EL Education Announces its 25th Anniversary Gala in NYC

NEW YORK, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- EL Education, a leading K-12 nonprofit that is transforming schools in diverse communities across the country, is hosting its 25th Anniversary Gala on Tuesday, April 10th at the landmarked 583 Park Avenue in New York City.

EL Education (formerly Expeditionary Learning) was launched 25 years ago when a group of educators from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Outward Bound USA won the New American Schools national competition for "break the mold" school designs. Today, the organization partners with hundreds of public schools across 35 states and has reached more than a million students across America, helping prepare them to succeed as engaged students and active citizens.

At the 25th Anniversary Gala, the nonprofit will honor its Founding President Greg Farrell for his lifelong commitment to make schools more engaging, effective, and joyous. A member of the original design team that put together the proposal Expeditionary Learning: A Design for New American Schools, Mr. Farrell served as President and CEO of the organization from its founding until 2008 and continues to serve on its Board of Directors. 

Prior to the nonprofit's founding, Mr. Farrell led an initiative to bring Outward Bound's educational and developmental insights, practices, and programs to bear more on the problems of cities and schools. From 1970-1990, Mr. Farrell was executive director of the Fund for the City of New York, a private foundation and public charity established by the Ford Foundation to help improve the quality of life and government in New York City.  He has also been a high school English teacher at the Punahou School in Honolulu, an assistant dean of admissions at Princeton University, a reporter for the Trenton Times, the head of the anti-poverty organization in Trenton, New Jersey, and an assistant commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. Mr. Farrell also served in the U.S. Army, received a Bachelor of Arts in English from Princeton, and was a Ford Foundation Fellow at the Rutgers Urban Studies Center and a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

The Gala program will feature remarks by National Teacher of the Year Sydney Chaffee, a 9th grade Humanities teacher at Codman Academy Charter Public School, an EL Education school in Boston.

Students will take center stage at the event. The program will be hosted by EL Education graduates Elena Fulton of The Odyssey School in Denver and Ameerah Rollins of Polaris Charter Academy in Chicago.  It will also feature 12th grade students from WHEELS (Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School in New York) in the NYC Outward Bound Schools network, who will present their academic project to investigate and act upon a range of crucial social issues that adversely affect their urban community. The project is one of 18 Better World Projects that were selected to represent the work of EL Education students across the country who are making positive change in their communities.

"For 25 years, we have not wavered from our founding beliefs:  We believe in the genius in every child, the power of great teaching, and the central role of public education in sustaining a democratic and just society," said Scott Hartl, President and CEO of EL Education. "We are proud to be celebrating our first 25 years, grateful for our partners and supporters, and excited to continue our work to enable teachers and students to do more than they think possible."

About EL Education

For over 25 years, EL Education has been bringing to life a three-dimensional vision of student achievement that includes mastery of knowledge and skills, character, and high-quality student work. EL Education works with hundreds of  public schools—both district and charter—across 35 states, serving over 200,000 students and 16,000 teachers. Rigorous impact studies by Mathematica Policy Research demonstrate that EL Education's approach works: teachers significantly improve their craft and students achieve more, regardless of background.

Grounded in decades of in-depth work with educators, EL Education creates highly respected, widely distributed open educational resources, including: an acclaimed literacy curriculum that has been downloaded 8.7 million times and received the highest possible ratings from EdReports.org; the world's largest collection of exemplary student projects; inspiring instructional videos with over 1.3 million views; hundreds of free online resources; and best-selling education books.

For information on EL Education and Gala tables and tickets, go to ELeducation.org/Gala

SOURCE EL Education

Related Links

http://www.ELeducation.org