Below are some of EDC’s flagship projects. And please be sure explore various multi-media from our landmark programs in education and health through our Interactive Timeline.
1956
The Physical Science Study Committee, made up of industry leaders and professors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, begins work on a new physics curriculum that combines experimental activities and theoretical learning to promote students’ personal discovery.
1958
Educational Services Inc. (ESI) is established under the auspices of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to administer the new physics program, and quickly expands to include new projects in other fields. In its first decade, ESI produces hundreds of educational materials, including texts, films, film strips, audiotapes, posters, records, tool kits, tests, and games, and is awarded more than 150 national and international awards, including an Emmy and several from the American Film Festival.
1958-1968
A complete high school physics curriculum, PSSC Physics includes films and laboratory equipment. By the early 1960’s, nearly half of all high school physics students in the U.S. use the PSSC curriculum, which earns four American Film Festival awards.
Funders: National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and others
1960-1973
The Elementary Science Study (ESS) curriculum brings hands-on science learning to hundreds of thousands of students from kindergarten through eighth grade in schools nationwide. More than 100 educators contribute to the creation of 80 ESS units and materials, which earn two CINE Golden Eagle awards.
Funder: National Science Foundation
1961-1976
The African Mathematics Programs work with mathematicians, scientists, and educators from Africa and the U.S. to provide teacher training and to create texts and audiotapes for primary schools and secondary schools in 11 African countries, and three films for use in African teacher training programs.
Funder: U.S. Agency for International Development
1962-1975
Man: a Course of Study (MACOS) produces films, simulations, and booklets for the study of human behavior by elementary and middle school students. The award-winning curriculum is widely used in the U.S. and wins the American Educational Publishers Institute award, an American Film Festival award, two CINE Golden Eagle awards, and an Emmy Award (1971).
Funders: National Science Foundation and Ford Foundation
1965-1976
The African Primary Science Program produces materials for African primary schools and assists in the establishment of the Science Educational Programme for Africa (SEPA), an independent, indigenous educational research and development organization.
Funder: U.S. Agency for International Development
1968
ESI and the Institute for Educational Innovation merge to form Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC).
1968-1981
The Open Education/Follow Through Project extends the benefits of Head Start into elementary schools, provides teacher training, and sets up teacher resource centers in nine urban and rural sites across the country.
Funder: U.S. Office of Education, later the U.S. Department of Education
1970-1974
The People and Technology Project produces films, audio cassettes, filmstrips, tool kits, and concept books, and conducts seminars for teachers and parents that examine the relationship between technology and society.
Funder: National Endowment for the Humanities, Ford Motor Company Foundation
1970-1977
The Unified Sciences and Mathematics for Elementary Schools Project produces interdisciplinary units for use as a core curriculum for science, mathematics, and the social sciences, emphasizing solutions to real-life problems.
Funder: National Science Foundation
1971-1975
The Career Education Project establishes a career resource center, develops information packages, and provides free telephone career-counseling with information on jobs and training to more than 6,000 home-based adults in Providence, Rhode Island. The American Institute of Graphic Arts awards the project a Certificate of Excellence.
Funder: National Institute of Education
1971-1978
The Exploring Childhood curriculum produces booklets, records, posters, and 36 16 mm films on child development and family interactions for high school students, and engages students in the direct care for and study of young children. Providing user training for teachers and community leaders across the U.S., the curriculum sees use in more than 7,000 sites in all 50 U.S. states; nine foreign countries also use the program.
Funders: National Institute of Mental Health; the Office of Child Development of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare; and the Bush Foundation
1973-1977
EDC produces Infinity Factory, a series of 82 half-hour mathematics programs especially designed for children from ethnic and cultural minorities. Programs were broadcast by PBS and made available for classroom use, earning an achievement award from Action for Children’s Television.
Funder: U.S. Department of Education
1975-1979
The Burn Prevention Project, a collaboration among EDC, Massachusetts General Hospital, the Shriners’ Burns Institute, and the National Fire Protection Association, collects baseline data about burn injuries and develops educational materials and strategies, particularly for parents, to reduce the incidence of this common cause of childhood injury and death.
Funder: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
1976-2003
For more than 20 years, The New England RAP project has assisted teachers, managers, and other Head Start staff throughout New England in meeting the challenge of fully including children with disabilities and their families. RAP’s specialists provide intensive, on-site training and technical assistance to grantees on issues affecting children with disabilities. The project also facilitates the development of interagency agreements with regional, state, and local education agencies and other entities and offers trainings at national, regional, and state conferences for Head Start staff and early education professionals.
Funder: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families
1977-2003
The Women’s Educational Equity Act (WEEA) Resource Center uses technology-based technical assistance, training, dissemination, and publishing to build educators’ capacity to meet the educational needs of women and girls and to improve outcomes for all students.
Funder: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
1982
EDC’s Center for Learning Technology (CLT) begins producing award-winning software products and developing new ways to use information technologies to improve classroom learning. EDC’s first software product, the Semantic Calculator, won the Software of the Year Award from Classroom Computer Learning, and the Geometric Supposer software series won the same award in 1986 and 1987.
1985-1993
The Urban Mathematics Collaborative coordinates a network of teachers and administrators to strengthen mathematics education and professional development in urban schools around the country.
Funder: The Ford Foundation
1987-
Insights: An Inquiry-Based Science Curriculum is a K-12 science curriculum that engages students in hands-on learning and concept development.
