational options a fundamental responsibility.
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WORK DOMAINS AND PROGRAMMING
The PEA’s work is organized in three domains—advocacy, leadership formation, and policy implementation. ADVOCACY
LEADERSHIP FORMATION
POLICY IMPLEMENTATION
Bishops’ Conversation Series
Reform Leaders’ Summit
Implementation Symposia
School Pastors’ Institute
Superintendents’ Institute
High-Performers’ Strategy Sessions NDAA Support
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ADVOCACY Our advocacy work is animated by a fundamental belief that Church leaders can and must help shape and implement transformation-oriented education policy. Our advocacy domain presently includes two separate initiatives – our Bishops’ Conversation Series and our School Pastors’ Institute.
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ADVOCACY
Bishops’ Conversation Series
The PEA leads a dialogue with Catholic (arch)bishops across the country to discuss the Church’s integral role in the enactment and implementation of welldesigned choice programs. Each year, the PEA hosts at least one informal gathering of a small group of (arch)bishops for such a strategy session on Catholic school revitalization. Invitees are typically identified because of their current geographic assignment (i.e., representing a state that currently has, or may soon have, a publicly-funded private school choice program). The objective of these conversations is to mobilize (arch) bishops to advocate for and help to implement such a publicly-funded private school choice program. Since its inception, the PEA has worked with 110 prominent (arch)bishops, including former USCCB president Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, DC, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, current USCCB president Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, and Archbishop Joseph Tobin of Indianapolis.
Over the course of the next three years, we will host at least three strategy sessions with prominent Catholic (arch)bishops to discuss advocacy strategies, best practices in bill design, and other areas in which Church leaders play a unique role in the passage and early success of a voucher, scholarship tax credit, or Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program. In the past, such strategy sessions have included twenty to thirty Church leaders. We typically identify candidates for a given “Bishops’ Conversation” based on the state of play for choice policy in his (arch)diocese. Our assessment of the state of play is typically developed six to eight months prior to a given strategy session, in consultation with partners from national and state advocacy groups. Although we have yet to finalize a roster for our next Bishops’ Conversation, we are considering inviting attendees from markets including New Jersey, Atlanta, New Orleans, Memphis, Chicago, and Houston.
Expected Outcomes Participating Church leaders will make use of the tools (advocacy strategies, bill design elements, etc.) that lead to measurable improvement in an ongoing local effort to expand choice. This may take the form of greater legislative success (clearing hurdles in committee, increasing legislative support, program enactment, program expansion, and/or increased enrollment in the Catholic school sector).
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ADVOCACY
School Pastors’ Institute
The PEA helps facilitate ACE’s School Pastors’ Institute (SPI), a leadership formation program designed to help pastors develop skills in areas integral to leading a high-performing Catholic school, including policy advocacy strategies, cultivating vibrant Catholic school culture, promoting teacher and principal accountability, and providing thoughtful executive management. By August 2016, the SPI will have trained more than 650 pastors from across the country, the majority of whom hailed from a locality currently offering a school choice program or close to enacting one. Over the course of the next three years, we will host at least three such institutes, with a particular focus on policy advocacy.
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Expected Outcomes Similar to our Bishops’ Conversation Series, participating pastors will make use of the tools (advocacy strategies, bill design elements, etc.) that lead to measurable improvement in an ongoing local effort to expand choice. This may take the form of greater legislative success (clearing hurdles in committee, increasing legislative support, program enactment, program expansion, and/or increased enrollment in the Catholic school sector).
LEADERSHIP FORMATION We believe that nothing is more important to the future of the K–12 education sector than the formation of the next generation of dedicated and imaginative leaders. To this end, we have developed two initiatives (which are described in detail on the following pages) to address the dearth of outstanding young policy leaders dedicated to expanding private school choice-our Reform Leaders’ Summit and our Superintendents’ Institute.
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LEADERSHIP FORMATION
Reform Leaders’ Summit
Launched in 2009 (originally named the Parental Choice Symposium), the Reform Leaders’ Summit is a selective formation program through which we work with emerging reform leaders in areas such as legislative advocacy, grassroots mobilization, policy design, and implementation. The Summit is a one-year fellowship (cohort size: thirty-five) during which candidates participate in three multi-day workshops (June 2017; January 2018; May 2018), each hosted in a different city (tentatively, Indianapolis, New Orleans, and Tampa). Since its inception, this effort has trained more than 150 aspiring reform leaders, the majority of whom now help lead policy-related efforts in the education sector, including state/national advocacy groups, philanthropy, university-based research programs, and schools/school systems in choice markets.
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Expected Outcomes The PEA will support and place Summit graduates in leadership roles in the reform movement, with a particular focus on advocacy and implementation organization in the private school choice sector. Our expectation is to help place at least 50 percent of Summit participants in such roles within twelve months of completing the program.
Former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush speaking to students at Notre Dame.
LEADERSHIP FORMATION
Superintendents’ Institute ACE is currently designing a cohort-based leadership institute, closely aligned with the PEA, to teach superintendents of Catholic schools how to become more active and effective advocates for (and implementers of ) school choice policy. We will include ten to twelve superintendents in each cohort, the membership of which will be determined through an application process.
Expected Outcomes We expect to help drive measurable growth in the (arch)dioceses represented in this Institute in several areas, including public support and direct advocacy for choice enactment/expansion and enrollment in any existing choice program(s).
