Alliance for Catholic Education
Higher-Powered Learning
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Our Mission: Personalizing Education, Empowering Teachers
Higher-Powered Learning is an initiative of the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education. We empower Catholic school teachers and leaders to leverage technology and related innovative research-based educational practices to meet the needs of all learners. Through research, communication, and collaboration we aspire to be a trusted voice of support as we seek to innovate, strengthen, and transform Catholic schools.
Higher-Powered Learning's Approach
What is Blended Learning?
Blended learning is a model of education in which students "learn at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace" (Horn and Staker). The “blend” in “blended learning” is the combination of the benefits of learning through adaptive software with the salient aspects of traditional schools to create an authentically new form of education. Blended learning is not simply using technology in the classroom.
What is Powered Learning? 
Through our experience working with educators and students, we have identified specific practices essential to personalizing education. We refer to these practices as Powered Learning. Powered Learning is “a form of learning in which students use adaptive software in a classroom setting to personalize their engagement with content, while teachers employ high-yield instructional practices and optimize their role by utilizing data from the software in regular and thoughtful ways to make targeted interventions” (Wills, 2015). Higher-Powered Learning's approach gives students the ability to work at their just-right levels while equipping teachers and leaders with actionable data in order to make targeted interventions and smart groupings. Adaptive software programs are intended to empower teachers and students and to drive more personalized, higher-order learning than would occur otherwise.
Higher-Powered Learning's Projects
The Higher-Powered Learning Network
The HPL Network is a partnership of Catholic school teachers and leaders whose goal is to provide a trusted exchange of connection and education for blended-learning practitioners and innovators. The HPL Network is free to join, and all HPL Network Members will have access to collaboration forums, software selection frameworks, and professional development resources.
BLiCSS
Though there are a number of forums and spaces in which blended learning leaders and practitioners can gather to share best practices and collaborate, BLiCSS is the singular opportunity for leaders and teachers in Catholic education specifically to form a unified mission and vision for blended learning in Catholic schools and collaborate to share best practices from across our schools.
To fill this need, we created the Blended Learning in Catholic Schools Symposium with two goals in mind:
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To gather thought leaders in the blended-learning space with an explicit connection to Catholic schools to share ideas, bright spots, and challenges.
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To develop our shared capacity to implement high-quality blended learning in Catholic schools.
BLiCSS 1.0 (2018) - Los Angeles, CA
BLiCSS 2.0 (2019) - Chicago, IL
BLiCSS 3.0 (2020) - Virtual
BLiCSS 4.0 (2021) - Virtual
BLiCSS 5.0 (2022) - New Orleans, LA
BLiCSS 6.0 (2023) - Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
BLiCSS 7.0 (2024) - Atlanta, GA
The eighth annual Blended Learning in Catholic Schools Symposium (BLiCSS 8.0) will be held April 2-4, 2025, at the University of Notre Dame's campus.
"Networking with like minded individuals who fill a variety of roles in the blended-learning space was a priceless opportunity. I walked away with actionable "do now" steps that can help drive blended-learning forward in our building."
- BLiCSS 6.0 Attendee
Past HPL Projects
The Higher-Powered Learning Team
Contact Us
If you have any questions about the program or our website, please contact our team at hpl@nd.edu. We look forward to hearing from you!
Since 2015, Higher-Powered Learning has empowered Catholic school teachers and leaders to leverage technology and related innovative research-based educational practices to meet the needs of all learners.
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