News

In Burrell School District, where educators are introducing competency-based learning with sixth grade students and planning to roll it out for seventh grade, the new approach necessitates a new understanding among parents. In Cornell School District, where a sharp demographic shift has swelled English Language Learners from a few students five years ago to 10% […]

The Community College of Allegheny County’s new Vice President for Workforce Development has joined the Consortium’s Board. Prior to her appointment, Debra Roach, Ph.D., had been a member of our Future Ready Partnerships Advisory Committee, on which she’ll continue to serve. “With our focus on future readiness for students and our role as an intermediary […]

All of us at the Consortium are delighted that our Board has appointed Jackie Foor as successor for our current Executive Director, Mary Kay Babyak, who retires April 30. The two have worked as a team since Mary Kay began her tenure in 2016. That has put our organization on very solid ground as you’ll […]

It takes a loud, clear calling for someone to leave behind a doctoral program at Carnegie Mellon University, just shy of a dissertation, and set out on an entirely different career path. Never mind that she’d already earned her Master’s, published a scientific paper as an undergrad, and interned at the Broad Institute, a research […]

Our Future Ready Alliance began the New Year with workshops on all three of its focus areas—Student Plans, Social & Emotional Learning (SEL) and Instructional Approaches to Personalized Learning. The workshops are part of a new two-tier structure that the Alliance inaugurated in the fall. Under it, the workshops support discussions in Professional Learning Communities […]

After 15 years building what was still an expanding network of educators at the time, the Consortium began the 21st Century launching of what would become its largest and longest-standing program for students—The Future Is Mine (TFIM). Organized 22 years ago to help students explore careers and develop leadership skills, TFIM annually engaged up to […]

The Southwestern Pennsylvania New Economy Coalition is one of 60 finalists that the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) has selected to compete for financing under its $1 billion “Build Back Better Regional Challenge.” The finalists, chosen from among 529 applicants, each will receive a $500,000 planning grant to advance its proposal. The Consortium […]

Burrell and Cornell school districts presented their models for Personalized Professional Development in November when our Collaborative for Student Success convened for its monthly meeting. The Collaborative is an initiative that the Richard King Mellon Foundation has funded to support districts in increasing upward mobility for graduates. The districts each will concentrate on work in […]

Collaborative leadership was still a novel concept when the Consortium began encouraging districts adopt it in the late 1990s. Initially, with a state-funded grant aimed at “School Renewal through Teacher Leadership,” the intent was to help building-level administrators tap the insights of their ground troops. Having developed a leadership approach that empowered educators when she […]

Our program to raise awareness of Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) and provide mentoring opportunities to students of color will offer an introductory session Dec. 2 for participating districts. As part of the session, staff will set the stage with presentations from two HBCU alumni and a PBS video titled “Tell Them We Are […]