The Institute for Catholic Liberal Education (ICLE) is pleased to announce that admitted graduates of the Catholic Educator Formation and Credential Program (CEFC) are now eligible to receive up to 12 hours of graduate credit toward Christendom College’s Master of Education (M.Ed.) degree within its Center for Educational Philosophy and Leadership (CEPL).
Dr. Ryan Messmore, D.Phil., ICLE President, said, “ICLE is happy to join with Christendom College to inspire and equip Catholic educators. This partnership provides a strategic pathway for graduates of our Credential Program to pursue a masters degree grounded in sound anthropology and the Catholic intellectual tradition. This is another positive step forward in the renewal of Catholic education in America.”
“We are pleased to be partnering with ICLE in the mission to renew today’s Catholic schools by drawing on the Church’s tradition of education, which frees teachers and students for the joyful pursuit of faith, wisdom, and virtue,” said Jon Kirwan, M.Ed. D.Phil., Director of the CEPL at Christendom. “The Institute is a national leader in renewing and transforming K-12 Catholic education in America through Catholic liberal education.”
The CEPL Master of Education degree is a 30-hour degree program designed for teachers, administrators, and those passionate about the philosophy of education to explore the Catholic intellectual tradition and the liberal arts. This new development comes after Christendom College officially received approval from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to begin offering doctoral degrees this past summer, with its first cohort beginning this fall.
The M.Ed. program is built on four pillars, according to Kirwan: recovering the Catholic educational tradition, engaging contemporary educational challenges, cultivating practical skills for the classroom and school and fostering spiritual formation.
The new partnership with ICLE further reinforces the college’s mission. “The mission of Christendom is to form men and women who will contribute to the Christian renovation of the temporal order,” according to Vice President for Academic Affairs Kevin Tracy in a June 2025 statement from Christendom.
ICLE and the Christendom College CEPL’s partnership will further ICLE’s impact as a key player in revitalizing and renewing Catholic education. The addition of Christendom College will bring the number of graduate program partnership opportunities to eight different institutes for CEFC Program participants seeking graduate-level education.
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.