About Us

The AED Center for School and Community Services uses multidisciplinary approaches to address critical issues in education, health, and youth development. Our work is informed by the core values of equity, excellence, collaboration, and democratic participation. We are guided by a vision of families, youth, community members, and professionals working in partnership to develop and promote effective programs and services.

To achieve our goals, we provide technical assistance to strengthen schools, school districts, and community-based organizations. We conduct evaluations of school and community programs while striving to provide the skills and impetus for practitioners to undertake ongoing assessment and improvement. We manage large-scale initiatives to strengthen practitioner networks and accelerate systems change. We use the knowledge gained from our work to advocate for effective policies and practices and disseminate information through publications, presentations, and on the World Wide Web. The AED Center for School and Community Services belongs to AED's U.S. Education and Workforce Development Group. In 2005, the Educational Equity Center at AED (EEC) was formed. The Center is an outgrowth of Educational Equity Concepts, a national nonprofit organization with a 22-year history of addressing educational excellence for all children regardless of gender, race/ethnicity, disability, or level of family income. EEC's goal is to ensure that equity is a key focus within national reform efforts to ensure equality of opportunity on in schools and afterschool settings, starting in early childhood. EEC's current work is on our project pages. For more information, go to edequity.org.

See Projects for brief descriptions of projects mentioned on this page.

All employment opportunities in the AED Center for School and Community Services are announced on the main AED website.

For more information about the AED Center for School and Community Services, contact Elayne Archer at 212-367-4568 or earcher@aed.org.

What We Do

Program Design and Management | Technical Assistance and Professional Development | Documentation and Evaluation | Dissemination and Public Engagement

Program Design and Management

An Amber School student sitting participating in class

The AED Center for School and Community Services designs, implements, and manages programs addressing critical issues affecting youth and families. We have developed initiatives that help middle-grades and high schools and school districts undertake comprehensive reform initiatives; improve the mathematics and science education of minority and female students; meet the needs of pregnant and parenting teens; prepare youth for the workplace; and institutionalize service-learning as a core element of the education of all students.

We have also designed programs to increase college access to, and success in, higher education among underserved populations; increase the capacity of school and program staff to engage in self-assessment and inquiry; increase awareness of, access to, and appropriate use of emergency contraception by adolescents; and improve the training of out-of-school youth in youth employment programs.

Increasingly, this work entails comprehensive initiatives involving several types of work: program development and management; technical assistance and capacity building; evaluation; dissemination and public engagement; and advocacy. Currently these comprehensive initiatives include our work as the National Middle Start Center, the Partnerships for College Access and Success Initiative, and the National Service-Learning Partnership.

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Technical Assistance and Professional Development

Group of students in a Middle Start School

The Center provides and/or manages technical assistance to schools and school districts, as well as to community-based programs that address critical issues affecting youth, families, and communities. The Center provides and/or manages technical assistance to schools and school districts engaged in reform initiatives. For example, AED is currently working as a partnership support organization, funded by the New York City Department of Education, with 10 schools in New York City, drawing on the expertise of the Middle Start National Center at AED, to help schools ensure student success and a smooth transition across the education pipeline. Middle Start is also working with the District of Columbia Public Schools in establishing districtwide support for effective middle-grades education, including administering the Middle Start School Self Assessment Survey in the 18 middle-grades schools. In our Schools for a New Society Technical Support Team, AED collaborated with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform to support the seven partnerships funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York to transform their secondary schools. AED facilitated a "learning network" to foster cross-site learning among the seven sites, as well as a series of conferences, "role-alike" meetings, and "critical friends" trips to foster cross-district networking. In our Schools for a New Society Technical Support Team, AED collaborated with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform to support the seven partnerships funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York to transform their secondary schools. AED facilitated a "learning network" to foster cross-site learning among the seven sites, as well as a series of conferences, "role-alike" meetings, and "critical friends" trips to foster cross-district networking.

Center and EEC staff also have extensive experience developing and providing technical assistance to many school-based and community programs, including programs to foster the science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (STEM) education and achievement of female and minority students, as well as students with disabilities. Current STEM projects include Afterschool Math Plus Implementation and Replication, Great Science for Girls: Extension Services for Gender Equity in Science through Afterschool Programs, and Playtime is Science for Students with Disabilities. The Center has also worked extensively in developing and promoting inquiry approaches to help schools build a reflective culture focused on the improvement of teaching and learning. This includes the work of our work in school self- Reviewing Student Work/Improving Student Achievement project and the Michigan Middle Start School Self-Assessment Project. top of page

Documentation and Evaluation

The Center for School and Community Services evaluates how effectively schools and youth development programs are helping youth complete school, make healthy choices, and prepare for future education and employment. We also evaluate the effectiveness of community-based health initiatives. We have developed a range of methods for collecting and analyzing large data-sets, including surveys, telephone and face-to-face interviews, focus groups, ethnographic field work, and review of institutional records. In the past 20 years, the Center has conducted over 75 evaluations of educational and community improvement programs.

Current evaluations include a five-year outcomes study of the Institute for Student Achievement High School Reform Initiative, which supports small learning communities and includes intensive counseling, a rigorous college-prep instructional program, postsecondary planning, extended-day and -year programming, family involvement, and on-site professional development. AED is also currently conducting a five-year study of the Mississippi Learning Institute, a collaboration among Jackson State University, the Jackson Public Schools, and the Mississippi State Department of Education to improve reading programs and outcomes in the city's public schools; and the National Writing Project Reading Initiative, which designs and fosters professional development of reading comprehension strategies as a companion to its work in the teaching of writing. AED is also currently part of the consortium of organizations awarded the contract to constitute the Southeastern Regional Laboratory (SE-REL), and in this capacity is collaborating on an evaluation of the Alabama Mathematics, Science and Technology Initiative. top of page

Dissemination and Public Engagement

Many AED projects involve dissemination and public engagement. AED hosts the National Service-Learning Partnership seeks to institutionalize service-learning in K-12 public education by promoting awareness of the benefits of service-learning to schools, educational organizations, and the public at large. The partnership disseminates information about service learning to more that 9,500 individuals and organizations committed to raising the visibility and enhancing the quality of service-learning in schools and communities across the country. Other current dissemination projects include Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools and Creating a Community of Practice on Science, Gender and Afterschool and Youth Media Reporter.

     Photo Credits:
     The Amber Charter School,
     New York, New York;
     Michigan Middle Start;
     and the Texas Migrant Council.