New school year, new
opportunities, renewed commitment
For
all of us, and many of you, it's not the ball dropping in Times Square
that
marks the New Year - it's school bells ringing across the region. This
fall, those bells have a special
resonance for us because they're also ringing in The Consortium for
Public
Education's 25th year. Anniversaries
always are occasions for reflection. But equally, they're calls to
action,
renewal of purpose and commitment. Our purpose -- working to ensure that
all of our region's children start school ready to learn and graduate successfully prepared for careers, citizenship and lifelong learning -- has never more
urgent; nor has our commitment to them, and to you, been more
relentless.
In
that spirit, we've planned one of the most ambitious agendas in our history for
2010-2011-- from a project called Hear Me! that we're undertaking as a lead partner with
Carnegie Mellon University to elevate the voices of youth across the region, to our support for a major initiative
to improve regional economic competitiveness and quality of life called Power of 32. Additionally, we've been invited to pilot a new avenue for career exploration called Pathways to Health Careers and we're launching a pilot of our own called My Action Plan for Success (MAPS) that we hope will establish a gold standard
for individual learning plans. Our
regular programming also is moving apace, with a deadline of September 13 to register for our annual Journey to Learn and a deadline of October 1 to apply for our fall round of Great Idea Grants.
To
learn more about any or all of these efforts just click the links above.
Meanwhile we wish all of you a rewarding school year and thank all of our
district partners for their tireless efforts to make our region's public
schools the catalysts for learning, aspiration and civic vitality that we all
want them to be.
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