Ascension Catholic Academy is a consortium of four Catholic schools (currently St. Peter Claver, St. John Paul II, Ascension, and St. Pascal Regional) that center racial equity and unleash scholar potential in the Minneapolis and St. Paul metropolitan area.  
 
GHR partnered with the Academy to help two schools (Ascension and St. Peter Claver) meet state requirements to open childcare centers on their campuses. Beginning in September 2022, this funding expands ACA’s Early Childhood Learning Center (ECLC) initiative to all four schools in the Academy, ensuring that regular classrooms being converted over to ECLC spaces are up to code, equipped with the necessary furniture and learning materials, and are spaces families and scholars can be proud of and excited to learn in. 
 
Expanding the initiative provides families in the most underserved communities access to early childhood learning solutions. Close to 75% of kindergartners at ACA schools enter the classroom with no pre-k experience. Ensuring scholars are kindergarten ready is crucial to their holistic, long-term success. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on childcare programs, with many being forced to close permanently. The lack of affordable, high-quality ECLC programs has forced many parents and guardians to forgo returning to the workforce, risking their financial security. Opening two new childcare centers at these schools will offer families in the community much needed relief.  

Early childhood learning is an essential component of closing the education opportunity gap, a key aspect of GHR’s Local Domain strategy. Through this partnership, we anticipate improved academic outcomes for the ECLC scholars entering kindergarten, as well as stronger retention of families and scholars moving from pre-K to K-8 classrooms.  
 
GHR works to design new and replicable models for high-quality Catholic education. Learn more about this work here.

From FHI360: 

"As schools across the U.S. struggle to recover learning loss due to COVID-19, one school we work with is using a data-driven approach that is helping students make up lost ground.

For the past seven years, we have partnered with GHR Foundation to help a network of high-needs K-8 Catholic schools in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area strengthen their capacity to track, store, and use math and reading assessment data to inform instruction and assess gaps. These schools face many of the same pandemic-related learning challenges as public schools have.

Recently, we have focused on analyzing annual assessment data to help measure COVID-19 learning loss. We maintain online data dashboards and provide annual reports for each school to summarize data on overall student proficiency and growth. We look for signs of learning recovery across student groups by disaggregating data by subject/content area, grade level, gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, and by examining trends before and after the pandemic started.

We found that math proficiency at the network schools overall continued to decline since the pandemic began. However, at one school, St. Pascal Regional Catholic School, students demonstrated a remarkable recovery in math. While math scores at the school fell 12 percentage points between fall 2019 and fall 2020 – in line with the trends in math scores at other network schools – scores rose 15 percentage points in fall 2021, returning to pre-pandemic levels.

St. Pascal Regional’s principal, Inna Collier Paske, cites the school’s implementation of individualized learning plans (ILPs) for the improvement. Having started implementing ILPs the year prior to the pandemic, St Pascal Regional is unique amongst their peers in both implementation and intensity of their ILPs. For the past four years they have continually reviewed and revised their approach to reflect their needs and priorities, expanded ILPs to include additional subjects, and incorporated social emotional learning goals alongside academic ones. At strategic points throughout each year ILPs provide a snapshot of each student’s gaps and strengths that teachers can use to plan instruction and support that will help their students thrive.

We visited the school in 2023 to learn more about its approach. We conducted nine interviews with school administrators (2), teachers (4), and caregivers (3); observed the kindergarten, second, and fourth grade classrooms during math and literacy instruction; and participated in a guided tour of the school. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, and we reviewed transcripts and observational notes to identify generalizable themes from our visit. Collier Paske and GHR reviewed these themes for validation."

Read the full case study here. 

Implemented in schools serving predominantly under-resourced neighborhoods and families, City Connects helps teachers and schools provide integrated supports to address the in- and out-of-school needs of students and foster their strengths. Providing holistic support to students facing external obstacles to learning is a core aspect of GHR's Education strategy in Twin Cities Catholic schools and animates the Foundation’s long-term partnership with the program. A recent piece from the Boston Globe recognizes City Connects' inspiring founder: 

From the Boston Globe: 

"Her own humble beginnings, and the help she received along the way, drive Mary Walsh’s passion for giving every child a shot at a good education and a good life.

