Impact · Since 1989
Our history.
Three and a half decades of putting schools — and the people inside them — at the center of educational change.
- 2025
Lead Community Partner for the Bronx STEAM Center
CEI is named Lead Community Partner for the Bronx STEAM Center, in partnership with the NYCDOE and the Industry Partner, Montefiore Einstein Hospital.
- 2024
Public funding approved for CEI's first comprehensive Innovation Center
Public funding is approved for CEI's first comprehensive Innovation Center at the Leaders of Tomorrow Middle School IS 370 in the Northeast Bronx, School District 11, expanding CEI's Project BOOST innovative student enrichment programs into the school day.
- 2023
17 Community Schools, Innovation Center funding, and Read to Lead
CEI was awarded contracts to be the lead provider for 15 additional Community Schools, bringing the total number of Community Schools serviced by CEI to 17. Public funding is approved for CEI's first comprehensive Innovation Center at the Leaders of Tomorrow Middle School (11x370). CEI acquires Read to Lead, the digital learning platform designed to cultivate literacy and career readiness.
- 2022
Serving 150+ NYC schools with enrichment and transformation services
CEI served over 150 NYC public schools with school transformation services, professional learning, mentoring and coaching for school leaders and teacher teams, and BOOST enrichment services — including tutoring and coaching for students, Early Stages live theater, robotics, coding and esports, and social action art with Benchmarks and Walls4Change in partnership with internationally known visiting artist Domingo Zapata.
- 2021
BOOST and Walls4Change during Summer Rising
CEI provided over 40 NYC public schools with Project BOOST enrichment services and Walls4Change, social action art and mural projects, as students prepared to return to school during the 2021 Summer Rising Program. CEI was awarded two multi-year contracts from the NYC DOE to lead two full-service community schools.
- 2020
Virtual & hybrid innovation during the pandemic
CEI became an educational partner for Urban Choice Charter School in Rochester, NY. The school received a one-year and subsequent two-year charter renewal due to the partnership. CEI pivoted to virtual and hybrid offerings including professional learning, tutoring, coding, robotics, and arts — improving student engagement.
- 2019
Partnerships with Summit Academy and CAMPA
CEI became an educational partner for Brooklyn's Summit Academy Charter School for a five-year renewal term, and for the Collegiate Academy for Mathematics and Personal Awareness Charter School (CAMPA) in Brooklyn.
- 2018
Qualified as Independent Receiver & 13th Annual Leadership Institute
CEI qualified as an independent receiver for consistently low-performing schools needing turnaround services. We also presented the 13th Annual Summer Leadership Institute, bringing together hundreds of public-school administrators.
- 2017
Personalized & social-emotional learning initiatives
CEI launched new initiatives in personalized learning and social-emotional learning to support schools in transforming the 21st-century learner.
- 2015
Return to the name 'Center for Educational Innovation'
The organization shortened its name back to 'Center for Educational Innovation' (CEI).
- 2014
CEI-PEA supports 207 schools — 6th largest PSO
207 schools selected CEI-PEA as their Partnership Support Organization, making our PSO equivalent to the sixth largest public-school system in the United States.
- 2013
Arts expansion and Leader in Me
CEI-PEA received funding to expand arts programming into more than 160 NYC public schools and launched the Franklin Covey Leader in Me program. CEI-PEA also received its first of two New York Charter Dissemination Grants.
- 2012
PICCS expansion to NY and NJ charter schools
CEI-PEA expanded the PICCS project to 12 new charter schools in New York and New Jersey with $18 million in federal Teacher Incentive Fund grants.
- 2010
CEI network grows to 118 schools
The number of schools selecting CEI-PEA as their PSO rose to 118. CEI expanded to 13 new charter schools in New York City and Buffalo with $17.5 million in federal Teacher Incentive Fund grants, and launched a national network of Independent Charter Schools with a $2 million federal grant.
- 2008
21st Century Community Learning Centers launched
CEI-PEA launched 21st Century Community Learning Center programs with three NYC public schools.
- 2007
Named a NYC Partnership Support Organization (PSO)
CEI-PEA was selected as a PSO for NYC public schools and was awarded a $10.5 million federal Teacher Incentive Fund grant to launch PICCS — supporting human capital management, data use, professional development, intra- and inter-school collaboration, and SEL.
- 2004
Expanding public school choice nationwide
CEI-PEA launched an initiative to develop public school choice programs in five major cities across the United States through a multi-year U.S. Department of Education grant.
- 2003
Project BOOST® begins
CEI-PEA launched Project BOOST to provide academic, social, and cultural enrichment to under-resourced fourth- through eighth-grade students, with the goal of helping them gain admission to quality high schools.
- 2000
Merger creates CEI-PEA
CEI merged with the Public Education Association to form the 'Center for Educational Innovation – Public Education Association' (CEI-PEA).
- 1998
First Charter School Resource Center in NY
CEI established the first charter school resource center in New York State.
- 1997
Launch of School Leadership Academy
CEI established the School Leadership Academy under the direction of Dr. Lorraine Monroe to develop and train in-service principals.
- 1994
Partner in Annenberg Challenge
CEI became a founding partner in the Annenberg Challenge grant to create small public schools and networks among NYC schools.
- 1989
Center for Educational Innovation founded
CEI was founded with a bold vision: shift accountability from rigid bureaucracies to schools themselves, putting power and possibility in the hands of educators, students, and communities.
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Your gift funds tutoring, mentorship, the arts, esports, robotics, and the coaching that helps schools transform. Every dollar goes back into classrooms.