Urban Education Partnership forges 'joint ventures'.

All children deserve the opportunity to receive an education from well-qualified teachers, at safe and effective schools regardless of socioeconomic status. That's what we believe at the Urban Education Partnership, a not-for-profit organization committed to making a positive difference in America's urban schools.

For almost two decades, the Partnership has designed, tested and implemented innovative programs that have pushed the envelope farther than many school districts alone are willing or able to do. The Partnership is able to leverage effective "joint ventures" with those who explore reform whether they are foundations, individuals or government agencies. In other words, partnerships work. For example:

* Our partnership with some of Los Angeles' leading financial institutions like Deloitte Touche, American Express, and Solomon Smith Barney, through internship opportunities, open students' eyes to the challenges, excitement and opportunities of the business world and how a college education can lead them there.

* Our partnership with Los Angeles Business Advisors ensures principals and other administrators have the values, ethics and attributes of effective leadership as well as the strategic and organizational skills to meet the daily challenges posed to them as school leaders.

* The Weingart Foundation paved the way for a systemic professional development program designed to place fully credentialed teachers where they are needed most-into Los Angeles' toughest urban schools. Subsequent partnerships with Washington Mutual, The Annenberg Foundation, The Hewlett Foundation and The Boeing Company have expanded our outreach to inner-city schools. They have also helped redesign university teacher credentialing programs into field-based laboratories and have provided ongoing professional development for novice and veteran teachers.

* Our partnership with Citigroup places funds directly into the hands of teachers to support inventive, interdisciplinary classroom projects designed to better engage students and to positively influence performance in classrooms in high-need urban schools.

* Our partnership with Prudential Financial, Inc. gives parents the tools and confidence to make sure their children are ready for school and has opened up career opportunities in early childhood and health-related fields for enthusiastic community members.

* Our partnership with Verizon Foundation provides teacher training on strategic literacy in underachieving middle and high schools. These literacy techniques, coupled with subject matter instruction in science, math and the humanities, give students the cognitive tools they need to read the variety of texts they encounter in science and other content-area classes.

* Our partnership with The Ahmanson Foundation highlights and rewards the achievements of teachers, schools and school-communities that demonstrate exemplary educational practices that result in improved student achievement.

* Our partnership with the WM Keck Foundation has mobilized hundreds of parents to be active participants in their children's education by showing them how they can help their children achieve their dreams by making college a reality.

Whether it be providing quality professional development, restructuring schools into small learning communities or eliminating barriers to learning, the challenge of improving student performance is certainly a major and complex public education issue. But while complex, one path toward attaining such improvement is through focused partnerships between well-established change agents and private sector institutions that are committed to powerful and lasting educational improvement.

We know there are no "quick fixes," or no "one way" to approach this issue and we also know that underlying student achievement are other essential metrics.

Because of our past successes, we are convinced that the most powerful and lasting educational improvement comes from galvanizing private, public and community sectors to come together to not only solve complex problems facing public education today, but also to work together to implement solutions to those complex problems.

Susan Way-Smith is President & CEO, Urban Education Partnership.