For 25 years, the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) has been at the forefront of creating and sustaining personalized, equitable, and intellectually challenging schools. Essential schools are places of powerful student learning where all students have the chance to reach their fullest potential.
The CES Network and Essential Schools
The CES Network includes hundreds of schools and more than two dozen Affiliate Centers. Diverse in size, population, and programmatic emphasis, Essential schools serve students from pre-kindergarten through high school in urban, suburban, and rural communities, and they are characterized by personalization, democracy and equity, and intellectual vitality and excellence.
CES practice is exemplified by small, personalized learning communities where teachers and students know each other well in a climate of trust, decency and high expectations for all. Modeling democratic practices with a strong commitment to equity, Essential schools work to create academic success for every student by sharing decision-making with all those affected by the schools and deliberately and explicitly confronting all forms of inequity. And, Essential schools focus on helping all students use their minds well through standards-aligned interdisciplinary studies, community-based "real-world" learning and performance-based assessment.
For lists of Essential schools and Affiliated Centers and for information on joining the CES network, read on >>
The CES Common Principles
The Coalition sees school reform as an inescapably local phenomenon, the outcome of groups of people working together, building a shared vision, and drawing on the community's strengths, history and values. Yet while no two Essential schools are alike, all Essential schools share a commitment to the CES Common Principles, a set of beliefs about the purpose and practice of schooling. As they develop their own programs, the Common Principles guide schools to examine their priorities and design structures and instructional practices that support:
Personalized instruction to address individual needs and interests;
Small schools and classrooms, where teachers and student know each other well and work in an atmosphere of trust and high expectations;
Multiple assessments based on performance of authentic tasks;
Democratic and equitable school policies and practice;
CES Results
The Coalition of Essential Schools has found that students who attend Essential Schools across the country are making striking academic and personal progress, documented by studies conducted by CES National staff, various Affiliate Centers, and outside researchers.
For more about results for students in Essential schools, read on >>
CES Current Initiatives and Ongoing Resources
CES's current work reflects its strong tradition as a leader in school transformation, blended with exciting new programs and initiatives. For more on the current activities and commitments of CES National, read on >>
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