ACE Charter Schools
Grow. Everyone. Every Day
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
By middle school, many low-income students of color in San Jose's poorest neighborhoods have been tracked into a cycle of failure, having fallen well below grade level and lacking the support they need to overcome their disconnect from school.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Special Education
ACE serves 19% students with Special Needs, compared to 10-12% at neighborhood schools. Special Education students are integrated with the rest of the student population and are given challenging work, which many of them have not experienced before. These students deserve the same treatment as others, and deserve success in life just as much as others do.
Parent/Community Engagement
To rebuild trust and cure neglect, a deeply interconnected community is built through genuine, respectful, caring and supportive relationships. It starts with thoughtful recruitment, leads to students realizing their academic worth, and ultimately to college and life success.
Personalized Learning
ACE’s program includes individual student interventions, and highly personalized computer‐based programs. We leverage technology to individualize learning so that students may receive remediation or acceleration based on their specific learning needs.
College Access/Alumni Services
The alumni services program ensures ACE high school graduates get through college with the proper support and mentoring needed.
Where we work
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Percentage of graduates who enroll in a 2 year or 4 year university.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
College Access/Alumni Services
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Percentage of graduates who have completed all A-G requirements.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
College Access/Alumni Services
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Alumni with post-secondary attainment (Bachelors, Associates, or Career Technical Certificate) within 6 years of graduating.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
College Access/Alumni Services
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
We envision a society where every student that is uncertain of their future or has fallen far behind, realizes their extraordinary potential for college and life success. ACE focuses its efforts on struggling and disengaged students and their families to show them that college is possible. Further, we strive to work towards building a charter school system that truly serves all students including specifically students who are underserved in today's system.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
1) We encourage a growth mindset in all our students. Students who demonstrate a growth mindset are more willing to embrace taking risks, to learn from initial failure, and as a result, place themselves on a path to continuous improvement, which is the essence of optimism. The link between growth mindset and optimism is a vital part of our approach.
2) ACE utilizes a robust Student Engagement System to create an optimistic and celebratory environment for students. This begins with 100% engaging and well-managed classrooms, along with opportunities for students to engage in self-reflection and goal setting. Students experience individual positive incentives, celebrations of incremental improvement, and opportunities to explore their own interests and identity.
3) We build college-ready confidence. Given the gaps with which students enter, making rapid academic growth is paramount. Every class is fast-paced and urgent, communicating how important learning is. Ambitious, reachable goals allow students to be aspirational about making progress to attain college-readiness while also experiencing success, which breeds confidence.
4) We strive to build strong systems that will support our organization's impact by building and maintaining effective systems of communication, data usage, and professional training. We use data and communication systems to ensure our resources are targeted in high-leverage ways to improve student outcomes, and we emphasize professional development to ensure our staff are equipped to meet the needs of our students.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
ACE has 3 middle schools and 1 high school fully staffed to support the over 1,000 students who have elected to attend our schools. We annually address each school's staffing model to ensure our staff-to-student ratio stays low and allows us to deliver effective interventions to our struggling students.
We serve families who may be initially resistant and suspicious, whose experience with schools may have been very negative and who have, as a result, naturally come to see schools as a place of tension and failure. It is precisely these families that ACE hopes to attract. The only way to truly start changing this mindset is to break down the barrier of skepticism. Building trust involves constructing authentic relationships. This is crucial to our mission, and it takes time. ACE has cultivated this trust over our 15 years working within East San Jose.
We have built the institutional knowledge to provide a life-changing education for each of our students, and our Director of Teaching and Learning works to ensure our work in the classroom is data-driven, culturally relevant, and in-line with current research on best practices.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
ACE’s performance regarding student college readiness continues to underscore the success of our academic programs: in 21/22 84% of ACE HS Graduates met the UC/CSU requirements compared to just 51% of high school graduates statewide.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
-
How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
-
Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback
-
What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
Financials
Unlock nonprofit financial insights that will help you make more informed decisions. Try our monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights?
Learn more
about GuideStar Pro.
Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
ACE Charter Schools
Board of directorsas of 05/22/2023
Eric Gonzales
Montage Capital
Anil Kumar
Mindspan LLC
Dr. Linda Murray
XQ Institute
Eric Gonzales
Montage Capital
Annette Lorenz
Kevin Kaefer
Petrinovich Pugh and Co., LLP
Tania Wilcox
Thedream.us
Larry Kuechler
Armanino LLP
Roger Milton
Ramco Trading
Jill Case
SJUSD
Irene Moran Iboa
PG&E
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
-
Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Not applicable -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 05/08/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.