Table of Contents
Confederation of Illinois Reform Efforts Statement of PurposeIllinois Alliance of Essential Schools: A Regional Center of the Coalition of Essential Schools
Association of Illinois High Schools (AIHS)
Center for Prevention Research and Development
Confederation of Illinois Reform Efforts Statement of Purpose
The structural integrity of the educational system of a democratic society must be guided by the communities it nurtures and represents. In this manner an inherent flexibility is formed allowing change to match the needs of individual communities in current society. Reform is no less a synonym for change than words such as progress or growth.
Many efforts at educational reform have attempted to meet the needs of our changing society. The few long-lived efforts that have succeeded in such attempts have done so by allowing for one simple component: they empower local educational communities to guide the integrity of their own schools through the interpretation of a common set of basic fundamentals and beliefs.
Realizing our efforts share the component of empowerment, the reform networks of the Association of Illinois Middle Schools (AIMS), the Illinois Alliance of Essential Schools (IAES), the Association of Illinois High Schools (AIHS), and the Center for Prevention Research and Development (CPRD) came together in September of 1996. In April of 1997, the Illinois Network of Accelerated Schools (INAS) and the Chicago Forum for School Change (CFSC) joined the group. Together we created the Confederation of Illinois Reform Efforts in devotion to furthering our shared focus on a common set of basic fundamentals and beliefs in educating students. These fundamentals are proven, meaningful, and essential to our network members and this Confederation:
• Shared decision making structure: faculty/staff involvement • Small communities for learning: for students, staff, and community • Thoughtful and reflective learners and citizens • High expectations for all • Active learning • Core of essential knowledge • Real life assessment • Engaging families and communities
Practices in achieving these concepts were first accepted and developed by Confederation member networks: block scheduling, teaming, authentic learning and assessment, portfolios, exhibitions, and engaged learning are among these practices. Once seen as passing trends, these habits are now widely accepted as common to a thoughtful educational routine.
Each network's individual efforts in demanding excellence of its member schools previously survived in isolation. This isolation implied the misconception that each movement was detached and largely different from one another, pulling and pushing educational philosophy in different directions. Our Confederation reveals that the change agents in the reform networks of AIMS, IAES, AIHS, CPRD, INAS, and CFSC arrived at their models of excellence in education from different perspectives yet hold similar ideologies.
While we will maintain our individual group identities and continue to separately pursue practices unique to those identities, we believe our combined efforts will provide more collaborative opportunities for learning, sharing, and funding among our groups. The Confederation will offer our message of change to all schools committed to the integrity of its unique identity, guided by the community it represents, and devoted to the education of children and all who affect them. The Association of Illinois Middle Level Schools
The Association of Illinois Middle Level Schools (AIMS) is a not for profit 501(c)3 professional organization committed solely to the education of the state's early adolescents and to the professionals who teach them. There are currently over 1,200 members in the state The association services are specifically tailored to meet the needs of middle level teachers, school administrators' college faculty, prospective teachers, and parents. The array of services provided includes conferences, journals, summer institutes, information newsletters, administration of grants, statewide networking, consulting and liaison to other state organizations such as Illinois Board of Education, Illinois Alliance of Essential Schools and Association of Illinois High Schools
For more information, contact: Debby Kasak at 217-333-7104.
Go to Table of ContentsIllinois Alliance of Essential Schools: A Regional Center of the Coalition of Essential Schools
The Illinois Alliance of Essential Schools (IAES) is a not for profit regional center of the Coalition of Essential Schools, a nationally recognized educational restructuring effort. The Coalition of Essential Schools, founded in 1984, currently includes over 1,000 schools across the country. Its mission calls for the fundamental restructuring of schools based on a set of Common Principles developed by Dr. Ted Sizer at Brown University in Providence, RI through professional development and support in the areas of classroom management, teaching strategies, instructional planning, professional growth, student assessment, and technology. Throughout the year, the IAES sponsors seminars, workshops, conferences and institutes on various restructuring and technology topics, and has participated in the efforts of the Confederation of School Reform Efforts since its inception in 1996.
