Game-Changing Catholic School Culture

From their beginning, Catholic schools operated under a definitive "school culture".  Properly understood and effectively implemented, a strong, positive, authentic Catholic school culture forms in children not only knowledge, but also a world view that defines their understanding of their purpose in life: that they were made by a God who loves and knows them, and who we are all called to serve by serving each other.

The Notre Dame ACE Academies are driven by the belief that this a shared, intentional culture is the key to truly exceptional education -- it changes the conditions so that students not only learn, but excel and break out of the pattern dictated by statistics and inadequate schools.  

School leaders, teachers, and NDAA staff collaborate to articulate the schools' beliefs and values, so that every adult in the school community understands and communicates the same, consistent messages to the children they serve.  Through reinforcement from teachers, daily routines and practices, rituals, and even rules and classroom decorations, those values and beliefs are clearly, consistently, and effectively communicated by the school environment itself.

NDAA's emphasis on school culture flows from the deeply Catholic belief that our actions and our choices define us more than circumstances do.  Students at NDAA schools learn the importance of values rooted in the Gospel, in comprehensible and age-appropriate ways, from the earliest grades.

The defining elements of the NDAA school culture model are described below.  Each of these shapes the others, and collectively, they form the distinctive, game-changing Catholic school culture that not only allows learning to happen, but causes greater academic achievement and teaches students their own worth and purpose.
 

 Animating Principal

This belief runs in, through, and around everything that happens in the school.

Shared purpose

The objective of all the efforts of NDAA schools' teachers and staff

Core values

The values the school community collectively strives for.  These are stated as verbs so that students and teachers alike conceive of them as concrete things that are done on a daily basis, rather than abstract ideals.

Root Beliefs

The beliefs about the world, our relationship with God, and how children learn that form core values and guide daily school operations.  Each school defines their own root beliefs.  The examples below are from the pilot schools of NDAA Tucson and the NDAA staff.

Every student will learn.

Preach the Gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.

The small things matter

 I am always learning.