Reform and Innovation

School Reform and Innovation

• Center for Urban School Improvement
  The University of Chicago's Center for Urban School Improvement (USI) was established in 1988. It combines the expertise of school system leaders, professional developers, designers, and researchers. USI's work is at the core of the University of Chicago's Urban Education Initiative, an unprecedented endeavor to take direct responsibility for improving the education of Chicago's children and for advancing knowledge about urban education of significance to the nation and the world.
  
• Annenberg Institute for School Reform
  Located at Brown University, the Institute's mission is to develop, share, and act on knowledge that improves the conditions and outcomes of schooling in America, especially in urban communities and in schools serving disadvantaged children. Its current work focuses on school district redesign, educational leadership, connecting schools to community assets, rethinking accountability, and comprehensive school reform design. The Institute evaluates school reform projects and disseminates information about what's working.
• Catalyst Chicago
  Catalyst is an independent newsmagazine created in 1990 to document, analyze and support school-improvement efforts in the Chicago Public Schools. It is published by the Community Renewal Society, a faith-based organization founded in 1882 that works to create racially and economically just communities in metropolitan Chicago.
• Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement
  Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, its mission is to assist schools and districts engaged in comprehensive school reform and improvement by providing reliable information about research-based strategies and assistance. The Center offers news, lists of events, tools, guides research publications, and a School Reform and Improvement Database.
• Center for Education Reform (CER)
  This group "is a national, independent, non-profit advocacy organization founded in 1993 to provide support and guidance to parents and teachers, community and civic groups, policymakers and grassroots leaders, and all who are working to bring fundamental reforms to their schools." The website includes a wide variety of resources including a Directory of Education Reform Organizations and Resources, links to School Report Cards from various States, information about charter schools, school choice, standards and curriculum, and information for teachers, parents and school boards.
• Designs for Change
  Founded in 1977, Designs for Change looks to "serve as a catalyst for major improvements in the public schools serving the 50 largest cities in the country, with a particular emphasis on Chicago".
  
• Illinois School Reform Resource Locator
  Hosted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, this collection of annotated links categorizes the information into the subjects of: Innovative Programs | Illinois School Reform Initiatives | National School Reform Initiatives | School Consolidation| |Teaching as a Profession | University-School Linkages| .
• Middleweb: Exploring Middle School Reform
  This website offers a collection of reform-oriented materials, full-text articles, a discussion list, and links about curriculum, teaching strategies, teacher professional development, parent involvement, classroom assessment, and more. The website is produced with grant support from the Program for Student Achievement of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation.
• National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)--Education Reform
  NBPTS establishes standards for what teachers should know and be able to do and offers a voluntary certification program. It advocates education reforms that would incorporate its standards into American education and the website offers examples of how utilizing the standards has resulted in school improvement.
• National Institute for Urban School Improvement (NIUSI)
  This organization works to link school reform networks with special education networks in order to build capacity for sustainable and successful urban schools. The Institute "synthesizes existing research into accessible media, both print and electronic, that is used to support efforts on the part of the public, families, professionals, and advocacy organizations to create inclusive school communities" and the website includes a variety of full-text reports and publications.
• Pathways to School Improvement
  From the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL), the goal of Pathways is to "synthesize research, policy and best practices on issues critical to educators engaged in school improvement." The current areas of emphasis are assessment, at-risk students, family and community, instruction, leadership, literacy, mathematics and science, policy, professional development, and technology in education.
• Public Education Network
  This organization works to build public demand and mobilize resources for quality public education for all children through a national constituency of Local Education Funds (LEFs) and individuals. It focuses especially on school reform in low-income communities and works to educate the nation about the relationship between school quality and the quality of community and public life. The LEFs solicit corporate support and operate on a venture capital model to invest in high impact school improvement activities. PEN's national website offers a variety of reports and resources to support activities of the local groups including some Illinois materials.
• School Reform News
  This is a monthly publication from the Heartland Institute for those involved with school reform. It summarizes research findings, includes statistics and data, reports on legislation and initiatives, and offers other full-text features. The Institute's philosophy is in support of "individual liberty, personal responsibility, and limited government" and it offers Policy Bot, "the Internet's most extensive clearinghouse for the work of free-market think tanks, with more than 10,000 studies and commentaries from over 350 think tanks and advocacy groups."