Our goal is to improve the education of New Jersey students by providing educators with the tools they need in this quest for excellence. The Academy incorporates an ambitious technology strand that emphasizes the interconnection between teaching, learning and technology.

The Coalition of Essential Schools is a national school reform network founded by Theodore Sizer at Brown University in 1984, firmly established on his classic book, Horace's Compromise, and subsequent books, Horace's School and Horace's Hope. The principle-based approach assumes that rather than being "implementers", teachers, administrators, and community members are, in fact, "inventors". It assumes that good schools must be finely attuned to their students and to their local needs and resources. The faculty and community of a CES school must decide how to apply the principles in its school's unique context, for the principles assert powerful ideas about schooling rather than mandating a particular action. Instead of serving as a blueprint for change, then, the Common Principles challenge a school community to examine its priorities and to redesign curriculum, instruction, assessment, and organizational structures. Each school develops its own programs, suited to its particular students, faculty, and community. Thus, no two Coalition schools are exactly alike, even when they are striving to fulfill all of the Common Principles.

Critical Friends Groups developed as an offshoot of the Coalition of Essential Schools many years ago at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. It is a program of the National School Reform Faculty. CFG work stresses peer mentoring and teacher collaboration focused on improving classroom practice. The research indicates that schools implementing CFGs show sustained gains in student performance over time. At CESP we recommend pairing CFG with other best practices to deepen and sustain implementation efforts at the classroom level, and to encourage authentic changes in teaching practice.

The mission of the New Jersey Charter School Resource Center (CSRC) is to help organizers and operators create and sustain high quality public schools of choice.

Supports innovative small schools and establishment of small learning communities within larger schools.