News

As the Catholic Church nears the conclusion of what Pope Francis declared a Jubilee Year of Mercy, Maura Shea is experiencing what she conceives her own Year of Mercy in her English Language Arts classroom. The vast majority of Maura’s 11^th and 12^th grade students are students she taught just one or two years ago, as sophomores. This opportunity—to correct past mistakes, to build upon prior success, and to continue to develop already-formed relationships with her students—is one that give flesh to the words Maura heard Pope Francis utter at World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, this summer--words about “the gentle and unassuming power of mercy.” 

Dr. Brian Collier and current ACE Teaching Fellow Brendan Bell were mentioned for their educational work in TIME’s October 10th edition. The article details how the hit Broadway musical Hamilton by Lin Manuel Miranda is influencing everyday life, and it describes how Collier, the Coordinator of Supervision for ACE Teaching Fellows, directed his class this summer to design lesson plans around the musical. Bell is quoted talking about how the hip-hop music in Hamilton helps his students in Sacramento relate to history. The full article, including the section on Collier and Bell on page 3, can be read below.

READ THE ARTICLE FROM TIME MAGAZINE

Wendy Kopp and Richard Barth were presented with the 2016 Notre Dame Award for Outstanding Contributions to Catholic Education by Fr. Tim Scully, C.S.C., the Hackett Family Director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives and co-founder of the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE), at a dinner tonight on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. 

Since its founding, ACE has graduated nearly 2,000 teachers and leaders. These teachers and leaders have continued to support and transform Catholic education, both directly and indirectly, by living out a commitment to community, spirituality, and professionalism. In an era obsessed with measurement, it is both tempting and worthwhile to quantify the successes and contributions of our graduates. This post, one in a series of stories from our graduates, is an attempt to capture that which numbers sometimes fail to tell: the nuances and nitty gritty details of moments—sometimes small, sometimes large—through which the mission of ACE continues in the everyday lives of its graduates.

Brian Hayes watched President Bush’s announcement of Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003, pondering and worrying about how he could discuss the news with students in his history class the next day. He had thousands of facts and details to draw on; perhaps he would talk about the events that precipitated this announcement, the cries for diplomacy that some thought were ignored, the evidence that led to the invasion, or the potential that this decision had to destabilize the region.