About the Center for Success in High-Need Schools
The work of ACI’s Center is intended to inform practice in high-need schools nationwide and to help guide the policy community toward successful solutions to the most pressing challenges facing K-12 education. Since it was established in 2004, ACI’s Center has developed and supported programs that have helped more than 300 adults begin new teaching careers in high-need schools; provided more than 700 teacher candidates with clinical experiences in high-need schools; and more than doubled the number of alumni from ACI member institutions who choose to teach in schools serving our neediest students.
To achieve its goals, ACI’s Center for Success in High-Need Schools pursues five strategies designed to transform the way in which teachers for the nation’s high-need schools are recruited, prepared, and retained: 1) Increasing the number and diversity of qualified teachers in high-need schools; 2) strengthening teachers’ content knowledge in core competencies, such as math, science, and reading; 3) developing model curricula addressing the specific challenges of high-need schools; 4) encouraging teachers’ long-term commitments to high-need classrooms through induction supports and mentoring; 5) disseminating a new body of knowledge on improving teaching and learning in high-need schools through diverse media and events – in the hope that the positive lessons we have learned at the Center will help shape policies and programs throughout Illinois and across the nation.
ACI’s Center for Success in High-Need Schools is funded by major grants from U.S. Department of Education through its Teacher Quality Enhancement -Partnership Program, Teacher Quality Enhancement-Recruitment Program, Fund for Improvement of Post-Secondary Education, and Transition to Teaching Program. Additional support is provided by The Chicago Community Trust, Citigroup, the Illinois Board of Higher Education, State Farm Insurance Companies, and Washington Mutual.
