Visit ENGAGE! for a listing of the engagement and outreach activities happening on campus.
The P-20 Center manages or supports projects that address the five goals listed below. Follow the links for more information about high-impact P-20 activities.
Goal 1: Raising Student Achievement
Interdisciplinary Literacy Projects. Three NIU colleges are collaborating with school districts to raise students' literacy skills through school based projects that integrate arts, technology, and literacy education.
STEM Outreach. NIU's STEM Outreach delivers off-campus programs and on campus activities designed to increase STEM literacy and enthusiasm among students, their families, and educators.
The Virtual Lab School (VLS). The VLS is establishing virtual classrooms to provide academic and enrichment opportunities for high-needs learners, professional development for teachers, support for families, and a digital lab environment for NIU faculty and pre-service teachers.
Goal 2: Improving Teacher Success
Center for Economic Education (CEE). The NIU Center for Economic Education is committed to helping K-12 teachers guide their students in learning about economics and personal finance and prepare students to make wise decisions as consumers, investors, citizens, and participants in the global economy. We deliver teacher workshops and sponsor student activities designed to improve competencies in financial literacy while also improving achievements in reading and mathematics.
Professional Development Schools (PDS). PDS partnerships with school districts across the region improve the clinical preparation of beginning teachers, enhance professional development, and use practice-based research to improve instruction. The result? More success for teachers and higher-performance by K-12 students.
Online Professional Development Catalog. NIU is one of the region's largest providers of professional development for educators. A comprehensive online catalog of these activities is being created.
Goal 3: Facilitating Seamless Transitions across the P20 Continuum
Higher Education Transition Committee. NIU, community colleges, and high schools work together to improve the transitions from high school to higher education, so that students succeed and graduate in a reasonable amount of time.
Transfer Student Summary. Transfer students to NIU provide feedback on the transition to NIU. Results are dispersed across NIU departments and to the institutions students transfer from. Find a summary of the fall 2012 survey here. Find the three year report here.
Broadband Network Utilization. The P-20 Center works with partners to increase efficiency and effectiveness of education organizations through applications, research, and innovations that use the region's new broadband network capacity.
Goal 4: Conducting Applied Research and Assessment
PDS Assessment. P-20 Center staff work with PDS participants in five school districts to evaluate progress toward the goals for each PDS school site.
Office of Education System Innovation. OESI manages and supports state-level, education reform policy initiatives for the Illinois State Board of Education and the Department of Commerce and the Economic Opportunity as well as school reform projects in Africa.
Illinois Honor Roll. The Honor Roll celebrates the accomplishments of exemplary Illinois public schools.
Data for School Innovation. The Illinois Interactive Report Card works with local districts to build customized data warehouses that empower classroom teachers to use student performance data in ways that will improve achievement.
Illinois Shared Learning Environment (ISLE). Introduction. A state-wide technology infrastructure, ISLE will advance the personalization of learning and enable students to manage their academic and career pathways.
Goal 5: Managing the Center for P20 Engagement to Promote Engagement
Presidential Engagement Professors. Annual awards recognize faculty members who extend the university's expertise in local, regional, national, and global collaborations for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources.
Schools Partnerships. The P-20 Center provides support for partnership activities with Altus Academy in Chicago, Dekalb, Huntley, Rockford, St. Charles, and Sycamore school districts.
ENGAGE! Explore this growing database of NIU partnership activities and opportunities.