The 2018-19 cohort year will mark the 55th anniversary of IEL’s Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP). EPFP is a nationally recognized fellowship program that develops a diverse and collaborative community of strategic leaders for effective public policy. Since its start, EPFP has acted as an instrument for fostering a comprehensive understanding of policy issues from […]

IEL’s Family & Community Engagement (FCE) team at IEL attended the North Dakota Study Group’s (NDSG) annual meeting February 15-18. This year’s meeting was at Tugaloo University in Jackson, Miss., with the theme Emancipation, Equity, and Excellence: Learning from and with Activists. Since 1972, NDSG members have come together to reimagine possibilities and alternatives in

IEL, in partnership with The Freedom ’64 Project, led a bus tour retracing the civil rights movement. Participants on the learning journey engaged with student leaders from the movement in the ‘60s, as well as leaders from organizations currently working for equity and justice. Lucretia Murphy of Jobs for the Future wrote a blog post

In December, IEL had the opportunity to speak with Bridget Murphy and Tami Love from the Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA) about its Parent Mentor Program. This nationally recognized program is a wonderful example of how one community-based organization took a grassroots approach to embed itself within Chicago Public Schools and the state of Illinois,

IEL’s Appalachian Higher Education (AHE) Network published a new report, Opening Doors, Changing Futures, that tells the shared story of impact the AHE Network has had on postsecondary attainment in Appalachia from 2011-2016. The report sets out the current economic and education context in the 10-state region and highlights expanding education and training work that

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) and IEL have been co-hosting education policy forums since 1983 as a vehicle to highlight research, policy, and practice in education. These monthly luncheons feature many of the leading researchers, thinkers, and practitioners in education. The 35th anniversary season kick off on October 19th featured Margaret Maaka University of

IEL is proud to introduce the 54th cohort of our Education Policy Fellowship Program. Three hundred ten Fellows from 16 sites are participating in the ten-month professional development initiative in which diverse emerging and mid-level leaders learn together about education policy, leadership, and networking. These participants join an alumni network of 9,000 leaders working in

The annual Washington Policy Seminar, a capstone event of IEL’s 53-year-old Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP), focused this year on Navigating Education Policy Change. EPFP Fellows, a diverse cohort of professionals in education and related fields, spent four days learning about federal policy, sharing knowledge across roles and institutions and visiting Capitol Hill. EPFP Fellows

Recently, IEL interviewed Dr. Larry Leverett, the newly retired executive director of the Panasonic Foundation, a corporate foundation with a mission to help public school systems with high percentages of children in poverty to improve learning for all students. Dr. Leverett reflected on his Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP) experience. He maintains his multi-sector network

The Bay Area Regional Leadership Learning Exchange, “Ecology of Action,” was a professional development opportunity for teachers and principals. Sixty-five participants met at Oakland’s Jack London Aquatic Center. The participants included school personnel, students, parents, teachers, principals, and assistant superintendents. Participants were invited to engage in dynamic mindfulness with Niroga Institute’s BK Bose and each

Educators, parents, families, and community partners must be able to respond to trauma and know where to access support. Over 400 participants tuned in to a second IEL webinar on addressing childhood trauma, co-hosted by the Center for the Study of Social Policy. This webinar examined how schools and community partners can engage and work

Seeking insight into some of the most challenging questions on race and equity still left unanswered in America, a bus full of community college faculty and education leaders, including Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP) participants, embarked on a civil rights bus tour in late November. Their journey took them to historic civil rights movement sites

Transformative, visionary, inspiring, life-changing, empowering: Words that IEL’s Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP) alumni use to describe their EPFP experience, whether they were in the program last year or fifty years ago. EPFP focuses on three pillars: policy, leadership, and networking. This approach invites leaders learn from each other across systems. EPFP has graduated over

Shital C. Shah is the assistant director of educational issues at the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). In this role, she works across AFT departments to help examine and develop policy for and to support implementation of AFT’s community schools area of work around whole school reform and provides support and training to state and

The debates over the appropriate federal role in education have been persistent for decades, oscillating between the federal government and the states with regards to scope, strengthening, and responsibility. The new federal Every Student Succeeds Act represents the latest recalibration and the tenuous nature of the federal-state relationship. Dr. Michael Usdan, IEL senior fellow and

From July 17-21, IEL and East Carolina University hosted the 2016 Summer Leadership Learning Exchange in Greenville, NC. Leadership learning exchanges are one of the offerings under IEL’s Leaders for Today and Tomorrow (LT2) initiative.  Roughly 75 participants were part of this year’s summer learning exchange, including teams of district administrators, principals and assistant principals,

Gay Kingman (DC EPFP 79-80) is the executive director of the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association (GPTCA) and the Coalition of Large Tribes. GPTCA—which is made up of tribal leaders from 16 sovereign nations from Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota—meets regularly to make administrative decisions and review legislation affecting all Tribal Governments. As the

IEL and East Carolina University are hosting a Summer Leadership Learning Exchange July 17-21, 2016. Breathing Joy and Justice into School and Community Leadership is an interactive, four-day institute utilizing the latest research on achieving collective impact for equitable and excellent schools. School- and community-based teams—including school leaders, teachers, middle and high school students, counselors,

In April, the Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP) hosted its 52nd Washington Policy Seminar (WPS). The four-day annual capstone event that convenes EPFP Fellows from across the country welcomed 300 Fellows from 17 sites—our highest WPS attendance ever. The theme, Presidential Politics and Education Policy, explored the evolution of the role of the president and

As the president of Excelencia in Education, Sarita Brown is a tireless advocate for Latino success in higher education. Brown spoke with the Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP)—she was a member of the 1984 Texas cohort—and shared her thoughts on what policymakers and higher education leaders should know about Latino students and how they can

External accountability, high-stakes testing, and a focus on international rankings dominate much of the global education reform conversations. What will it take to flip the system and empower those closest to the children and youth—our teachers—to redesign an equity-driven approach to education? IEL recently penned a piece on strategies and practices that schools use to

In November, district leaders from across the country gathered in Nashville, Tenn. a learning lab focused on family and community engagement practices and strategies. Leaders also had the opportunity to participate in a district-wide family engagement summit to learn more about Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools’ efforts in this area and to hear from community-based organizations

Dr. June Atkinson holds many roles: state superintendent of North Carolina, president of the Council of Chief State School Officers, and IEL board member. She spoke with the Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP)—she’s a 1985 alum of the North Carolina cohort—and shared her thoughts on the value of career and technical education, being a female

Working in partnership with the East Carolina University (ECU) College of Education and the UCEA Center for Educational Leadership and Social Justice at Duquesne University, IEL successfully launched our first summer institute on July 20-24, 2015 at ECU in Greenville, NC. Unlike a major conference, the four-day summer learning exchange “Breathing Joy and Justice into