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A Chronology of CCE

The Center for Collaborative Education – Metro Boston, Inc. was founded by Larry Myatt and Linda Nathan in September 1994, when both were Co-Directors of the Fenway Middle College High School, Boston’s first Pilot School.  The purpose of the Center was “to provide technical assistance to schools in and around Boston that are interested in restructuring and implementing creative new educational models to improve student learning.”  The Center was intended to become a regional center for the National Coalition of Essential Schools (CES), serving CES schools in the Greater Boston area. The idea for the Center, and indeed its name, was patterned after the Center for Collaborative Education in New York City, founded by Deborah Meier to support CES schools there.

In partnership with Fenway Middle College High School, the Center was housed rent-free in three windowless rooms in the basement floor of Bunker Hill Community College, next to Fenway High School.  Seed funding for the Center was provided in large part through a grant from the Goldberg Family Foundation.  Its initial Guiding Principles were the following:

• Provide direct hands-on technical assistance
• Function as a learning organization
• Focus on approaches that work
• Emphasize documentation

The initial two years found the Center engaged in a number of activities involving local school communities in improving practice and sharing knowledge:

• Coordinated visits to Fenway Middle College High School - to provide practitioners with an indepth look at how a small, urban, personalized school works
• Formed the Boston Educators for School Reform (BESR) network - the precursor to the Boston Pilot Schools Network, consisting of the leaders of the Pilot Schools to engage in sharing practice and addressing common concerns with the district
• The Innovative Schools Project – to work with three high schools on school restructuring – Brighton High School and Charlestown High School in Boston, and Winthrop High School.  The Center’s work at Brighton High School led in large part to its adoption of smaller learning communities, and Winthrop High School ended up adopting the Coalition of Essential Schools’ reform model
• The Portfolio Network – to work with teachers in encouraging the use of portfolios as teaching tools.  The network conducted several sharing sessions for teachers in the Greater Boston area who were interested in developing their portfolio practice
• Foxfire – to work with teachers from two schools to adopt Foxfire practices of literacy (Foxfire is a model of engaging students in strengthening literacy through gathering and re-telling stories from the community in which they reside)
• Conferences – CCE conducted the conference, Reinventing Public Education: The Move Toward Small Schools, which 130 participants attended in teams, and held a breakfast on the Pilot Schools, which 75 people attended
• CCE was a key player in bringing Annenberg funds to the Boston Public Schools

Despite these initial successes, the Center had trouble growing and in defining itself to the field.  A 1996-1997 study on the Center focused on sustainability, conducted by Technical Development Corporation of Boston, found that, while the Center had gained some name recognition in its first two years, was respected, and had conducted some noteworthy activities, it was constrained by the following factors:

• The initial executive director did not work out, and the resulting separation from the organization drained most of the Center’s initial seed funds.
• Many people in the field, including funders, could not make the distinction between Fenway High School and the Center for Collaborative Education, as the leaders of both organizations were the same.
• The other Pilot Schools’ directors had some caution about the Center because of its interdependence with Fenway High School, and therefore were not fully committed to the Center being its coordinating organization.
• The Center had not been able to develop any “signature” programs, which would help lend it a sense of identity and credibility.  The programs that they had did not necessarily form a coherent whole.

In March of 1997, there were only two staff people at the Center – a Coordinator and a half-time Innovative Schools Project Director – and about a $150,000 a year budget.  As a result of the TDC study, the Board sought an executive director who could create some independent identity for the Center, separate from Fenway High School.  Dan French, the current executive director, was hired at this time.  From this point on, with support from the Board, the Center began to grow rapidly.

In April 1997, the Center hosted a two-day leadership retreat for the Boston Pilot Schools.  At the time, the Pilot Schools were still operating individually, and negotiating separately with the district.  At this retreat, the Pilot Schools agreed to the following:

• To unite and form the Boston Pilot Schools Network, in order to have one voice with the district
• To develop and endorse a set of guiding principles which would govern the Network
• To have the Center for Collaborative Education serve as the Network’s coordinating organization

This represented the Center’s first official school network.

Since the spring of 1997, the Center has grown in capacity, adding school reform networks, and growing in capacity, staffing, budget, and visibility:

