The following descriptions of organizations are based on their own characterization of their work.

• American Association of School Administrators (AASA) AASA, founded in 1865, is the professional organization for over 14,000 educational leaders across America and in many other countries. AASA's mission is to support and develop effective school system leaders who are dedicated to the highest quality public education for all children. The four major focus areas for AASA are:
  ·Improving the condition of children and youth
  ·Preparing schools and school systems for the 21st century
  ·Connecting schools and communities
  ·Enhancing the quality and effectiveness of school leaders
  


• American Educational Research Association (AERA) The American Educational Research Association is concerned with improving the educational process by encouraging scholarly inquiry related to education and by promoting the dissemination and practical application of research results.  AERA publishes Educational Researcher nine times a year, four quarterly journals and an annual review of the research:
  ·American Educational Research Journal (AERJ)
  ·Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (EEPA)
  ·Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics (JEBS)
  ·Review of Educational Research (RER)
  ·Review of Research in Education (RRE)


• American Federation of Teachers (AFT) In 1916, a handful of teachers met in the basement of a teacher's home in Winnetka, Ill. What brought them together was the belief that they needed a new national organization that would be committed to their professional interests, would benefit the people they served, and would work to create strong local unions affiliated with the labor movement. The organization they forged is the American Federation of Teachers. From this foundation, the AFT has grown into a trade union representing workers in education, health care, and public service. Today, the AFT continues to be known for its democratic ideals and its cutting-edge work on behalf of its members and the public they serve. And because the AFT has more than one million members nationwide, we can exert a strong influence on standards and professional practices in our members' workplaces.


• The Annenberg Institute for School Reform The mission of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform is to develop, share, and act on knowledge that improves the conditions and outcomes of schooling in America, especially in urban communities and in schools serving underserved children. The site contains a section on comprehensive school reform which highlights the Institute's work in this area.


• Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development is a unique international, nonprofit, nonpartisan association of professional educators whose jobs cross all grade levels and subject areas. In their diversity, members share a profound commitment to excellence in education. Founded in 1943, ASCD's mission is to forge covenants in teaching and learning for the success of all learners. Educational Leadership, ASCD's monthly magazine (September through May) is intended for leaders in K-12 education, especially in the areas of curriculum, instruction, supervision, and leadership in schools. Selected articles are available online and full access is available with membership.


• The Baldrige In Education Initiative is a partnership of 26 national education and business organizations, six state pilots, and growing numbers of states and communities that are using Baldrige to raise student achievement. Managed by the National Alliance of Business and the American Productivity & Quality Center, Baldrige In Education Initiative aims to transform American K-16 education into a high performing system. Baldrige In Education Initiative is based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Criteria for Performance Excellence. It reinforces state, district, and community leaders to continuously improve performance and learning opportunities for all students.


• Basic School Network The Basic School Eastern Consortia is a Network center based at James Madison University, in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley, in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The Consortia is part of JMU's Research and Program Innovation Department and is housed in the Chancellor's Office. Schools in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana are currently served by the Eastern Consortia. New members from other states in the region are encouraged to join. The Eastern Consortia assists schools in creating learning communities of excellence based on Boyer's four priorities, as described in his last and most persuasive report, The Basic School: A Community for Learning. These integrative priorities are: the school as community, a curriculum with coherence, a climate for learning, and a commitment to character.


• Brookings Institution In its research, The Brookings Institution functions as an independent analyst and critic, committed to publishing its findings for the information of the public. In its conferences and activities, it serves as a bridge between scholarship and public policy, bringing new knowledge to the attention of decisionmakers and affording scholars a better insight into public policy issues.


• The Brown Center on Education Policy conducts research on topics in American education, with a special focus on efforts to improve academic achievement in elementary and secondary schools.

• The Center for Public Education (Center) is a national resource for accurate, timely, and credible information about public education and its importance to the well-being of our nation. The Center provides up-to-date research, data, and analysis on current education issues and explores ways to improve student achievement and engage public support for public schools.

  The Center is intended for a variety of audiences, including state and local policymakers, educators, community leaders, parents, and everyone concerned with the education of our children—our next generation of leaders.

  The Center is a joint initiative of the National School Boards Association (NSBA) and National School Boards Foundation.

• Center for Social Organization of Schools The Center for Social Organization of Schools (CSOS) was established in 1966 as an educational research and development center at Johns Hopkins University. The Center maintains a staff of full-time, highly productive sociologists, psychologists, social psychologists, and educators who conduct programmatic research to improve the education system, as well as full-time support staff engaged in developing curricula and providing technical assistance to help schools use the Center's research. The Center currently includes the federally-supported Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk, and the Center on School, Family & Community Partnerships. The Center provides access to many of its technical reports and other publications.
• Comprehensive School Reform Quality (CSRQ) Center The CSRQ Center provides timely and reliable tools and technical assistance to support urban and rural educators and education decision makers in choosing the highest quality CSR model to meet locally defined needs. They produce the CSRQ Reports, develop partnerships to ensure they are meeting consumer needs and provide technical assistance to selected states, districts, and schools.
  

• Council of Chief State School Officers The Council of Chief State School Officers is a nation wide, nonprofit organization composed of public officials who lead the departments responsible for elementary and secondary education in the states, the U.S. extra-state jurisdictions, the District of Columbia, and the Department of Defense Education Activity. In representing the chief education officers, CCSSO works on behalf of the state agencies that serve pre K-12 students throughout the nation.


• Council of the Great City Schools An organization of the nation's largest urban public school systems, advocating K-12 education in inner-city schools, and governed by superintendents and board of education members from 58 cities across the country.


• Education Commission of the States The Education Commission of the States (ECS) is a national, nonprofit organization that helps governors, legislators, state education officials and others identify, develop and implement policies to improve student learning at all levels. A bipartisan interstate compact formed in 1965, ECS is located in Denver, Colorado. The staff includes educators, policy analysts, communications and technology experts, researchers and support staff.


• Education Policy Studies Laboratory (EPSL) The Education Policy Studies Laboratory at Arizona State University, directed by Alex Molnar, conducts and coordinates original research in areas such as student performance standards, assessment, commercialism in schools, curriculum, and language policy issues. EPSL disseminates its analyses and reports to policy makers, educators, media, and the public through four specialized units and an on-line journal.


• The Education Trust The Education Trust works for the high academic achievement of all students at all levels, kindergarten through college. The Ed Trust focuses on the institutions most often left behind in plans to improve education of those serving concentrations of low-income, Latino, African American or Native American students.


• Educational Testing Service Since its inception in 1947, research has been a focal point in ETS's mission. A significant number of researchers are engage in collaborative efforts with federal and state governments, local school districts, and private sector initiatives touching on assessment, instruction and the powerful links between the two.


• Institute for Educational Leadership The Institute for Educational Leadership is a partner in the National Clearinghouse for Comprehensive School Reform. The Institute for Educational Leadership's (IEL) mission is to improve education -- and the lives of children and their families -- through positive and visionary change. Every day, we face that challenge by bringing together diverse constituencies and empowering leaders with knowledge and applicable ideas. This is why foundations, corporations and generous individuals support our work, and why our teams often include the most innovative federal, state and local government agencies and many of the nation's leading nonprofit organizations. We invite you to explore our site and learn more about IEL's organization, people, programs and publications.


• Middleweb Middleweb is a World Wide Web site that explores the challenges of middle school reform, and contains resources for educators and parents.


• National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE) NABSE, a 5,000 plus member, nonprofit organization founded in 1970 by Dr. Charles D. Moody, Sr. and other prominent educators, is the nation's largest network of African American educators. NABSE is dedicated to improving the educational accomplishments of African American youth through the development and deployment of instructional and motivational methods that increase levels of inspiration, attendance and overall achievement.


• National Association of Elementary School Principals The National Association of Elementary School Principals was founded in 1921 by a group of principals who sought to promote their profession and to provide a national forum for their ideas. Over the past 79 years, NAESP has grown to become the most powerful voice of Pre-K-8 principals across the United States and around the world. Since its beginning, NAESP has been dedicated to ensuring that all children get the best education possible. We serve the professional interest of elementary and middle school principals, and we promote the highest professional standards. Today, NAESP provides a peer network of more than 28,500 principals worldwide. We understand the needs, concerns, and problems of Pre-K-8 school leaders Ñ and we offer extensive support, expert counsel, and proven solutions.


• National Association of Secondary School Principals Our mission is to promote excellence in school leadership. To this end, we provide our members with a wide variety of programs and services to assist them in: Administration, Supervision, Curriculum planning, and Effective staff development.


• National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) The National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) represents state and territorial boards of education. Our principal objectives include strengthening state leadership in educational policymaking; promoting excellence in the education of all students; advocating equality of access to educational opportunity; and assuring continued citizen support for public education.


• National Board for Professional Teaching Standards The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization governed by a 63-member board of directors. Most of our directors are classroom teachers. The others are school administrators, school board leaders, governors and state legislators, higher education officials, teacher union leaders, and business and community leaders.


• The National Center on Education and the Economy The National Center on Education and the Economy (a not-for-profit organization based in Washington, DC) believes it is possible for almost everyone to learn far more and develop far higher skills than most of us have thought possible. The hallmark of the National Center's work is standards-based reform. We believe that education and training systems work best when clear standards, standards that match the highest in the world are set for student achievement, accurate measures of progress against those standards are devised, the people closest to the students are given the authority for figuring out how to get the students to the standards and are then held accountable for student progress.


• The National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education (NCPIE) Since its creation in 1980, the National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education's mission has been to "advocate the involvement of parents and families in their children's education, and to foster relationships between home, school, and community to enhance the education of all students." Activities toward this end include representing parent and family involvement initiatives at a national level, monitoring legislation, initiating collaborative projects, and sharing information and ideas about research, programs, and policies to increase family involvement in education. NCPIE consists of local and national organizations and advocacy groups dedicated the creation of meaningful partnerships between families, schools, and communities. The NCPIE web site provides access to resources, tools and legislative updates to assist those working to promote parent and family involvement in the education of our nation's youth.


• National Education Association NEA is America's oldest and largest organization committed to advancing the cause of public education. Founded in 1857 in Philadelphia and now headquartered in Washington, D.C., NEA proudly claims more than 2.5 million members who work at every level of education, from pre-school to university graduate programs. NEA has affiliates in every state as well as in over 13,000 local communities across the United States.


• National Education Goals Panel The National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) is a unique bipartisan and intergovernmental body of federal and state officials created in July 1990 to assess and report state and national progress toward achieving the National Education Goals.


• National Governors' Association NGA is the only bipartisan national organization of, by, and for the nations' Governors. Its members are the Governors of the fifty states, the commonwealths of the Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico, and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, and the Virgin Islands. NGA was founded in 1908 after the Governors met with President Theodore Roosevelt to discuss conservation issues. The Governors decided to form an association through which they could come together to discuss their mutual concerns and act collectively. In 1967 the Governors established an Office of State Federal Relations in Washington, D.C.


• National Parent Teachers Association The mission of the National PTA is three-fold: to support and speak on behalf of children and youth in the schools, in the community and before governmental bodies and other organizations that make decisions affecting children; to assist parents in developing the skills they need to raise and protect their children; and to encourage parent and public involvement in the public schools of this nation.


• National Rural Education Association The National Rural Education Association is a membership organization that operates as a tax-exempt, non-profit entity. It is directed by an elected executive committee consisting of national representatives of:
  
  • Rural School Administrators
  • Rural School Teachers
  • State Education Agencies
  • Educational Service Agencies
  • Higher Education
  • Rural School District Boards
  • At-Large Constituencies
  
  
• National School Boards Association The National School Boards Association is the nationwide advocacy and outreach organization for public school governance. NSBA's mission is to foster excellence and equity in public elementary and secondary education in the United States through school board leadership. Founded in 1940, NSBA is a not-for profit federation of state associations of school boards across the United States and the school boards of the District of Columbia, Guam, Hawaii, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.


• National Service-Learning Partnership Founded in 2001, the National Service-Learning Partnership is a national advocacy network through which its members educate, organize, and mobilize for strategic leadership that promotes and strengthens the practice of service-learning. Service-learning is a teaching method that engages students in service to their schools and communities as part of their academic studies. The Partnership is dedicated to advancing service-learning as a core element of the educational experience of every elementary, middle, and secondary school student in the United States. The Partnership concentrates on strengthening the impact of service-learning on young people's learning and development, especially their academic and civic preparation. For the Partnership, service-learning is about educational excellence.


• National Staff Development Council The National Staff Development Council (NSDC), founded in 1969, is the largest non-profit professional association committed to ensuring success for all students through staff development and school improvement. The Council's fundamental purpose is to address the issues confronted by all participants in the reform process. The Council views high quality staff development programs as essential to creating schools in which all students and staff members are learners who continually improve their performance. NSDC's publications and projects are presented in a time-saving, "how-to" format, offering a variety of effective, step-by-step models developed by practitioners who base their methods on research and real-world experiences.


• Public Agenda Public Agenda is a nonpartisan, nonprofit public opinion research and citizen education organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1975 by social scientist and author Daniel Yankelovich and former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance.


• Public Education Network The mission of the Public Education Network is to create systems of public education that result in high achievement for every child. We work to educate the nation about the relationship between school quality and the quality of community and public life. We believe that equal opportunity, access to quality public schools, and an informed citizenry are all critical components of a democratic society. Our goal is to ensure that the availability of high-quality public education is every child's right and not a privilege.


• RAND Corporation The mission of the RAND Corporation is to bring accurate data and objective analysis to the national debate on education policy. We are a division within RAND, a nonprofit institute that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis.


• Southern Regional Education Board The Southern Regional Education Board, founded in 1948 at the request of Southern governors, was the nation's first compact for education. Over the years SREB has worked to improve every aspect of education, from early childhood education to doctoral degrees and beyond. The board is composed of each member state's governor and four other people selected by the governor. At least one of those appointees must be a legislator, and at least one must be an educator. The SREB member states are Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.