In pursuing our mission, we collaborate with a variety of partners committed to educational improvement – school districts, community groups, researchers, national and local school reform organizations, and funders. Our work is concentrated in four areas related to supporting the development of smart education systems.

DISTRICT AND SYSTEMS CHANGE
The Institute helps build the capacity of districts and their formal partners to move toward becoming smart education systems by developing and sharing knowledge, tools, and products and providing technical assistance. Anchored by the Central Office Review for Results and Equity (CORRE), the Institute develops resources to strengthen the essential capacities that school districts need to achieve results and equity at scale.
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COMMUNITY ORGANIZING AND ENGAGEMENT
The Institute works with both local and national partners to develop innovative community engagement strategies and build communities’ capacity to advocate for and support education reform. Through these partnerships, the Institute helps to engage the full range of community stakeholders – from parents and young people to municipal officials and civic organizations – in making critical decisions about their community’s schools.
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Research AND POLICY
Institute staff conduct knowledge-generating research (both long-term studies and shorter-term data and issue analyses) to develop the concept of smart education systems as well as to support the work of local reform efforts and inform the national dialogue on education reform. Institute staff also research and develop practical products designed to help school districts and communities build their capacity to become smart education systems.
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Learning Opportunities and Communications
The Institute produces and disseminates a wide range of print and Web materials growing out of its work. Each issue of our quarterly journal, Voices in Urban Education, features articles on a single topic by Institute staff and experienced scholars and practitioners in the field. Many of the Institute-generated products are published in-house. Staff also prepare materials for publication and dissemination by outside publishers; articles have appeared in the major education newspapers and magazines. City Schools, a book describing characteristics of a smart education system that was developed and many of the chapters written by staff members, was published by Harvard Education Press in 2007.

To promote dialogue about education reform, the Institute convenes occasional forums and conferences that provide leading-edge practitioners, policy-makers, and community leaders the opportunity for new learning, reflection, and knowledge building. The annual Emerging Knowledge Forum is a three-day gathering of some 100 education reformers from around the country to learn about cutting-edge practices and consider the implications for their work.

In collaboration with Brown University’s Education Department, the Institute helped to develop a one-year master’s program in Urban Education Policy. Institute staff teach two summer courses in the program, which accepted its first cohort of students in June 2006.