While the search for a permanent Chief Academic Officer continues, Superintendent Jerry Wartgow announced today the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Learning (IFL) has been contracted to provide instructional leadership for the balance of the 2001-2002 school year.

“I appreciate the many individuals who have expressed interest in the Chief Academic Officer position and the willingness of those who applied to offer their leadership and skills,” said Wartgow. “It remains a goal of mine to fill this position on a permanent basis. In the meantime, the Institute for Learning, I believe, will provide focused, inspiring leadership for principals and other administrators. The institute’s firm belief in the ability of every child to meet high expectations matches our goals of improving achievement for all students and closing the gap between better-performing and poorer-performing students.”

The Institute for Learning’s philosophy rests on the belief that all students are capable of high achievement and high-level thinking. The IFL challenges the traditional assumption that learning ability is predicted by innate aptitude. “Effort-based education assumes that sustained and directed effort not only yields high achievement for all students but can actually create ability,” states a prepared background paper about IFL.

The institute will provide a series of intensive professional development and instructional sessions for DPS principals, seminars for the district’s current instructional leadership and superintendent, access to NetLearn tools and IFL websites, and technical service support.

Wartgow emphasized that the package of services and support being provided by IFL are customized to fit the existing needs of DPS. “At its heart,” said Wartgow, “the institute will provide the ability for this district to build the capacity to improve professional development for teachers and academic leadership here.”

The Donnell-Kay Foundation is providing the funding for IFL’s work in Denver, which will begin February 1 and run through June 30.

IFL National Fellow Sally Mentor Hay will work as a liaison to DPS, serving in the capacity of acting Chief Academic Officer. In addition, IFL National Fellow Raymond Cortines will provide consultant services to the district as part of the Broad Foundation Initiative.

Mentor Hay is currently vice-president of curriculum and educational reform for Management, Analysis and Planning, an educational consulting firm based in Davis, California. From 1996 to 2000, she was director of product development for the Washington, D.C.-based National Center on Education and the Economy, a non-profit established to improve public education and employment training in the United States. From 1993 to 1996, she worked as Deputy Director, New Standards for the same organization.

From 1991-1993, Mentor Hay was Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction for the California Department of Education and, from 1990-1991, Associate Superintendent for High School Programs in California.

The IFL opened in 1995 as a liaison between its parent institution, the Learning Research and Development Center of the University of Pittsburgh, and working educators in school systems nationwide. IFL brings educators the best current knowledge and research about learning processes and principles of instruction. Its mission is to provide educators with the resources and training they need to enhance learning opportunities for all students. The institute serves as a think tank, a design center for innovative professional development systems in the schools and an educator of core groups of school professionals.

Lauren Resnick will head technical service from IFL. Since 1977, Resnick has been Director of the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. Lauren Resnick has also been a professor in the Department of Psychology and School of Education (1977-present) at the University of Pittsburgh; co-founder and co-director of New Standards (1990-present); founder and director of Institute for Learning (1995-present); and senior associate of Achieve (1999-present), among many other education-related positions.

Ramon Cortines is the executive director of the Pew Network for Standards-Based Reform at Stanford University. He has served as the superintendent of schools in Pasadena, San Jose, and San Francisco, California. He has served as Chancellor of the New York City Public School System.