The Center for Educational Leadership unites the resources of Trinity University, 21 member school districts, and corporate and civic partners in a comprehensive collaborative to improve schools in our community. The school district members of the Center comprise nearly 600 schools, over 300,000 students and 28,000 teachers. The districts are a cross-section of San Antonio. They are urban, suburban, and rural. They are as large as 60,000 students and as small as 1000. They have a diverse racial and ethnic population - 56% Hispanic, 35% Anglo, 7% African-American and 2% Asian and Native-American. A key characteristic of local districts is that the percentage of out-of-field teachers in middle and high school math and science is alarmingly high - for example, 33% in both middle and high school science, 38% in middle school and 16% in high school math. Download the 2009-2010 Center for Educational Leadership Annual Report here.

Member school district superintendents, key members of the civic and business community, and policy analysts from Trinity University and elsewhere hold Center appointments as senior fellows. Selected principals, teachers, and central office administrators are appointed fellows to the Center for Educational Leadership for specific terms, usually connected to a Center project. In the past, the Center has brought together task forces to tackle problems related to school improvement. Members of these task forces are appointed as Trinity Partners for School Improvement.

The Center's history of outreach to local schools extends back more than 15 years. Over the years the Center, which includes principals, teachers, superintendents, and other educational professionals working with Trinity faculty and visiting scholars, has prepared a number of policy reports and presented them to the community. One such report, "Smart Schools for San Antonio's Future" provided a platform that has been used for school reform since 1992. Another report, "Teacher Quality and the Future of Learning in San Antonio" resulted from a yearlong forum of teachers representing the member districts. This report was the basis for the Meadows grant proposal described earlier. To review the CEL Annual Report for the previous year, click here.

Center programs for administrators include: a monthly Superintendents' Forum that features both outside speakers and internal "roundtable" discussions, and a Principals' Academy that organizes activities around learning needs identified by Principals in local schools.