Center for Education in Small Urban Communities

Established in the spring of 2007, the Center for Education in Small Urban Communities is a research, teaching, and outreach unit within the College of Education. It focuses on enhancing teaching and learning, houses a number of the College’s professional development activities, and serves as a liaison for school-university partnerships. The Center’s entire staff work daily to play an active role in fulfilling UIUC’s improved, strategic service directions and to guide the establishment of an ongoing, research-based professional development partnership.

Why Small Urban?

The majority of research on educational reform in the U.S. is focused on large urban and rural communities.  However, over the past decade, small urban centers are becoming the modeal type of community in the country.  These communities are experiencing the opportunities and challenges of changing demographics, globalization, federal intervention into school policy, education for economic development, and other social trends to the same or greater extent than large urban centers. 

Little research is directed specifically at how distinctive small urban communities and their educational institutions are dealing with these opportunities and challenges.  Together, these communities represent nearly three-fourths of the school districts in the nation.  It is time to develop programs and solutions that address their unique needs.  It is time for the Centr for Education in Small Urban Communities at Illinois.

Why Illinois?

The College of Education at the University of Illinois is located in a typical small urban setting that presents us with an accessible and fertile test bed for cross-disciplinary, translational, and innovative research into the workings of the educational institutions of these communities.  We bring to bear the intellectual and practical resources of a top land grand research university in genuine partnership with local educational institutions and their communities.  Together, we engage with long-term, intensive research and outreach efforts to create measurable improvement in education in our local community, while at the same time producing generalizable knowledge of what works in these settings, to shape policy and practice in similar communities around the country.

What Impact?

Since 1867 Illinois has led the nation in bringing social innovation together with breakthrough thinking to create a world where everyone has the opportunity to learn.  The Center carries that tradition forward today.  The key to success is the establishment of long-term, interactive, and trusting partnerships with our local communities.  These relationships create a dynamic new environment for change and innovation.

What Are Our Partners Saying?

"The Chancellor's Academy was the most mentally invigorating week of my career as a teacher!"

"Our Teacher Collaborator has been a catalyst for instructional change in our school.  We have grown in our confidence and skills in presenting mini lessons for the writer's workshop and in assessing the students' writing.  We have seen real growth in our students' writing.  Students that were writing just one page stories are now writing three page stories and using more detail."

"The collaboration that I have seen so far has demonstrated the passion and commitment of the Center for not only the districts, schools, and teachers, but also the students and the community."