OUR PHILOSOPHY

The Urban Learning and Leadership Center offers personalized school improvement services to schools and districts. ULLC is dedicated to helping schools develop workable plans to achieve greatness – and to staying with them through the difficult work of putting those plans to work.


"One size fits all" solutions don't work for all schools.


That’s why the Urban Learning & Leadership Center’s services are custom-tailored to the unique challenges facing schools striving to become places where students and teachers succeed.


What do todays urban schools need?


The challenge boils down to one thing: improving student learning. To meet that challenge, schools need solutions that reflect the realities of life in today’s cities. They need solutions that…

• Help close the achievement gap
• Work for diverse student bodies
• Take into account the array of social problems the society – especially cities – bring to their doors
• Acknowledge that the resources affluent and suburban schools take for granted – money, parental and community support – are hard to come by

Across the nation there are rays of hope: Schools that prove that city schools and their students can be successful. The Urban Learning and Leadership Center helps other schools learn the real-world lessons behind these successes and put them to work for their students.


State and federal mandates have raised the stakes for all schools. Achievement standards focus our efforts on the very student groups many cities serve – disadvantaged, minority, limited English proficiency and special education students. The requirement that all students make progress – and the threat of sanctions if they don’t – requires data-driven planning and collaboration.  ULLC can deliver!