• In the spring of 1997, the Center began managing the funds of a few Pilot Schools.  This figure has grown to over $1 million annually in managed school funds.
• In June of 1997, the Carnegie Corporation agreed to provide two-year funding to the Center to launch the Boston Turning Points Network, a middle school reform model.  In the fall of 1998, the Carnegie Corporation, based on our initial field work in Boston, asked the Center to become the National Turning Points Center and to affiliate with New American Schools, an umbrella organization serving national school reform models.  The Carnegie Corporation granted CCE the trademark name, Turning Points.  The Center began building a national TP staff and evolving the model further, including the development of the Turning Points Guides, and recruiting regional centers across the country.
• In the fall of 1997, the Center officially became the Massachusetts Coalition of Essential Schools Regional Center.  In the spring of 2002, the Center transitioned to become the Southern New England Coalition of Essential Schools Regional Center, covering Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
• In the fall of 1997, the Center launched the planning phase of the SIMSE (Systemic Initiative in Math and Science Education) project, funded in large part by the Noyce Foundation, to assist CES schools in math and science, with implementation beginning in the summer of 1998.  After a successful first three years of implementation, the Noyce Foundation granted a second three-year grant to the Center in the summer of 2001.  This initiative ended in 2004.
• In the fall of 1998, the Center moved to its current home at Renaissance Park on the 9th floor.  Two years later, the Center moved to the fourth floor in search of more office space.  In the summer of 2002, the Center leased additional space on the third floor to account for a growing staff.
• In the fall of 1999, the Center underwent the CES affirmation process as a CES affiliate center.  While very complimentary, a significant finding was that the Center had disparate programs (CES, TP, Pilots) with no overarching theory of action.  This finding led to the further development of CCE’s mission and to the creation of the CCE Theory of Action that provides an overarching philosophy and approach to school reform across all the Center’s programs.  In addition, each network team began the process of creating benchmarks and road maps for the work in schools.
• In the fall of 1999, the Center hired its first western Massachusetts staff person, as a result of a growing demand for our work in that section of the state.  While we no longer have a staff person housed in western Massachusetts, because of declining contract work there, beginning in 2005 we hired our first Turning Points staff person based in New York City.
• In December of 1999, the Center began increasing its internal capacity, hiring a Comptroller to replace our Business Manager, as our revenue and staffing had increased so much.  This was followed in February 2001 with the hiring of a Technology Director to manage our computer network, launch a CCE website, and improve our public relations materials.  And in 2002, CCE hired our first Director of Development, to assume all development responsibilities; in the Fall 2006, this position expanded to become the Director of Development and External Affairs.
• In the spring of 2000, the Center launched the Principals Residency Network, an apprenticeship-based principal preparation and credentialing program.  The first cohort of 10 aspiring principals began graduating in the fall of 2001.  To date, six cohorts, representing about 60 candidates, have graduated from this program.
• In the spring of 2000, the Center started a Research and Evaluation unit to begin documenting our work.  Beginning in 2001, the Center began presenting research studies at various conferences, and using the findings of the studies to improve our work.  In the fall of 2001, the Center published its first two evaluation reports, both on the Pilot Schools, which garnered widespread interest. 
• In the summer of 2000, the Center received a significant grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to launch the New England Small Schools Network to work with urban New England districts to create Pilot-like schools through free-standing new schools or through converting large schools to small ones sharing facilities.  Five districts (Worcester, Lawrence, Malden, Cambridge, Providence) were selected in the spring of 2001, and the network was launched in the summer of 2001 with the goal of creating 35 small schools or small learning communities. 
• In the fall of 2001, the Center launched its community organizing model through hiring our first-time Community Coordinator to build community and political support for the Pilot Schools.
• In the winter of 2003, the Center joined a partnership with the Boston Public Schools, Jobs for the Future, Boston Plan for Excellence, and Boston Private Industry Council to launch 12 new small high schools in Boston, using a $13.5 million grant from the Gates Foundation.
• In the spring of 2003, the Center merged its Coalition of Essential Schools and New England Small Schools Networks, to become the CES/NESSN, in order to create greater synergy in our Coalition work.  Today, the network is called Small Schools Network, for simplicity and because we have expanded beyond the borders of New England.
• In the fall of 2003, the Center co-hosted a study with Jobs for the Future and MassInc.’s Rennie Center on successful Massachusetts urban high schools, and the state and district policy implications for creating more of them.  The studies were presented at a state-wide forum for 350 policymakers and educators.  This led to a further collaboration with the Rennie Center to conduct a state-wide High Schools of the Future Conference in January 2006, at which there were over 400 attendees.
• In the summer of 2004, CCE closed out its SIMSE program and embedded math coaching into its reform networks and program teams.  At the same time, the organization merged its National Turning Points Team and New England Turning Points Team into one unified Turning Points Team.
• In 2005, CCE received a second Gates Foundation grant to focus our work further – develop a series of print and web guides on the Pilot model, strengthen the Pilot Network in Boston, and replicate the Pilot model to Fitchburg.
• In January 2006, CCE released it second major Pilot Schools report – Progress and Promise – at a forum hosted by The Boston Foundation, at which 200 people attended; the report also garnered widespread local and national media attention.

From FY 1997 to FY 2002, the Center’s budget and staffing increased substantially; it has leveled off and reduced somewhat in subsequent years:

The number of schools served has also increased correspondingly (the figures are approximations – the total number of schools with which the Center works or is affiliated with is about 135):

Number of Schools Served

During these years, the Center has maintained a firm commitment to diversity and equity, both in becoming a more diverse organization in our staffing, and by exploring how to embed equity discussions and practices into our field work.

The Board has also continued to diversify and expand, including more community, business, and political representation.  The Board focuses primarily on guiding the organization in its program development and philosophy.  Examples of Board discussions over the past few years include:

• Approving a Board statement on opposing the use of a single test to determine a student’s future, and advocating for the use of multiple measures of assessment
• Helping frame CCE’s Gates Foundation-sponsored Small Schools Network initiative
• Interviewing CES/NESSN superintendents and principals on their small schools work
• Discussing the role of race and equity in the Center’s programs and field work
• Discussing the role of community organizing in the Center’s programs