Poor education is a pressing societal issue in Honduras. Existing schools are understaffed, under-resourced, and scarce, particularly throughout rural areas. Due to this inaccessibility, only 43% of Honduran children complete their primary education (i.e. 5th grade) and only 30% move on to high school (i.e. 6th grade), when public education is no longer free. The Ministry of Education also cites widespread illiteracy, with rates running as high as 80% in some regions.

With 60% of the country living on less than $2 per day, the limited incentive for families to send their children to school propagates a cycle of extreme poverty. In many cases, adolescents end up resorting to low or no-wage manual labor or gang involvement instead of education.

The AcE Public School was founded in direct response to these troubling factors, aiming to graduate well-rounded students equipped with the tools to achieve financial success and create change in their communities and their own lives. Our public school is the only school in the region to provide free tuition past the 5th grade, which is vital to combat the many socioeconomic barriers faced by families in this community. In the future, the AcE Public School plans to expand to no more than 500 students (with a corresponding increase in teachers/classrooms) to maintain a high-quality education for local youth with no access to education.

The AcE Public School was developed in direct response to a community that lacked a school for its hundreds of children. Our Public School was the first project of AcE, and the reason for its initial incorporation as a nonprofit. To date, we have raised over $155,000 towards the construction, maintenance, and improvement of our school’s facilities.

Now in our 6th year of classes, we currently provide a tuition-free kindergarten through 9th grade education to 275 students from our partner community in San Pedro Sula. We have a 96% graduation rate and work closely with local and national governments, receiving government funding to pay the salaries of most teachers while we focus on improving infrastructure and programming.

We recently completed two projects to improve the infrastructure of our school: a concrete wall for protection, and our Director’s Office for our school’s principal. Next, we plan to build a new computer lab to house keyboarding and informational technology classes after recently receiving a donation of over 20 laptops. We also hope to build additional bathrooms and then a multi-purpose athletic court within our school walls to promote active and collaborative learning in a healthy environment.

Rigorous outcome-tracking and evidence-based initiatives protocol have been developed collaboratively with the AcE Public School’s administration. This system will allow us to longitudinally monitor our students' progress through school on the road to graduation. It will also help us identify areas of improvement with the school and work together with the administration to develop needed solutions.