The Coalition of Essential Schools

sidebar to Artists and Teachers Partner for School Reform
This story appeared in High Performance #71, Spring 1996.

The Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) is a national network of schools united by a set of commonly held principles. It was established in 1984 "to encourage the thoughtful redesign of the practices and structures of the secondary school." Besides a foundation of ideas, the Coalition provides to its members continuing research into educational reform, professional development for faculty and staff, and opportunities to collaborate with other organizations.

The Coalition, based at Brown University, was founded by Theodore R. Sizer, an historian, former secondary school principal and product of Yale and Harvard. Ted Sizer is the author of two pivotal books exploring the motivation, ideas and ongoing results of the Essential school reform effort, Horace's Compromise (1985) and Horace's School (1992), about a middle-aged teacher, "Horace," whose high school seeks change through these principles. They can be found in your public library and are a wonderful read. Artists will be interested to know they are both novels.

From 12 charter schools in four states, the Coalition is growing fast, with more than 220 Member Schools, another 264 Planning Schools and 456 Exploring Schools, from kindergarten through 12th Grade. These schools are diverse in size, population, program and geographic location: Of the 220 Member Schools, 90% are public schools; 47.3% are urban, 39.1% suburban and 12.3% rural. Of 192 schools reporting ethnographic data (the school's ethnic majority) and 174 reporting economic data—

For all Member schools reporting:

• African American 23%
• Asian 3%
• Hispanic 13%
• White 58%
• Other 1%
• Low-income 23.8%

For urban Member schools reporting:

• African American 35%
• Asian 4%
• Hispanic 21%
• White 36%
• Other 1%
• Low-income 32.5%

Nine "Common Principles" guide the work of the Coalition and its Member Schools. Each school develops its own programs suited to its particular students, faculty and community. No two Essential schools are alike. Schools applying to the Coalition must present a plan for change, and must demonstrate faculty and governing-board support for extending the plan to the entire school. There is no fee to join the Coalition; however, most schools require at least $50,000 a year for three to five years during the initial study and redesign phases for release time, travel and professional development activities. Schools are responsible for securing their own funds.

A central staff of about 50 professionals is based at Brown working in research on school design, professional development and collaboration with other organizations—all focused on creating a fertile atmosphere for school change.

Sizer and his colleagues believe there can be no change in education without change in the classroom. But as they observed the surrounding political climate they also realized the reverse: there can be no change in the classroom without changing everything about the system, including the way we think as a nation about education. CES works on many levels. With the Education Commission of the States, the Coalition sponsors Re:Learning, a partnership with participating states to build support for Essential school change at the state and district level.

CES conducts a large number of ambitious research projects in school design, and participates in a wealth of collaborations with other reform-oriented organizations, such as the Four Seasons project, a partnership among the National Center for Restructuring Education Schools and Teaching (Columbia University), the Coalition, Project Zero (Harvard) and Foxfire. This project seeks to give teachers a voice in the debate over assessment. In addition, it offers innovative seminars, institutes and forums for the further professional development of faculty and staff.

The Coalition publishes newsletters out of its research work, and a journal, HORACE, five times a year ($20/year). The Coalition's budget ($9 million in 1993-94) is supported by private corporations and foundations. Initial support was supplied by the Carnegie Corporation and the Danforth, Culpeper, Exxon and Noble Foundations.

—Linda Frye Burnham

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Original CAN/API publication: December 1999