MISSION

CEI-PEA’s mission is to make the school the center and driving force of public education reform and innovation. CEI-PEA works directly with teachers, school leaders, and the community to create the schools their children need to succeed

STRATEGIES

CEI-PEA has two main strategies to achieve our mission and vision:
1. In-School Programs that help public schools create and implement successful educational programs.
2. Public Discourse that shares effective school practices and uses these successes as the groundwork to shape collective policies and practices.

In-School Programs that support school-based education reform:

Partnership Support Organization for NYC District Schools
CEI-PEA serves as the “Partnership Support Organization” (PSO) for 207 New York City public schools. The PSO program started in 2007 when the New York City Department of Education flipped their entire system model by allowing individual schools to select the kind of support that they want and need to achieve their goals. CEI-PEA, along with other nonprofit organizations, universities and DOE-operated groups proposed support models to the schools and then the schools made their choices. CEI-PEA’s model emphasizes customized support for every school in our PSO network. We make the school the center and driving force of improvement and change. The approach has been popular: we started with 53 schools in our PSO network in 2007 and now have more than 200 schools working through our PSO to establish excellent public education programs for the city’s school children.

PICCS for Charter Schools
What does “educational accountability” look like when you take the perspective of an individual student, parent, teacher, or school leader? PICCS—the Partnership for Innovation in Compensation for Charter Schools—has been asking this question since 2007 with a group of independent charter schools, and the answers have formed into a comprehensive school improvement approach that is currently being implemented in 21 schools in New York City, Buffalo and New Jersey. PICCS schools put evaluation and assessment at the heart of their operations but do so in authentic ways that are designed to give teachers the resources, tools, training and support they need to truly individualize instruction for their students and, in turn, meet their own professional goals. Instead of evaluation and assessment “happening to” students and educators, PICCS educators drive the evaluation and assessment processes at their schools so that these practices produce genuine value for students and the school community. PICCS has been recognized as a national model and funded through a series of federal Teacher Incentive Fund grants totaling more than $50 million.

Project BOOST
CEI-PEA helps New York City public schools “build options and opportunities for students” (BOOST) through academic, cultural and social enrichment activities. From attending Broadway shows to learning culinary arts to raising funds for their peers attending schools in poverty-stricken countries, students in Project BOOST have the kinds of life-changing experiences that make learning real and drive them to succeed. Project BOOST is currently operating in 100 schools and serves 3,000 students. CEI-PEA runs Project BOOST unlike typical enrichment programs: we provide the schools with a range of resources from which the educators can choose so that they ensure that the activities truly meet the needs and interests of their students. Often, schools propose new activities to CEI-PEA, which we support and, if successful, add to the range of resources available to the entire network of Project BOOST schools.

Operational Support
CEI-PEA helps school leaders run effective organizations as well as educational programs. From managing limited resources to improving school facilities, school leaders have to create learning environments that are safe and nurturing for students and staff. CEI-PEA’s experts in finance, facilities, human resources and school safety work directly with school leaders to help them: identify untapped resources; reduce waste; recruit, train, nurture, mentor, develop, evaluate, reward and grow educators; and implement school safety programs that promote positive student behaviors, peer mediation and conflict resolution, reduce bullying, and limit the need for punitive measures such as student suspension.

Mobile Field Team
CEI-PEA has an extensive “field team” of experts in all aspects of education that works directly in schools and classrooms of CEI-PEA-affiliated schools. Field team members can work for a few hours or a several months at a school, depending on the school’s specific needs. And the field team can be mobilized rapidly in cases of urgent need. All members of the CEI-PEA field team have extensive, proven records of effectiveness in education. Areas of specialty include: instruction, curriculum, special education, leadership, budgeting, programming, scheduling, data analysis, English language learners, drop-out prevention, character education, teacher recruitment and retention, and many other areas.

Public Discourse that shapes collective policies and practices:

Public Education Alert – CEI-PEA’s expert educators leverage their insider knowledge and independent perspective to lead the conversation on critical issues through the Public Education Alert. This blog currently addresses such critical questions as:
• What is the future of the Common Core?
• What role should standardized testing play in public education?
• Can district and charter public schools work together to improve public education?
• What does equitable funding in public education look like?
• When should a public school be closed and how should we do it?

From the Field
Find out what is really going on in our public schools through From the Field, a blog that features successful programs and practices at CEI-PEA-affiliated schools. This blog focuses on what works well in schools rather than the general tendency of news outlets to focus on problems in education. The reason is simple: there is a multitude of success happening every day in our schools and the best way to improve the larger “system” of public education is to learn from what works!

Charter Notebook
CEI-PEA works with dozens of independent charter schools in New York, New Jersey and across the country. Charter Notebook is a blog dedicated to these “mom and pop” charter schools—schools that are operated by local groups rather than charter management organizations. These schools embody the ideals of the original charter school legislation established over a decade ago: they are locally-created and operated public schools that serve the needs of their community and see their fellow district schools as their allies, not adversaries. At the Charter Notebook, you can learn more about how these schools operate, the innovations taking place in their classrooms, and how they are dealing with the host of issues facing all public schools these days.