The ACE Blog

“We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.” - Blessed Archbishop Oscar Romero

School leaders function within dynamic and complex systems. No one day is the same as the next and there are always a number of plates spinning. To some this work may seem complicated and messy, but for those of us drawn to the vocation, we relish knowing that each day brings something new. How we manage the multiple and often competing demands of our work is one determinant of how successful our school will be. Principals of high-performing schools focus their attention on key areas when managing complexity. According to Chenoweth & Theokas, authors of Getting it Done: Leading Academic Success, there are three key leverage points to focus on:

As educators, one of the core values we look to instill in our students, parents, and colleagues is a growth mindset, a constant yearning to improve and a deep belief that everyone can improve. A key behavior that helps to cultivate this value is seeing the best in others. Yet this is not an easy thing to do. Our natural inclination as human beings is to view ourselves in the best possible light, and that can have a powerful impact on the way we view others.

“The trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk everything.” - Carl Jung

Last week a dear friend shared with me the story of how he stood at the top of a New Hampshire mountain ski slope and watched his nine-year-old son successfully navigate his way to the bottom. “As a parent, we spend so much of our time trying to teach our children to do the right thing and make good decisions. When they’re on their own, we simply have to trust that what we teach them, they put into practice. Watching my son from the top, I was praying he’d make the right turn when he needed to, and he did. And when he needed to maneuver, so as to avoid another skier, he did. Slowly he made his way to the bottom—his accomplishment was pure joy for both of us.”

This time of year brings me back to some of the more challenging days in my third grade classroom in Jackson, MS. Even now, every day, I spend at least a few minutes wishing I could go back to that classroom and teach those students again, knowing what I know now. 

This month we celebrate women’s history and reflect on the many contributions of women to Catholic education. With Fr. Ron Nuzzi, I recently explored the history of women in Catholic education for a chapter we are writing for a book on International Perspectives on Women in Educational Leadership. I was inspired by finding that dating back to colonial times, and continuing into the present, women have been instrumental in establishing, leading, and ensuring the success of Catholic schools in America.

This month’s 15 on 15th spotlights an innovative school model – Dual Language Catholic schools or Two-Way Immersion (TWI) Catholic schools. We invite you to take 15 minutes to learn more about this model, which manifests deep mutual respect for linguistic and cultural diversity. This model has shown evidence of cognitive, social, emotional, and economic benefits (Gándara, 2015).

This coming Monday, March 14th, brings us back around to a very special date on the calendar: Pi Day!

Sources say that 78% of teachers feel emotionally and physically drained at the end of the day? Turns out, practicing mindfulness through exercises such as reflective prayer can be a huge help to counteract this effect. This calming prayer is grounded in a large body of neuroscience research that shows the brain actually changes through “practicing non-judgmental, present-moment awareness (mindfulness).”

As a school leader, you live your life for others. Winning is less about numbers and more about producing students who show up for their families, classmates, and community.

This excerpt is reproduced here with permission from Scott Morgan, member of the second cohort of ACE Teaching Fellows and founder of Education Pioneers. 

I think often of my time at the storied St. Jude, an incredibly special place that helped change our nation’s trajectory in profound and positive ways. It’s perhaps best known in U.S. history as the campus that hosted 2,000 courageous individuals during the Selma-to-Montgomery March the night before they marched to the Capitol. The next day, they’d hear Dr. Martin Luther King deliver an inspiring address and remind the world that “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”

February is Black History Month, the only dedicated time we have as a nation to honor and celebrate the significant accomplishments and contributions of African American and black Americans. We do ourselves and our students a sizable disservice when black history isn’t included in our history learnings and lessons throughout the year, or when we fail to recognize that black history is inextricably intertwined with our nation’s history.

More than two decades after I started teaching at St. Jude, I am incredibly grateful for the privilege of having worked in a place so steeped in history. I’m also reminded of three lessons from my experience there that remain as important as ever for me:

In an essay published by Education Next this week, I reflect on the 50^th anniversary of the Coleman report by asking if social policy can effectively counter the influence of family disadvantage in order to achieve a more egalitarian society. In a nutshell, I wrestle with the question of whether or not it’s possible to develop programs, laws, and systems that can help disadvantaged children overcome the challenges associated with growing up in poverty. It’s a challenging proposition, for sure, but not one that’s impossible to accomplish. Based on my read of the research, school choice is a promising policy worth growing. A major reason is that Catholic schools in particular are uniquely positioned to play a compensating role in addressing the serious challenges faced by those who grow up poor.

If the Church is the people, then obviously the Church gets angry. Even the holiest of among us get angry sometimes.

Take my first boss at a school, Sr. Patrick Marie. She was kind, patient, and saintly in every way. She was quick to laugh and compassionate to a fault, but even she got angry sometimes.

In early January, we announced the exciting news that our own Fr. Joe Corpora received an invitation from Pope Francis to serve this Jubilee Year of Mercy in a special role as a Missionary of Mercy. The charge of the role, as outlined in Misericordiae Vultus (The Face of Mercy), encourages designated priests to extend Jesus Christ’s call to welcome all into the church, sinners and saints alike, particularly through the priests’ role as confessors.  

Upon returning from his Ash Wednesday missioning, Fr. Joe shared with us his thoughts from the trip to Rome. The following are his words. 

English learners (ELs) are the fastest growing population in U.S. schools. By 2025, nearly 1 in 4 US school children will be an EL. While their numbers grow, their performance lags behind their native English-speaking peers. Less than 63 percent of English-language learners graduate high school in time. The recently minted Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) might provide an opportunity for educators who aim to help ELs thrive.

I had a difficult choice: Spanish, French, or Latin.

Those were my choices for my high school’s second language requirement. If I had to make the choice in 2016, I would say that an important option was missing—not Chinese or German, although those could be useful—but rather a “third language” option. I should be able to choose a computer programming language, and so should our students in Catholic (as well as public, private, and charter) schools.