Partners in School Innovation

Partners in School Innovation, whose aim is to eliminate racial and social achievement gaps in public schools, was founded in 1993 by two partners who recognized the need for an institutional change in the educational system.

Partners in School innovation serves public schools in the Bay area by implementing systemic improvements in low-performing schools, enlisting the support of AmeriCorps members, or "Partners." Almost 40% of the costs of service come from schools and districts. Contributed income from community foundations, corporate donors and individual donors make up the rest of the costs of service.

The program works side-by-side with the schools and the districts to build capacity and expertise of leaders and teachers who are already in the system. This partnerships usually last three to five years, during which program staff work closely with the school's teachers and leaders to set and meet student achievement goals. One or two School Innovation partners are assigned to each school site, where they train teachers how to accelerate the learning of their students and how to sustain continuous improvement after the end of the partnership. The program also leads a cross-school Leadership Development Network for school and district leaders to learn effective practices from one another and from educational research.

Furthermore, Partners in School Innovation consults and collaborates with district leaders in focusing their policies and educational programs.

Partners in School Innovation enables public schools in high-poverty Bay Area communities to achieve educational equity through school-based reform.

Since their founding, Partners in School Innovation have partnered with over 10 districts and 50 schools and served over 65,000 students, teachers and principals.

Participating schools outperformed the literacy gains on the 2009 California Standards Test in English Language Arts (CST-ELA) compared to their respective districts, similar schools around the state, and the state as a whole. Moreover, English learners in these schools outpaced the reading growth of their fluent English speaking peers.