About

The Center for Urban Education at Cleveland State University (CSU) was established in 2010 as the research and development arm of Campus International School (CIS), an innovative public school in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD). While the Center continues its collaboration with CIS, it has grown to support research and development efforts with schools, districts, institutions of higher education, and nonprofit organizations across Greater Cleveland, Ohio, and beyond. 

The Center engages in collaborative evaluation research with partners internal and external to CSU; conducts original research on urban education in partnership with CSU-affiliated and external scholars; and supports educational programs, professional development, and technical assistance for campus and community stakeholders. 

The Center is a founding member of the Cleveland Alliance for Education Research, a research-practice partnership between CSU and CMSD. It also represents CSU as a partner in the Ohio Education Research Center (OERC).

The Center has secured more than seven million dollars in grant funding for CSU from federal (e.g., Institute of Education Sciences, National Endowment for the Arts, National Institute of Justice), state, and private foundation (e.g., Hewlett Foundation, Spencer Foundation, William T. Grant Foundation) sources. It is the only Ohio institution to have ever received a Research-Practice Partnership grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), and it is the recipient of two of only seven IES grants of any type awarded to Ohio institutions in the past decade. It is also one of only two Ohio institutions of higher education to be awarded an Education Innovation and Research grant from the U.S. Department of Education since that program's inception in 2017.   

The Center has also served as a training site for emerging researchers, many of whom have gone on to tenure-track positions at research universities nationwide. 

The Center is housed on the CSU campus in Julka Hall (Rooms 379, 390, and 394) and continues to foster rigorous, practice-oriented research in service of improving educational opportunity and outcomes in urban settings.