Welcome!

The Ellis Center for Educational Excellence is a non-profit foundation concerned with improving the quality of public education in Arizona. Its strategic focus is district-level, comprehensive, long-term systemic change, hence grant-making is highly selective and prescriptive. No unsolicited proposals are considered. The board determines the foundation's program, which consists of engaging directly with school districts and organizational intermediaries around targetted reform efforts.

At present the Center is partnering with the Creighton School District (CSD)and the Balsz School District (BSD), largely Hispanic, low-income districts in Central Phoenix, and with WestEd, a policy research and technical assistance organization located in central Phoenix and headquartered in San Francisco (see Partners). A recent addition is Linda Cannon Associates, a Phoenix-based consultant firm, engaged in 2010 to follow the Brecon Group in planning and designing integrative connections between CSD and early education.

Still another partner - Phoenix Union High School District (PUHSD) - is being added in 2011. With PUHSD approval, a longitudinal tracking study will be undertaken, subject to FERPA guidelines and district policy, that documents the long-term impact of the Creighton initiative on Creighton students entering Camelback, North and other high schools. Metrics will likely include school absenteeism, drop-out rates, graduation rates, course credits taken,
GPA averages, etc. The study will likely incorporate both a comparison group and a pre-post analysis of Creighton student achievement.

In its meeting of March 23, 2011, the board elected to expand its work into a second district - the Balsz School District - which is geographically adjacent to Creighton and demographically similar.

Thus the partners to date are: the Creighton, Balsz and Phoenix Union School Districts, WestEd and Linda Cannon Associates.

The Center's approach is anchored in a well-defined philosophical context (see "Philosophy" section), and exemplifies a pro-active role in promoting education reform (see "Role" section).

For a brief overview of the Creighton Partnership, go to "My Turn" article authored by Dr. Stephen Mittenthal, CEO of the Ellis Center, in the Northeast edition of the Arizona Republic of February 9, 2010 (log on to www. creightonschools.org). A recent and amplified summary is offered in WestEd's periodical "R&D Alert" (Winter 2011, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 2-7).

For a more descriptive view of the Partnership, see "Role" and "Partners" sections of this web-site. Detailed documentation is contained in a Project Narrative written by Carl Nagin, a copy of which can be found by logging on to www.wested.org.

For a brochure on the Ellis Center and the Partnership entitled "Reaching for Excellence," please contact Steve Mittenthal at 602 955-7711. Also a video on the Partnership is now available on disc for a small fee.

The Ellis Center is a supporting organization of the Arizona Community Foundation.