Benefits of Membership

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Membership-why now?

In looking ahead to 2010 and beyond, we see a dynamic federal policy environment full of both peril and promise for education. For the new administration and new Congress the mandate for change is clear. New staff, new power centers, and new relationships challenge the status quo of Washington’s policy-making apparatus. The pressures of a recessionary economy amplify the calls for more aggressively sharpening America’s competitiveness in a global market place and stir a renewed focus on education as a driver of innovation and productivity.
Mixed into this roiling environment is the continuing, era- shaping debates about the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and about its companion, the Education Sciences Reform Act. We anticipate escalating pressures to deliver major, sustainable solutions for low performing schools, broken school systems, and tired education policies -- as well as a vigorous search for the best ways to ignite and sustain the transformation of American education.

Knowledge Policy and Advocacy

Within this turbulent environment we are building upon Knowledge Alliance’s extensive policy work in research-based knowledge use and moving aggressively forward with a compelling new knowledge agenda for innovation and change in K-12 education.  We envision a new knowledge era in education reform in which the escalating demand for school improvement solutions must be matched by a constantly growing supply of research-based innovations. We aim to help create a robust, responsive, and rigorous knowledge and R&D infrastructure -- one in which researchers, developers, practitioners, intermediaries, and policy makers are mobilized to develop and apply research-based knowledge to help resolve the most pressing education problems. We believe that effective knowledge use should be the central organizing concept for education reform in the years ahead.

In our policy work over the years Knowledge Alliance has worked closely and effectively with the U.S. Congress and federal agencies -- in a substantive and non partisan fashion -- to advocate for the expanded use of research-based knowledge in education. Our unique relationship-building government relations program has an impressive, widely recognized track record of success, and we intend to further expand it in vigorous ways in the years ahead. Our members are active participants in the process and often -- independently or collaboratively, with our support -- work to build their own programs, as well.

Big Ideas Leadership

In addition to our advocacy work, Knowledge Alliance has also been engaged in an on-going leadership process focusing on innovation, knowledge, and transformation in education. Over the past five years we have hosted an array of highly regarded and well attended policy forums in Washington DC on the transformation of education to an evidence-based field.
We have also convened a series of substantive "big ideas" symposia with and for our members. The first event, held in Aspen in 2006, with the Institute of the Future and invited guests like Chris Whittle, focused on the future of teaching and learning in America and around the world. At the second, a 2007 gathering in Santa Cruz, with guest discussants from the Hewlett Foundation, the Knowledge Works Foundation, Curriki, and Wireless Generation, we examined how open source technology and digital media may transform education in this next decade.
In August 2008 we convened our third annual Knowledge Alliance symposium in New Mexico; it involved, among others, IDEO, the corporate design pioneers; Tony Bryk, education researcher and new President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; and cognitive and brain research specialists. We are forging a new vision for how the education R&D infrastructure in the US can shape innovation and transformation in the years ahead. The work from these three convenings led us to a major national, invitational summit that Knowledge Alliance convened in 2009.

Together our members form a unique and influential community on the leading edge of education improvement and transformation. Through our collective efforts we envision a new era of opportunity for our members to make a decisive difference in education for years to come.