New Standards in Education Project
In 1996, the Center for Greater Philadelphia (CGP) began working with school districts in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties to adopt rigorous academic standards and internationally-benchmarked assessments. This work led to the formation of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Standards Consortium to coordinate standards-based reform efforts in nearly half of the 61 school districts in these counties, which collectively enrolled over 163,000 students. The Consortium provided leadership training for principals, coordinated a mentor academy for teachers, helped districts determine their progress through the use of a self-evaluation tool which the CGP helped create, and provided intensive, sustained professional development opportunities to member districts' staff in support of standards-based reform. The Consortium received over $2 million in grants from the Pennsylvania Department of Education's "Educate America" program. It also worked with 11 school districts in southern New Jersey. The program has been merged with the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education's Center for Educational Leadership.
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