In their study of the educational ecosystems that surround schools, the authors recognized a growing global trend that has positioned "intermediary organizations," and particularly non-system intermediary organizations, or those not involved in the formal governmental education system, in an oversized ecosystem role. Through their direct…

The UIC Center for Urban Education Leadership conducted a study in collaboration with the Qatar Foundation. As the research and work on educational ecosystems has grown, we now recognize a growing global trend that has positioned "intermediary organizations" in an oversized ecosystem role. Through their direct work with schools,…

This article focuses on the growing development towards new forms of '"distributed" governance within current large-scale educational reforms. The emphasis is on so-called "governance through standards" as a transformative reform complex which manifests itself in a simultaneous process of regulative destabilisation and (global)…

The development and scale-up of school improvement networks is among the most important educational innovations of the last decade, and current federal, state, and district efforts attempt to use school improvement networks as a mechanism for supporting large-scale change. The potential of improvement networks, however, rests on the extent to…

Guided by theories of institutions, organizations, and sense-making, this manuscript examines how public, charter, and Catholic school staff in a large urban area organize for instruction and respond to educational change. To build theory about institutional processes of "organizing" from participants' perspectives, data included a…

Despite the claims of a popular slogan, the world does not change one person at a time. It changes as networks of relationships form among people who share a common cause and vision of what is possible. This is good news for those who want to change public education. Making connections however is not the whole story. This article describes how a…

Changes in the demography of the nation's public schools are occurring at a dramatic pace. In states such as California, Texas, and Florida, new immigrants comprise more than a third of the student population. In major cities such as New York, Miami, and Los Angeles, they comprise more than 40% of the student population. Similar changes are…

The major purpose of this descriptive report is to provide an overview of the structure, capacity, and roles of educational service agencies (ESAs) across five states--Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin--in the Great Lakes region, within the context of the broader statewide systems of support for educational improvement and progress.…