There is a growing consensus that the United States and its regions, including the Midwest region, will increasingly compete on innovation. This also is widely recognized in the business world. There is also growing consensus that innovation talent--the human talent to drive and support innovation--will be a major key. Despite this consensus,…

Founded in 2001, the Center for Religion and Public Discourse at Saint Xavier University, Chicago, illustrates how centers and institutes can express Catholic identity and serve the university community and society by providing opportunities for thoughtful and civil discourse. Although the Center does not currently support basic research or fund…

In 2003, Dominican University launched a new venture with an explicitly ecclesial purpose, aimed not strictly at the education of its own students but also toward the continuing education of its neighboring community. The mission of the St. Catherine of Siena Center is to engage faith and scholarship with the critical issues of church and society…

"Turnaround" has become the new buzzword in education. From states and districts paying for principals to be trained as turnaround specialists to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's call to turn around the country's 5,000 lowest-performing schools, the concept of rapid, large-scale reform in individual schools--not just incremental…

This article reports on the dispute about the creation of an institute named for the late economist and free-market advocate Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago. Five months after the University of Chicago announced plans to invest $200-million in an economics institute named for the late Milton Friedman, the project is still generating…

Lots of districts like to think they have close-knit leadership teams. But few school leaders can say they've ironed their clothes together, which became a morning ritual for a group from San Francisco that spent a week at the Harvard Business School in Boston. Joined by similar teams from seven other large districts, they camped out in dorm-like…

This joint research and development project of two state departments of education used the DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process to identify microcomputer competencies for vocational instructors. Brainstorming techniques were used to identify five categories of microcomputer applications and to determine which competencies belonged in each…

This article details a consensus-building initiative to develop a statewide research agenda responding to needs of Illinois's child welfare community. Researchers conducted this process through a university-community partnership to engage those interested in child welfare services, and produced a document to guide child welfare research throughout…