Catholic teacher service programs are university-based graduate service programs that place teachers in Catholic schools.
In the published models — Notre Dame's ACE and Loyola Marymount's PLACE Corps — you teach in a Catholic school, live in community and work toward a master's degree; ACE bundles a tuition-free M.Ed.
The University Consortium for Catholic Education (UCCE) lists 13 member programs, and in 2025-26 its programs placed 381 teachers in 310 Catholic schools across 50+ (arch)dioceses.
What are UCCE programs?
UCCE stands for the University Consortium for Catholic Education, which supports university-based graduate teaching service programs for PK-12 Catholic schools.
The scale is substantial: in 2025-26, UCCE programs placed 381 teachers in 310 Catholic schools across 50+ (arch)dioceses, serving nearly 22,000 students.
UCCE lists 13 member programs, each hosted by a university — the full list appears in the program section below.
Two members are documented in published detail and anchor this guide.
Notre Dame's ACE Teaching Fellows is a two-year graduate teaching fellowship in which participants serve in Catholic schools while earning a tuition-free M.Ed.
The second is Loyola Marymount's PLACE Corps, a two-year Catholic teacher service corps of its own.
PLACE members teach full-time in a Catholic school, earn a salary and live in intentional community.
Alongside the job, they complete a California Multiple or Single Subject credential and an M.A. in Transformative Education.
A service program is one door into Catholic school teaching — the one that bundles the classroom placement, community living and graduate study into a single multi-year commitment.
The other doors, including applying directly to schools and dioceses, are covered in the Catholic school teacher career guide.
Teaching, community and spirituality pillars
The documented model has three strands: the teaching placement and the community living, which both programs publish, and the formation ACE's own description names.
Teaching: the school placement is the program itself — ACE fellows teach in Catholic schools while earning the degree, and PLACE members teach full-time and earn a salary.
That differs from a purely academic graduate program: the classroom post is the commitment, not an arranged observation stint.
The graduate work runs alongside the job in both published models, not after them.
Community: ACE teachers receive a modest living allowance and live in affordable community housing arranged by the (arch)diocese.
PLACE describes its members as living in intentional community alongside the teaching and the graduate work.
The diocesan relationship runs through that pillar: ACE's community housing is arranged by the (arch)diocese, and the consortium's 2025-26 placements spanned 50+ (arch)dioceses.
Spirituality and formation: Notre Dame defines ACE as a graduate teaching fellowship and formation experience — formation sits in the program's own description of itself.
What formation concretely includes is program-level detail, and each program's own page is the source for it.
Both documented programs run two years; the pages reviewed for this guide do not publish lengths for the consortium's other member programs, so confirm a program's length with the program before you plan around one.
Free master's and stipends
Among the two documented programs, published funding terms split into two models: the free-degree model and the salary model.
ACE runs the free-degree model — fellows earn a tuition-free M.Ed. from the University of Notre Dame.
Tuition-free describes the degree's tuition as ACE publishes it; living costs are handled through the allowance and the housing arrangement.
ACE teachers receive a modest living allowance and live in affordable community housing arranged by the (arch)diocese.
ACE's own page adds that members may qualify for federal loan deferment — that is the program's published statement, and any federal loan benefit is confirmed with Federal Student Aid, not with the school.
PLACE runs the salary model: members earn a salary from their full-time teaching post while completing the credential and the master's.
The PLACE coursework adds up to 21 units for the multiple subject credential, 19 units for the single subject credential and 16 units for the M.A. in Transformative Education.
PLACE candidates must also reside in California during the credential program.
The pages reviewed for this guide publish funding terms for ACE and PLACE only; stipend, salary and tuition terms for the consortium's other member programs live on each program's own page.
One funding comparison from national service: the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award.
A full-time Segal award equals the maximum Pell Grant for the fiscal year in which the service term is approved, so its dollar value changes yearly and is fixed once earned.
For scale, Relay, an AmeriCorps network member, lists the 2026-27 Segal Education Award at $7,395.
Whether any UCCE program layers AmeriCorps status onto its service years is a program-level question, answered on the program's own page.
Funding terms are published per cohort
Program list by region
UCCE lists 13 member programs, each hosted by a university.
Its teachers served in 310 Catholic schools across 50+ (arch)dioceses in 2025-26, but the published membership list names programs and host universities, not placement cities.
Where a program places its members, and in which grades and subjects, is that program's own information.
| Program | Host university |
|---|---|
| ACE | University of Notre Dame |
| ACESJU | St. Joseph's University |
| ACT | University of San Diego |
| Billiken Teacher Corps | Saint Louis University |
| CSTC | Seattle University |
| ExCEL | Santa Clara University |
| Lalanne | Dayton |
| LU-CHOICE | Loyola Chicago |
| Magis | Creighton |
| PACE | Portland |
| PACT | Providence College |
| PLACE Corps | Loyola Marymount |
| UCTC | Boston College |
ACE, at Notre Dame, and PLACE Corps, at Loyola Marymount, are the two members whose structure and funding appear in this guide.
With 13 programs, the practical filter is placement geography and grade level; the pages reviewed for this guide do not publish either, so get both from each program.
Who should apply
A service program fits a particular situation: you want to start a Catholic school teaching career with the graduate degree built in, and you can commit two years — the documented length — to a placement with community housing.
The licensure structure matters too: ACE says members are eligible for teaching licensure on completion, and PLACE builds a California credential into the two years.
Timing follows each program's own calendar.
For ACE 34, the cohort starting summer 2027, ACE lists a fall application deadline of November 3, 2026, a spring deadline of January 19, 2027, and an M.Ed. summer session at Notre Dame beginning May 28, 2027.
If you are weighing the service-program route against enrolling in a degree on your own, the master's in education guide covers the standalone M.Ed. decision.
What to confirm before you commit is a short list:
- Placement locations, grade levels and subjects, from the program's own site
- The funding package: salary or living allowance, housing terms and what the degree costs
- Program length, community living expectations and any placement-state residency rule
- Current application deadlines and the degree calendar, which change by cohort
- Faith and eligibility expectations, which each program and (arch)diocese sets
One certification note belongs here: whether a Catholic school's teachers need a state certificate depends on the state and the kind of school, so confirm your situation with the program and, where a state credential is involved, your state education agency.
Career information, not legal, tax or loan advice: confirm program terms with each program, licensure questions with your state education agency and any federal loan benefit with Federal Student Aid.