Leading Across Boundaries

How does the community schools strategy positively impact schools? Recently, Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond, president and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute, released a report in conjunction with the National Education Policy Center entitled Community Schools: An Evidence-Based Strategy for Equitable School Improvement. The report demonstrates how community schools are a successful strategy for improving schools […]

In this changing political climate, IEL’s new president, Johan E. Uvin, shares his thoughts on the future direction of IEL and how we can position ourselves to address the challenges of today and tomorrow. Some solutions include ever-increasing support of equity, investment in collaborative leadership development, continue to strengthen our work with schools and workforce

I am grateful for the more than 30 years that I have been at IEL, the last eight, as president. Connecting leaders from grassroots to grass tops has always driven my work. It’s a principle that is even more important in this era of the “devolution revolution,” with the federal government reducing its commitment to

IEL’s board of directors appointed Dr. Johan E. Uvin as IEL’s sixth president. Previously, Uvin was the Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education. “The IEL board is grateful for Marty Blank’s leadership over the past eight years. Marty has transformed IEL into a

Recent growth of a “culture of health” has included the principle that health is influenced by complex factors that must be addressed by collaborating systems. More than 25 years ago, IEL and the National Commission to Prevent Infant Mortality supported the National Health/Education Consortium, a group that advanced cross-boundary community health solutions and the notion that

Seven years ago, IEL created a stem- and career-focused mentoring model for transition-age youth with disabilities involved or at risk of becoming involved in the juvenile justice system. Funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, IEL’s Ready to Achieve Mentoring Program (RAMP) was recently awarded its fifth RAMP grant, this one for $3 million. These

Reuben Jacobson, deputy director of IEL’s Coalition for Community Schools, recently published a report with Brookings. He emphasizes that the institutions of a neighborhood are vital to its health and economic strength, and public schools are one of the most important shared institutions. They function not only as centers for providing education but also as

IEL mourns the tragic events that occurred this summer. We mourn Alton Sterling (Baton Rouge, La.) and Philando Castile (Falcon Heights, Minn.), whose lives were tragically cut short during encounters with police. Deaths like these are too common in our communities. We mourn the murder of Officers Smith, Ahrens, Krol, Zamarripa, and Thompson in Dallas.

In July, the IEL-based Appalachian Higher Education Network (AHEN) held its annual conference with the theme “Family. Institution. Community. Self.” These are the four pillars of student success as developed by Dr. Aaron Thompson, interim president of Kentucky State University and keynote speaker at the event. AHEN is supported by the work of three mentors:

Martin J. Blank, president of IEL since 2009, will step down after a planned transition and search. After 25 years with the Institute, Marty will leave his position in early 2017 after a successor has been named. He will continue as the director of IEL’s Coalition for Community Schools until a new Coalition director is