Summer Learning Case Study: Expanding Opportunity Through Partnership

How Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California, is Strengthening Academics, Enrollment, and Student Success Through Strategic Summer and Online Partnerships

Learn how Alice Cotti, Principal of Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California, is reimagining summer learning through a partnership with Catholic Education Services to better serve students. From academic remediation and enrichment to college readiness and enrollment growth, Notre Dame’s approach shows how flexible learning models can support student needs while strengthening school-family partnerships and maintaining academic rigor.

How is Notre Dame High School using summer learning to strengthen academics and enrollment?

Notre Dame High School in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has transformed its summer school program from a small offering into a robust academic extension of the school year. What once served a limited number of students now supports hundreds annually, blending remediation, acceleration, and enrichment. This expansion has also contributed to strong summer enrollment demand by giving families more academic pathways and flexibility.

Under the leadership of Principal Alice Cotti, summer learning is no longer an add-on. It is a strategic tool. Students can remediate core courses, accelerate into honors-level coursework like Geometry and Precalculus, or explore enrichment options that connect learning to future college and career interests that may be specialized and beyond the ability of the school to offer as a brick-and-mortar option.

The Strategic Impact of Summer Learning: A Case Study with Notre Dame High School Webinar

Want to hear more about the Notre Dame summer model? Rob Birdsell, President of Catholic Virtual, sat down with Alice Cotti for a conversation about ways that Notre Dame high school has expanded opportunities for learning in the summer and during the school year with a strategic partnership with Catholic Education Services. Learn more about the school’s approach and successes in this on-demand webinar.

What types of summer courses are being offered?

Notre Dame’s creative summer program is intentionally designed to meet a wide range of student needs, from credit recovery to academic advancement. Courses include both required academic subjects and unique enrichment opportunities not typically available during the school year.

Students may take:

• Core academic remediation courses
• Honors-level acceleration courses
• Enrichment courses
• Specialized electives tied to emerging fields and college majors

This mix helps students either get back on track academically or move ahead, depending on their goals.

How does remediation work without lowering academic expectations?

A key challenge for Catholic high schools is supporting students who need to recover credit without reducing rigor or credibility. At Notre Dame, remediation is structured as a full, accredited course experience rather than a shortened credit-recovery model.

In many cases, students may be remediating a D or F in a core subject. Colleges increasingly expect students to address these grades, especially when they are part of a full semester course. Notre Dame ensures students complete a complete course aligned with academic standards, maintaining college readiness and transcript integrity.

To support this, the school has partnered with Catholic Education Services, which allows students to enroll in fully developed online courses with certified instruction and structured pacing.

How does the partnership support schools?

The partnership with Catholic Education Services has become a “game changer” for Notre Dame’s ability to scale summer learning while maintaining faculty capacity and academic quality.

Catholic Education Services provides:

• Full online course infrastructure
• Certified teacher oversight and grading support
• Curriculum navigation tools for school coordinators
• Automated progress tracking and communication alerts
• Academic integrity monitoring, including AI-related safeguards

One of the most significant benefits is operational relief. Rather than teachers managing every aspect of remediation tracking and grading, Catholic Education Services handles much of the instructional and administrative workload. School staff retain oversight while gaining capacity.

Importantly, students remain Notre Dame students even while taking Catholic Education Services courses, preserving school identity and continuity.

How flexible is the student experience?

Flexibility is central to the model. Students can complete coursework:

• On campus
• At home asynchronously
• While traveling or managing other commitments

This approach supports a wide range of student realities, including athletes, students recovering from illness or hospitalization, and families navigating complex schedules.

For schools, this flexibility is especially valuable when managing student transitions or unique needs. It allows students to stay on track academically without requiring schools to solve every logistical barrier internally.

What role does enrichment play in the summer program?

Beyond remediation and acceleration, Notre Dame can now also offer enrichment courses that help students explore future pathways.

These courses include topics such as:

• Medical careers
• Education and teaching pathways
• Cybersecurity
• Sociology and other humanities fields
• Advanced or specialized electives not typically offered in high school

These offerings are particularly valuable for sophomores and juniors who are beginning to consider college majors or career directions. They also support schools that cannot offer every AP®, world language, or specialty courses during the academic year.

Enrichment has become a way to expand opportunity without expanding staffing complexity.

Summer Learning Goal Setter and Tracker Worksheet

Help students set, track, achieve, and celebrate summer learning goals with this summer learning worksheet for families.

How are academic integrity and AI concerns being addressed?

Like many schools, Notre Dame is actively navigating the challenges of AI and academic integrity. The Catholic Education Services partnership includes built-in monitoring tools and educator oversight that help identify potential issues with student work.

Rather than relying solely on disciplinary responses, Catholic Education Services uses a pastoral approach that compliments the school’s policy—flagging concerns, documenting patterns, and notifying school leaders so they can respond within their own policies.

This alignment allows Notre Dame to maintain its own expectations while benefiting from external systems that support consistency and transparency.

What does this model mean for teachers and school leaders?

One of the most significant impacts of this approach has been the reduction of administrative and instructional burden on teachers. Instead of managing summer coursework logistics, grading overload, and constant communication loops, teachers can focus on core instructional priorities during the academic year.

Catholic Education Services effectively handles:

• Course setup and catalog organization
• Student onboarding and orientation
• Grading workflows and progress tracking
• Communication alerts to families and coordinators

This structure helps prevent burnout and supports stronger faculty morale.

How does this approach impact families and school communication?

Families benefit from clear structure and visibility. Rather than waiting until the end of a term to understand student performance, they receive ongoing progress updates, reducing surprises and strengthening trust between schools and families. It also reframes online learning—moving away from pandemic-era perceptions and toward a modern understanding of flexible, rigorous academic options.

Parents increasingly view these offerings not as a compromise, but as an expansion of opportunity.

What challenges is this model helping schools solve?

Catholic school leaders often face constraints that limit course offerings, including staffing shortages, small enrollment in specialized subjects, and the inability to run every AP® or elective course.

This model helps address those challenges by enabling schools to:

• Offer courses they otherwise could not staff
• Provide remediation without overloading faculty
• Expand AP®, world language, and elective offerings
• Support students with scheduling or mobility needs
• Maintain college-prep rigor while increasing access

For many schools, it represents a practical solution to persistent structural limitations.

Why is this approach gaining momentum in Catholic education?

Schools like Notre Dame are finding that flexibility, when paired with academic rigor and strong oversight, can also strengthen Catholic identity and educational quality.

This approach allows schools to say “yes” more often: yes to acceleration, yes to enrichment, yes to remediation, and yes to students whose needs fall outside traditional scheduling constraints.

It also aligns with the reality of higher education, where online and hybrid learning are increasingly normal and expected.

A Scalable Path Forward for Catholic schools

Notre Dame High School’s summer learning model and partnership with Catholic Education Services illustrates how Catholic schools can expand opportunity without sacrificing rigor, identity, or community connection.

By combining strong school leadership, thoughtful partnerships, and flexible learning design, schools can better serve students academically while easing operational pressure on staff. As enrollment demands grow and student needs diversify, this kind of adaptable model offers a sustainable path forward that supports both mission and momentum.

How can I learn more?

There is room for every school to grow in some sense, some way. Grow enrollment by becoming a more robust school: offer more courses, more options, high quality teachers, and exceptional curriculum. Connect with Catholic Education Services to learn more about the possibilities of partnership for your Catholic school. In the words of Alice Cotti, “It’s worth a conversation!”