Since the advent of charter legislation in the late 1990s CEI has created and developed effective charter schools. From launching New York’s first charter school, Sisulu-Walker Charter School of Harlem (1999), to leading large-scale, federally-funding charter school improvement initiatives through the 2010s, CEI has been at the forefront of the charter school movement.

Our singular focus is on providing support to independent charter schools so that they can operate and educate effectively and successfully meet the goals of their unique charter missions. The leaders of the individual schools continue to make all management decisions; CEI provides resources and tools that schools need to make the best decisions while also serving as a uniquely centralizing force for independent, public charter school educators.