Our Approach
Our continuous improvement/organizational development work is designed to help various kinds of educational organizations play key roles in disrupting the systemic inequality that affects the lives of and to improve the educational outcomes and life opportunities for PK-12 urban school students throughout the world. In this work we develop others to use/lead cycles of inquiry to find and solve root cause problems within organizations. This work begins with the development of an “impact logic” that helps organizations: a) clarify the proximal and distal impacts that they seek from their work, and b) design and utilize the kinds of data systems for tracking proximal and distal outcomes.
Our continuous improvement/organizational development work is designed to help various kinds of educational organizations (both K-12 and higher education) learn how to strengthen their continuous improvement processes. In this work we help organizations learn how to use/lead cycles of inquiry to find and solve root cause problems within their organizations. This work begins with the development of an “impact logic” that helps organizations: a) clarify the proximal and distal impacts that they seek from their work, and b) design and utilize the kinds of data systems for tracking proximal and distal outcomes.
We have been selected by The Wallace Foundation to support and provide mentor support for the continuous improvement work of both school districts and university-based leadership preparation programs as part of the foundation’s UPPI project (2016 to 2021) and ECPI project (2021 to 2026).
In our higher education work, we also focus attention on developing organizations to diagnose and strengthen their cultures and infrastructure (structures, tools, routines) in ways that support continuous improvement work. In our Pk-12 work, we further expand our attention to developing organizations to diagnose and strengthen a school’s distributed leadership capacity and teacher learning organization as two key resources that support continuous improvement.
Really good principals make a profound impact on student learning. -Steve Tozer #NCEdLab2017 pic.twitter.com/AStwNXz6PH
— NCPFP (@NCPrinFellows) September 28, 2017
Higher Education
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP PREPARATION PROGRAMS
We support the continuous improvement of educational leadership preparation programs within higher education institutions. One of our primary clients is UIC’s Ed.D program in Urban Education Leadership. Through ongoing collaboration with this program we have incubated more advanced continuous program improvement work that we have ported to other work through the US and world.
In addition to our work with UIC’s Ed.D. program, we work with both individual and groups of university-based leadership preparation programs through:
- networked learning communities of multiple programs
- long-term mentoring of individual programs
- day or multi-day site visits to CUEL by one or more programs
TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS
PK-12
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT OF PK-12
We support continuous improvement of PK-12 educational organizations as well as organizations that support neighborhood communities/schools/students. This work has been done through the design and provision of various learning designs (e.g. in person and remote virtual professional development) and the facilitation of various networked learning communities. This work has supported district level leaders and leadership teams, school level leaders and leadership teams, and leadership coaches tasked with supporting leader development.
CURRENT/RECENT PROJECTS
DECATUR PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT 61, Illinois
Beginning in Summer 2019, UIC Center for Urban Education Leadership began a collaboration with the leadership of the Decatur Public Schools District 61 to incorporate professional development for continuous improvement of district and school administrative leadership practices. This work is designed to impact school outcomes for Decatur’s 23 elementary and high schools. Read more
ELGIN PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT U 46, Illinois
Beginning in April 2019, personnel from the Center for Urban Education Leadership and Ed.D. program have collaborated with the leadership of Elgin Area School District U46 to incorporate professional development for continuous improvement of school and district administrative leadership practices and school outcomes. Read more
MICHIGAN CITY AREA SCHOOLS, Indiana
Beginning in Summer 2018, UIC Center for Urban Education Leadership began a collaboration with the leadership of Michigan City (IN) Area Schools to incorporate professional development for continuous improvement of school and district administrative leadership practices and school outcomes for Michigan City’s 11 elementary and high schools. The MCAS principals and district leaders engage in monthly Networked Improvement Community (NIC) meetings to use cycles of inquiry to plan, implement, assess, and improve school capacity for teaching and learning in their schools, PreK-12. Principals collaborate with the UIC hub to identify specific EOY outcomes in organizational and instructional practices, as well as student outcomes, to which principals and UIC agree that the project should be held accountable. Read more