Leading Across Boundaries

IEL’s board of directors named Kent McGuire as its new chair last November. A longtime supporter, he joined the board in 2002 and is a 1981 alumnus of IEL’s Education Policy Fellowship Program. A recent Education Week commentary he co-authored calls for states to prioritize community schools in state education reform. The article was based on […]

As the new Every Student Succeeds Act shifts more responsibilities back to the state and local levels, the roles of school boards continues to be paramount. In 1986, IEL authored the report School Boards: Strengthening Grass Roots Leadership, which identified indicators of effective school boards. A few of these board indicators include investment in board development,

Career readiness has been an important consideration of U.S. public education since the early 20th century. In 1994, two leaders in the workforce development field—Joan Wills, founder and former director of IEL’s Center for Workforce Development, and Irene Lynn, former leader of the National School-to-Work Office—came together to provide insight on what motivated involvement in

During spring cleaning earlier this year, IEL got new chairs for the office’s conference rooms, but didn’t want the old ones to go into the trash. Instead, Maame Appiah, Director of Operations & Network Development for IEL’s Coalition for Community Schools, sent them to Ghana. Maame’s family members run Mother’s Love Kids Foundation Centre, a

In 1991, Martin J. Blank—who became IEL’s president in 2009—led a task force commissioned by the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, a major step forward for interagency collaboration. The group brought together leaders from across the country to think together about communicating the importance of school-community partnerships. The work of this

From June 22-24, over 1,100 educators, parent leaders, community partners and district leaders from 47 states, Australia, the Netherlands, and the Philippines gathered at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago for the 2015 National Family and Community Engagement Conference. Guided by the conference theme, Shaping our Future by Leading Together: Families, Schools, Communities, participants embraced

In 2000 and 2001, IEL released a four-part series entitled Leadership for Student Learning. A product of IEL’s School Leadership for the 21st Century initiative, the series raised public awareness about problems facing education leadership. The series addresses how educational leaders can be effective to lead successful students and schools. The initiative successfully brought many

IEL and the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) hosted the inaugural Samuel Halperin Lecture and Youth Public Service Award. The lecture and award serve as a tribute to Halperin, a former IEL president and AYPF founder, who dedicated his career to advancing education, workforce, and youth policy. This year, the Ford Foundation’s Hilary Pennington was

IEL is convening the 2nd National Family & Community Engagement Conference—Shaping Our Future by Leading Together: Families, Schools, and Communities—in Chicago from June 22-24. The conference will lift up the work taking place across Chicago and Illinois. While honoring local and regional work, this year’s conference will examine other innovative initiatives across the country through

In 2000 and 2001, as part of our School Leadership for the 21st Century work, IEL released the Leadership for Student Learning series, raising awareness about crises facing education leaders. Topics included “Reinventing the Principalship,” “Redefining the Teacher as Leader,” “Recognizing the State’s Role in Education,” and “Urban School Leadership.” Although the series is now