In addition to its large grants to urban schools, the Annenberg Challenge has financed several other initiatives:
- The Annenberg Rural Challenge: More than 500 rural schools are expected to benefit from this effort, which connects networks of schools with an external partner to promote K-12 reform. $50 million.
- Arts Education: In an effort to integrate arts education into school reform, funding has been provided to three projects: the New York City Arts and Education Initiative; the Arts, Culture, and Technology Initiative of the Galef Institute of Los Angeles; and six regional consortia of the Getty Education Institute for the Arts. $26.3 million.
- The Annenberg Institute: The institute, based at Brown University in Providence, R.I., is designed to bring together national reformers to work with schools under “one big tent’’ and to create a permanent organization that promotes change at the school level. It focuses on public engagement, a National School Reform Faculty to support and sustain whole-school change, and policy research on such topics as the creation of new accountability systems. The institute has been without a director since Theodore R. Sizer, its founder and the chairman of the Coalition of Essential Schools, resigned in 1996. $50 million.
- New American Schools: This nonprofit organization promotes the dissemination of seven research-based reform designs. Its goal is to create a critical mass of restructured schools by working closely with a handful of jurisdictions--states and school districts--nationwide. $50 million. The challenge also provided $13.1 million to New American Schools and the Education Commission of the States to support the dissemination of NAS-sponsored designs.
- Other Initiatives: The challenge also supports reform projects in Chattanooga, Tenn.; Chelsea, Mass; Salt Lake City; and Baltimore. $9.5 million.