Operating out of the Mary E. Walsh Center for Thriving Children at BC, City Connects is now helping 50,000 kids in Massachusetts, eight other states, and Ireland, the country Mary Walsh’s parents left for a better life.

For all she’s done for poor children, Mary Walsh deserved a medal. On Monday, at BC’s commencement, she got one.

BC President William Leahy handed her the Bellarmine Award, named for an Italian cardinal who was a leading intellectual figure in the Counter-Reformation. St. Bellarmine was canonized in 1930.

Appropriate, because what Mary Walsh has done to help poor kids is the work of a saint.

She never forgot where she came from, or that everybody needs a little help sometimes."

Read more.

GHR partner, Twin Cities-based St. Jerome Catholic School, provides Pre-K to 8 education to over 200 students, preparing them for the academic, social, and spiritual opportunities and challenges they may face in today's world. With talented, supportive teachers and staff, and a keen eye for data and intentional planning, the school strives for consistent academic growth. In the past five years, the school has welcomed a large community of multi-lingual learners who are part of a Karen refugee community. Word has spread that the school is a safe, nurturing and excellent school home for many recent immigrants from Myanmar and Burma, where children will find their social and emotional needs met. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to virtual instruction, many students at St. Jerome missed significant amounts of instruction time. This has led to observable learning loss, particularly among the many emergent bilingual students still developing their expertise in academic English. In addressing the same, St. Jerome’s principal has identified middle school students as the target population to participate in a new educational model of direct instruction, small group interventions and homework assistance for the next three years in their learning journey. 

With support from GHR for this new model, the school is providing targeted instruction for core subjects, hired an additional English teacher, and hired an intervention specialist who will work directly with students and teachers to monitor student progress and implement changes. “With the small class sizes and a significant amount of 1:1 instruction that has been able to occur, we have seen students go from below to above grade level in their language usage scores. Also, students who are already highly achieving are getting above grade level instruction allowing them to stretch," said Teacher Emma McGlone.

Students are already showing signs of benefiting academically from these interventions – an uplifting sign for the future of this project. A middle school student shared, “We can work at our own pace and we get attention according to what we need, because the teachers know us really well.” 

GHR works to design new and replicable models for high-quality Catholic education. Learn more about this work here. 

From The Star Tribune: 

"For 73 years, St. Pascal school has operated in St. Paul — now the last remaining Catholic grade school on the East Side, where many used to send their graduates off to high school in crowded yellow buses or in cars with tape decks blasting.

Still, its enrollment has fallen, and there have been worries about St. Pascal's future.

But as of this month, the school has new life — thanks to a consortium of schools tailored to urban families in need. St. Pascal is joining Ascension Catholic Academy, a Minneapolis-based group that has provided centralized leadership and other supports to three other Twin Cities Catholic schools since 2016."

Read more. 

From Pioneer Press: 

"Early in the morning in November 2019, Inna Collier Paske, principal of St. Pascal Regional School, had a vision. “God talked to me at that time. He asked me why I work at St. Pascal, and I said it’s because I want to share my faith,” she said.

Her school’s enrollment was dropping fast, and so was financial support from parishioners.

School officials came up with four pillars for the East Side school to live by: “Believe, Learn, Love and Connect.” Students posted strong test scores, even during the coronavirus pandemic.

And earlier this month, the school was welcomed into a consortium that should secure St. Pascal’s future at a time when many Catholic schools have been forced to close.

The consortium, Ascension Catholic Academy, was created in 2016 with major support from the GHR Foundation, founded by commercial real estate developer Gerald Rauenhorst and his wife, Henrietta. The pair, in life and in death, have applied much of their philanthropy to supporting Catholic education.

The foundation, now run by their daughter, Amy Goldman, sought in 2015 to establish a new model for funding Catholic schools."

Read more. 

