Networks and Initiatives

The Center currently coordinates school reform networks, a principal preparation program, and other initiatives. Within each network and initiative, the Center provides coaching, technical assistance, professional development, political advocacy, and networking opportunities.

• Boston Pilot Schools Network: These 20 schools, while members of the Boston Public Schools, have freedom over budget, staffing, governance, curriculum/assessment, and the school calendar. Models for the future of urban public schools, the Pilot Schools are all small, personalized, and democratic. The Center serves as the coordinating organization for the Pilot Schools.
  
  
• Pilot School development: CCE supports the development of new Pilot Schools in Massachusetts, and of Commonwealth Pilot Schools, which have been established by the Massachusetts Department of Education as experiments in turning around schools that had not been making adequate progress.
  
  
• Los Angeles Pilot Schools: The Center supports the development of a new network of Pilot schools in the Belmont section of Los Angeles.
  
  
• Principal Residency Network (PRN): The Principal Residency Network is an apprenticeship model of principal preparation and certification. It is based on the belief that the best method of preparing new, innovative school leaders is to train them in schools that are engaged in real reform work. Aspiring principals are placed in small schools or larger schools with small learning communities, where they are mentored by a Distinguished Principal for a period of 15-18 months and engage in the work of the school. Each candidate has an individual learning plan to master a set of identified competencies that prepares him/her for principalship.
  
  
• Los Angeles Principal Residency Network: LAPRN is an apprenticeship model of principal preparation and certification, modeled after the PRN program in Boston. The overarching purpose of the Principal Residency Network is to nurture a new generation of educational leaders prepared for the complexities of founding and leading intentional small schools where equity is valued as the foundation that envisions academic success for all students.
  
  
• Research and Evaluation. This Program supports CCE's networks through the collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative information about our schools, coaches, and students. The team collaborates with CCE staff and our school communities to construct research questions and implement studies. The purposes of the research are 1) to inform the ongoing whole school reform work at CCE, and 2) to inform the public and larger educational community of the lessons learned about creating change designed to improve conditions of teaching and learning.
  
  
• National Turning Points: The Center for Collaborative Education serves as the National Turning Points Center, a New American Schools-recognized reform model for creating high-performing middle schools, based on the principles and practices for effective middle schools outlined in the national Turning Points report (Carnegie Foundation, 1989). Member schools engage in improving learning, teaching, and assessment, building a professional collaborative culture, engaging in data-based inquiry and decision making, and creating structures that support high achievement and personal development.
  
  
• Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) Network: The Center serves as the state-wide Regional Center for those schools affiliated with the national Coalition of Essential Schools reform initiative. Coalition schools organize learning, teaching, and assessment around ten common principles, including students learning to use their minds well, “less is more,” personalization, student as worker, and exhibitions as demonstration of mastery.
  

Projects and initiatives:

Disney Learning Partnership. Each year, Disney Learning Partnership selects 30 exemplary, innovative teachers from across the country. The Center provides coaching, institutes, and online study groups to help Disney teachers promote collaborative cultures in their schools.