For more information, contact: Tom McGreal at 217-244-5680.
Go to Table of ContentsAssociation of Illinois High Schools (AIHS)
AIHS is a leading advocate for high school reform in Illinois. Founded in 1993, membership includes teachers, administrators, parents, college and university faculty and others interested in improving and restructuring high schools. AIHS encourages the use of a comprehensive reform strategy aimed at enhancing student learning through the improvement of instruction, assessment, and curriculum as well as other aspects of general school structure and culture. The Association seeks to promote the exchange of ideas regarding high school reform efforts and provide a variety of educational networking and professional growth opportunities through the following services: annual state conference; regional conferences, workshops, seminars; a variety of publications including its statewide newsletter; mentor school network; school improvement and reform consulting services; and school demonstration site visits
For more information, contact: Bruce Brotzman at 618-544-9510.
Go to Table of ContentsCenter for Prevention Research and Development
The Center for Prevention Research and Development is a unit of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois, Urbana and Chicago. The Center has been in existence for 8 years and has worked with numerous contracts of federal, state, and local governments, school districts, community-based organizations and foundations. Over the past five years the Center has played an integral role in the assessment and evaluation of major school restructuring initiatives in Illinois and across the country. Specifically, CPRD has been the national evaluators for the Carnegie Middle Grades Initiatives, Kellogg Middle Start in Michigan, and Lilly Endowment's Middle Grades Improvement Project in Indiana. These evaluations are based on survey data collected from students, teachers, administrators, parents, along with various forms of interviews and archival sources. The Center also has extensive experience in providing technical assistance, professional staff development and training, and grant writing in these areas.
For more information, contact: Peter Mulhall at 217-244-3231.
Go to Table of ContentsThe Illinois Accelerated Schools Initiative
Accelerated Schools is a comprehensive approach to school change designed by Henry M. Levin and colleagues at Stanford University to enable all students to enter the educational mainstream. Accelerated Schools Project is both a way of thinking about academic acceleration for all students and a concrete process for achieving it. Since January 1989, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has convened school teams from schools throughout the state which shared the common characteristic of high enrollments of students in at-risk situations. The current 37 Illinois accelerated schools have been working through this change process by creating a shared decision-making governance structure, collaboratively developing a unify of purpose, and building on the strengths of teachers, staff, administration, board, students, parents and community. These schools participate in a statewide network to share knowledge and experiences of educational change. In January 1992, the ISBE formalized an affiliation agreement with the Accelerated Schools Project at Stanford to become an Accelerated Schools Satellite Center.
For more information, contact: Carolyn Farrar at 217-782-5728.
Go to Table of ContentsThe Chicago Forum for School Change
The Chicago Forum for School Change (CFSC) provides human and technical support for public high schools in Chicago which are part of the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) network, and subsequently for other public schools in Chicago and the metropolitan area that are engaged in instructional reform, whole school restructuring, and utilizing of CES principles and ideas. The activities of the Forum include: study forums for teachers, principals, parents and community members; develop staff capacity in authentic instruction within each school to promote increased student learning; implement a training model of "critical friends" to support each principal and staff member in reflective instructional practices which will amplify student learning; use extended seminars as the context for active discussion of issues of school change which are common to restructuring schools; guide action research by teams from local school communities which address problems of school change identified at the local level; develop and expand the collaboration between the Coalition high schools in Chicago and the Illinois Alliance of Essential Schools through a series of network activities including conferences, exchange site visits, and workshops.
For more information, contact: Jack Mitchell at 312-413-5842
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- © 1997 Illinois Alliance of Essential Schools
This page maintained by Richard Repp
URL: http://alliance.ed.uiuc.edu/
Updated: 27 August 1997