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IMPLEMENTATION More than two decades of investment in the Catholic school sector and private school choice movement have convinced us that the continued expansion of choice policy will largely depend on our success with choice implementation. Our work in this area is largely focused on the development and expansion of “proof-point” schools and networks in markets that already have private school choice. Here we look to amplify the impact of high-performing models serving high-poverty children as a means of demonstrating the power of choice policy. Within this domain, our three core initiatives are our Implementation Symposia, High-Performers’ Strategy Sessions, and our Notre Dame ACE Academy (NDAA) Support.
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IMPLEMENTATION
Implementation Symposia The PEA leads symposia for Catholic school leaders, pastors, and board members in current choice areas on the regulatory requirements of the relevant program(s), as well as best practices in school marketing, enrollment management, instructional leadership, Catholic school culture, and governance. We will host at least one such symposium for school/network leaders in current private school choice markets each year.
Expected Outcomes We expect to help drive measurable growth in enrollment and student achievement in each of the schools/networks participating in these symposia.
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IMPLEMENTATION
High Performers’ Strategy Sessions
The PEA will host two annual strategy sessions—one for a small group of leaders of the highest performing faithbased schools/networks serving low-income children, and one “cross-sector” gathering of leaders from both the faith-based and charter sectors. Consistent with our “proof-point” strategy, this will serve to demonstrate the capacity of choice policy to drive measurable growth in the number of low-income children in high-performing schools. The goals of these gatherings are as follows: • Identify the necessary but insufficient features that have driven success for each participating school/ network • Explore possibilities to share best practice among other operators
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• Identify the outcome measures most important to the participating schools/networks and develop a plan to attend to any glaring “evidence gaps” on such measures • Develop a coherent and actionable twelve-month plan for talent formation in the faith-based sector Each of these gatherings will include no more than ten school operators. Potential invitees include representatives from HOPE Schools, St. Marcus Lutheran, the Partnership for Inner-City Education, Cristo Rey Jesuit, KIPP, Achievement First, and others.
Expected Outcomes We expect broader collaboration among the attendees of these two gatherings— particularly in areas such as instructional coaching, talent recruitment, and policy advocacy. Depending on the attendees, we may try to use this forum to develop an ongoing task force to act on opportunities for ACE and its partners to strengthen the faith-based sector.
IMPLEMENTATION
Notre Dame ACE Academy Support
The Notre Dame ACE Academies (NDAA) initiative represents the most comprehensive model of sponsorship and collaboration the University has ever deployed to support Catholic K–12 schools. Indeed, the Notre Dame ACE Academies are the first network of urban Catholic schools serving low-income children to experience extraordinary academic gains, a revitalized Catholic identity, and rapid and sustained enrollment growth, all while blazing a clear trail toward financial sustainability. The goal of this initiative—which now represents fourteen schools serving more than 4,000 students— is to catalyze comprehensive school improvement by implementing a unique model of urban Catholic schooling supported by public funds for private schools and the mobilization of the resources of the University and the local diocese. In the NDAA model, ACE partners with dioceses and parishes to support school leadership and vision, serving as collaborators in
school operations in much the same way that religious communities did in the past. Through these universityschool partnerships, NDAA seeks to reflect the benefits of leadership by religious communities while adapting to contemporary conditions. Our Notre Dame ACE Academy schools are poised to become the preeminent model of sustainable, replicable, and scalable high-performing inner-city Catholic schools. Our pilot schools—two in Tucson—are steadily becoming stronger and show substantial promise as exemplars of transformational schools. Enrollments are significantly higher, student learning is on the rise, and our talented school leaders are creating a culture of accountability and high expectations. We are convinced that the continued expansion of models such as this can drive choice policy in other states—in particular New York and New Jersey, which suffer from a dearth of highperforming educational options for the urban poor.
Expected Outcomes Our goal is to have developed twenty ACE Academies by 2020, while continuing to demonstrate strong student achievement gains in reading and math.
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BUDGET
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FY 2016
FY 2017
FY 2018
Total
Senior Director, Teacher Formation and Education Policy
$25,000
$25,000
$35,000
Senior Policy Fellow
$25,000
$25,000
$35,000
Associate Director
$10,000
$25,000
$25,000
Associate Director
$10,000
$10,000
$10,000
Associate Director
$10,000
$10,000
$10,000
Executive Director, ACE
$10,000
$10,000
$10,000
Accountant / Administrative Support
$10,000
$10,000
$5,000
Personnel Total
$100,000
$115,000
$130,000
Bishops’ Conversation Series
$25,000
$25,000
$50,000
School Pastors’ Institute
$5,000
$5,000
$5,000
Reform Leaders’ Summit
$50,000
$50,000
$50,000
Superintendents’ Institute
$10,000
$10,000
$10,000
Implementation Symposia
$150,000
$150,000
$175,000
High Performers’ Strategy Sessions
$10,000
$10,000
$10,000
NDAA Support
$25,000
$25,000
$25,000
Programs Total
$275,000
$275,000
$325,000
$875,000
Total Projected Expenses
$375,000
$390,000
$455,000
$1,220,000
Personnel
$345,000
Programs
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Conclusion Ultimately, ACE represents Notre Dame’s effort to address the education crisis facing at-risk children whom Catholic schools educate so effectively. Perhaps the best way to appreciate the power of Catholic schools is to imagine the Church in the United States without them. What would it look like? Would our civil society be as robust and vital? How would it produce generous leaders? How would it serve immigrants? How would it provide avenues of educational opportunity to the poor, especially those in our cities? To those who wonder how we can afford to make the investment necessary to sustain, strengthen, and expand access to Catholic schools, we respond by turning the question on its head. How can we afford not to make this investment? Our future as a nation and a Church depends on it more than we may suspect.
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