Now more than ever we need teacher leaders, not policymakers far removed from the realities of classrooms,  to enforce standards in our profession. It is time to transform our teaching unions into professional guilds – where teachers drive each other to meet a high set of professional standards – and determine who should or should not teach.

- Vinnie Basile, high school science teacher, Westminster 50 (Colorado) and our first NMI Policy Teacherpreneur.

So often, decisions about education are made far removed from the classroom, without input from the newest teachers. Our think tank allows teachers – early in their career – an avenue to effect change on a large scale in the education world.

- Ben Jackson, high school English teacher, New Millennium Denver
 

CTQ’s New Millennium Initiative (NMI) engages a growing community of accomplished younger teachers in efforts to advance teaching effectiveness reforms at the local, state, and national levels. NMI teacher teams use a combination of face-to-face and virtual organizing tools to work in and across five initiative sites – Denver, Hillsborough County (FL), Illinois, San Francisco Bay Area, and Washington  – as well as one national team . The local teams partner with local education funds and other community-based organizations in their areas to expand the constituency for progressive teaching policy reforms.

Together, NMI teams deepen their knowledge of education policy and best practices, grow their skills as policy analysts and advocates, and develop smart “third way” recommendations for reform that transcend the usual union vs. administration debates. In the next two years, some NMI teachers in our focus sites in Denver and Washington  will also be identified as “teacherpreneurs.” Teachers in these roles will be funded for part-time release from their work in classrooms, in order to take their big ideas and transform them into local innovations.

The New Millennium Initiative is generously supported by national and local funders, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the Rose Community Foundation, and the Stuart Foundation.