GHR Foundation’s Catholic Schools Initiative works to close the achievement gap, in part, by incubating new education models. Blended learning, which focuses on several elements including professional development and strengthening leadership capacity, is an approach GHR is currently funding at three Twin Cities Catholic schools. Jane Bona, principal of Immaculate Conception—one of these three schools—was recently honored with an award from National Catholic Education Association (NCEA), recognizing her excellence as a principal. Members of the GHR board visited Jane and Immaculate Conception during a program and results committee meeting in Sept. 2014. 

At the annual NCEA convention in March, Jane will receive the Lead. Learn. Proclaim. award, recognizing excellence and distinguished service in Catholic school education. As new models are adopted, effective school leaders are increasingly necessary. Blended learning requires spaces which encourage dialogue and reflection facilitated by competent leadership. With professional development and culture as two important aspects of the blended learning program, this NCEA recognition is an important indicator of success at Immaculate Conception. 

Immaculate Conception is an excellent example of how GHR is funding blended learning and other innovative approaches in hopes of strengthening urban Catholic schools by fostering healthy school cultures and cultivating strong, caring leaders. To learn more about GHR's Catholic school funding, contact us.

​GHR Foundation's Catholic Schools funding works to ensure the Twin Cities’ urban Catholic schools are faith-filled, academically excellent educational communities that prepare children to be college-ready, productive citizens. One of the key strategies we use to support Catholic schools is testing and incubating new models which will lead to viable and academically excellent schools. Finding new approaches to instruction, student support and governance requires partnership with like-minded, forward-thinking organizations.
 
GHR staff and board members recently attended a convening of the Philanthropy Roundtable Catholic schools working group.  Over two days in Agoura Hills, Calif., more than 20 Catholic school funders met to discuss how working collaboratively on a national scale impacts work on a local level. Members of the GHR team met with key thought leaders from the National Catholic Education Association and United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to advocate and discuss partnership.
 
The group split divided into small conversations, tackling issues including the expansion of school network and governance models, accessing performance data and developing talent and leadership.  The GHR team also had the opportunity to visit the headquarters of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and learn about their new strategies for supporting parental choice efforts.
 
These opportunities for collaboration, partnership and learning are key for the incubation and development of new models. If you are interested in learning more about new approaches to instruction, student support and governance, contact us.

​GHR Foundation's Catholic Schools Initiative works to explore best practices and incubate new models that drive school excellence. Recently, GHR staff traveled to Philadelphia and Camden, N.J. with several Twin Cities education partners to learn more about innovative governance approaches and discuss ongoing collaboration.

The trip was organized by GHR and the Healy Education Foundation, and included representatives from the Schulze Family Foundation, Office of Mission for Catholic Education, the Catholic Schools Center of Excellence, MN Comeback and Our Lady of the Lake Catholic School. Participants discussed approaches to governance, finances and fundraising.

Key takeaways included:

• Schools that serve a large number of low-income students benefit most from centralized or regionalized governance
• Governance is key to building community engagement and fundraising, leading toward more stable schools
• State funding remains crucial to bringing models to scale, and there are new approaches to access these resources

​These insights will be valuable as we continue to fund innovative new Catholic school models in the Twin Cities. To learn more about our work to ensure urban Catholic schools in the Twin Cities are faith-filled and academically excellent, contact us.

GHR’s Catholic Schools Initiative works to ensure urban Catholic schools in the Twin Cities are faith-filled, academically excellent educational communities that prepare children to be college-ready, productive citizens.

A recent article in The Catholic Spirit profiles GHR grantee City Connects, which works to connect students with resources to meet their out-of-school needs. The Catholic Spirit pieces examines the successful formula of City Connects and outlines its plan for implementation in a new geographic area.

This fall, GHR is funding the launch of City Connects in seven urban Twin Cities Catholic schools. This innovative program surrounds learners with the services they need to significantly improve student achievement, from tutoring to housing support.

 “We have great teachers and great learning environments, and we have so many resources in the Twin Cities,” said program manager Laurie Acker. “This is going to allow teachers to teach while the site coordinators find resources to help students and families.”

To learn more about partnering with GHR to promote faith-filled, academically excellent Catholic schools, contact us.