The Institute for Catholic Liberal Education is pleased to announce that graduates of the Catholic Educator Formation and Credential Program are now eligible to receive up to 12 hours of graduate credit toward Benedictine College’s Master of Arts in Classical Education (MACE).
“We are thrilled to be partnering with ICLE to reclaim the Church’s education tradition of growth in faith, wisdom, and virtue,” said Benedictine College President Stephen D. Minnis. “The Institute is leading the way in the movement to revitalize and transform K-12 Catholic education in America.”
The Master of Arts in Classical Education is a 36-hour degree program that equips teachers with a strong philosophical foundation rooted in an experience of the great works of the Western intellectual tradition as well as explicit instruction in pedagogy and curricular integration. The flexible course delivery during the school year, as well as the affordable tuition, make this program unique and well-suited for educators who are working full-time.
All courses during the school year are offered online with both synchronous (live, virtual meetings) and asynchronous components. Two of the required courses are offered only in-person at Benedictine College as two-week summer intensives in June or July.
“As a sign of the renewal in Catholic education, teachers in dioceses across the country are eager to form students in the intellectual and moral virtues, the rich treasures of our Catholic heritage,” said Krystyn Schmerbeck, Director of Graduate Studies in Classical Education at Benedictine College. “This partnership provides another wonderful opportunity for today’s Catholic educators to equip themselves with the knowledge, wisdom, and teaching craft to serve their students so that young people become not only faith-filled parents, leaders and citizens, but even more importantly great saints who provide joyful witness to Jesus Christ.”
ICLE’s Catholic Educator Formation and Credential (CEFC) Program is an alternative to state teacher licensure: a credential program that prepares educators to infuse a deeply Catholic philosophy and practice of education into their teaching. This program fills the gap created by an absence of an educator credential program based entirely in the Catholic intellectual tradition. The credential earned by teachers in the CEFC program is designed to be portable and recognized by dioceses across the nation in lieu of state licensure.