Funder: National Science Foundation
1987-1994
Decisions Near the End of Life is an institution-based, multidisciplinary continuing medical education program focused on best practices in end-of-life care. Decisions involves a commitment by a hospital or nursing home to help their professional staff and patients improve the way ethical decisions are made. It begins by asking health care professionals to define their concerns and needs, then helps them design their own solutions for improving care to the critically and terminally ill.
Funders/partners: W.K. Kellogg Foundation, The Hastings Center, the American Medical Association, The American Bar Association, and the Hospital Research and Educational Trust, an affiliate of the American Hospital Association
1989-
Teenage Health Teaching Modules (THTM) is a successful, nationally used, and independently evaluated comprehensive school health curriculum for grades 6 to 12. It provides adolescents with the knowledge and skills to act in ways that enhance their immediate and long-term health.
1992-1998
The National Center to Improve Practice (NCIP) worked to improve educational outcomes for students with disabilities by promoting the effective use of assistive and instructional technologies among educators and related personnel serving these students. In order to accomplish this goal, NCIP created a national community of educators—technology coordinators, staff developers, teachers, specialists, clinicians, administrators, university faculty, advocates and consumers—who play a leading role at a local, regional or national level in promoting and implementing assistive and instructional technologies for students with disabilities.
Funder: U.S. Department of Education
1992-2003
The ATLAS Communities Project was developed through the collaboration of
four leading educational thinkers: Howard Gardner of Harvard University’s Project Zero; Ted Sizer of the Coalition of Essential Schools at Brown University; James Comer of the School Development Program at Yale University; and Janet Whitla, president of EDC. This nationwide whole-school reform process currently works with more than 100 public schools. (ATLAS is now an independent organization)
Funder: New American School Development Corporation and member schools and districts
1994-
The Adult Literacy Media Alliance (ALMA) helps adults gain basic reading, writing, and math skills. ALMA creates innovative, educationally sound, and entertaining television teaching materials and cultivates learner networks. TV411, ALMA’s magazine-format television series (with print materials and a Web site) has aired over 40,000 times on hundreds of public television and cable television stations and has been available to 65 percent of all households in the United States. TV411 received two Emmy Awards, including one for “Outstanding Educational Programming.”
Funders: Ford Foundation; The Wallace Foundation; United States Department of Education; California State University Institute; Institute for Career Development, Inc.; Rockefeller Brothers Fund; Booth Ferris Foundation; The New York Community Trust; The New York Times Company Foundation; Goldsmith Foundation; National Science Foundation; Verizon Foundation; Pfizer Foundation; The Starr Foundation; Bank of America; The Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation; United States Department of Justice; NASD Investor Education Foundation
1995-
The Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention works with college and community leaders to develop, implement, and evaluate programs and policies that reduce student problems related to alcohol and other drug use and interpersonal violence. The Center focuses on prevention strategies that have not been traditionally used within the college community and that have impact on the entire student body, campus environment, and campus culture.
Funder: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
1997 to 2005
The National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform focuses on improving academic and developmental outcomes for all students in the middle grades, by identifying and disseminating best practices, articulating and promoting effective policies, recognizing and developing enlightened leadership, and informing and engaging the public.(The forum is now an independent organization.)
Funders: The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation; The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation; The W.K. Kellogg Foundation; the College Board
1998-
The WHO Collaborating Center delivers services that strengthen the capacity of schools and communities worldwide to promote the healthy development of students, school personnel, families, and surrounding communities.
Funder: World Health Organization
1999-2008
Exploring Humanitarian Law (EHL) is an international curriculum that helps young people explore conceptions of “what’s fair” during armed conflicts. EHL is used in 60 countries around the world and is available in 38 languages.
Funder: International Committee of the Red Cross
2000-2005
The America Connects Consortium (ACC) support the work of federally-funded community technology centers across the country. Through training, evaluation, resource development, and research, ACC supports the use of information technology to improve achievement in education and enrich community life.
Funder: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education
2000-
The interdisciplinary Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies (Ford PAS) program provides students with the content knowledge and skills necessary for future success in areas such as business, economics, engineering, and technology. Ford PAS is used in 23 states, reaches 15,000 students, and was awarded the inaugural Public-Private Partnership Award from the National Governors Association.
Funder: Ford Motor Company Fund
2001
Concerned that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 created a hostile climate for Arab-Americans, EDC develops Beyond Blame: Reacting to the Terrorist Attack—a curriculum for middle and high school students on issues of justice and mislaid blame. Beyond Blame has been endorsed by more than 200 national professional associations and Web sites.
Funder: The Justice Project and Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation
2001-2007
The Digital Opportunity through Technology: Educating the Disadvantaged and Underserved (dot-EDU) program introduces information communication technologies to assist developing countries in improving the quality of, access to, and equity in education. A total of 25 dot-EDU projects and another 18 pilot activities took place in 30 countries around the world.
Funder: U.S. Agency for International Development
2002-
The National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention works with schools and communities to use evidence-based strategies for mental health promotion and violence prevention. Through training, online learning, site visits, and peer exchange, the center provides consultation to grantees who to serve diverse audiences.
Funder: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
2003-
EQUIP3 / Youth Trust: Learning and Earning for Out-of-School Youth prepares and engages out-of-school children, youth, and young adults for their roles in work, civil society, and family life. Youth Trust strengthens youth and youth serving organizations, including non-governmental organizations, government agencies, private businesses, and education and training providers.
Funder: U.S. Agency for International Development
2006-
The Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory (REL-NEI) conducts research on new approaches to improving teaching and learning and disseminates proven approaches to educators and policymakers. REL-NEI is one of ten regional education labs and serves New England, New York, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
Funder: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences