The University of Chicago Urban Education Institute and The McKnight Foundation have established a new partnership to improve early literacy and help build a coherent, early childhood-through-third grade educational pipeline in Minneapolis-St. Paul. The work is designed to ensure all participating students are fully literate by grade three, with the right groundwork in place to succeed through school and college.
The McKnight Foundation has awarded UEI $1.2 million to lead and manage the foundation’s Education and Learning Program, an initiative to establish high-quality systems for literacy development from pre-kindergarten through grade 3; gather, analyze and share useful field data and diagnostics; and undertake field-building and advocacy through Minnesota and beyond. The McKnight Foundation investment will support UEI to initiate the ambitious project for the first year of what is anticipated will be a multiyear project. A significant portion of UEI’s grant will fund direct technical support and shared learning opportunities for McKnight’s school district grantees.
“Our partnership with the Urban Education Institute will add considerable power to what we could do alone,” said Kate Wolford, president of The McKnight Foundation. “Our school district grantees will benefit from UEI’s nationally recognized leadership and professional capacity. Together, we share a sense of urgency to raise the bar and close the gap on early literacy in the Twin Cities.”
UEI’s leadership of the E&L will span four domains:
- Overall management and leadership of the Education and Learning Program: including direct oversight of work under way in three partner districts, supporting field-building activities across the Twin Cities, and policy and advocacy work statewide
- The design and delivery of professional development and introduction of evidence-based tools to improve teaching, learning and leadership
- Oversight of a rigorous evaluation and research agenda of the McKnight initiative
- Leading the RFP process for the second round of E&L selection of partner schools.
“UEI is enormously excited about this opportunity to work with The McKnight Foundation and expand our national footprint,” says Timothy Knowles, the John Dewey Director of UEI. “The partnership brings to bear well-tested tools to improve literacy and school organization, and it leverages our research and evaluation capacity in new ways. Most importantly, it promises to have a direct, positive impact on the lives of children across Minnesota.”
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart
