About the Urban Education Institute
The mission of the Urban Education Institute is to create new knowledge and educational models to address one of the nation’s most significant and enduring questions: how do we produce reliably excellent schooling for children growing up in urban America?
To address this question, UEI works to:
Establish and sustain exemplary public schools, preK-12th grade. The University charter schools are designed to prepare young people across the South Side of Chicago for college and to demonstrate effective, scaleable models of elementary and secondary education. The Urban Education Institute is also responsible for building a portfolio of 20 new schools, which when fully enrolled will serve 10,000 students across Chicago. We are demonstrating that all children can learn at high levels if they are taught with skill and understanding and provided with comprehensive academic and social supports.
Develop and support teachers and school leaders, building new approaches to the human capital challenges faced by urban schools.
Undertake rigorous research. Led by the Consortium on Chicago School Research, and working in close partnership with the University Committee on Education, our research is designed to inform policy, practice, and the public about what matters most.
Innovate and share best practices, tools, and ideas to improve teaching and learning. From the Digital Youth Network to a unique college readiness curriculum and social network, we are dedicated to finding solutions to the challenges facing urban educators and the children they serve.
By drawing the intellectual resources of the University of Chicago together with expert practitioners who work with children every day, we believe we can better clarify the practices, supports, tools, and research necessary to ensure all children engage in ambitious intellectual work.
Through the careful integration of our core endeavors—establishing and sustaining exemplary schools, creating human capital, and developing new knowledge—UEI can make significant contributions to one of the nation’s greatest domestic challenges, and, build a new model for how a University can work to support the improvement of American schooling.
Read more about the ideas that led to the creation of the Urban Education Institute: John Dewey for Today: Chicago refines the role of the research university in urban schools - Timothy Knowles, Stephen Raudenbush, and Henry S. Webber. Education Week, July 18, 2007.