About the Alliance
About the Alliance
Mission: The mission of the Alliance for Excellent Education is to promote high school transformation to make it possible for every child to graduate prepared for postsecondary education and success in life.
About the Alliance: The Alliance for Excellent Education is a national policy and advocacy organization that works to make every child a high school graduate - to prepare them for college, work, and to be contributing members of society. Founded in 2001, the Alliance focuses on America's six million most at-risk secondary school students - those in the lowest achievement quartile - who are most likely to leave school without a diploma or to graduate unprepared for a productive future.
The Alliance works to encourage the development and implementation of federal and national policies that support effective high school reform and increased student achievement and attainment. It works to synthesize and distribute research and information about promising practices that enlightens the national debate about education policies and options. The Alliance provides sound, objective, nonpartisan advice that informs decisions about policy creation and implementation. Working with educators, researchers, business leaders, citizen groups, and decisionmakers at the local, state, and national levels, the Alliance develops federal policy recommendations and advocates to policymakers in the federal government.
To encourage public awareness and action that support effective secondary school reform, the Alliance hosts and makes presentations at meetings and conferences across the country; produces reports, briefs, and other publications; and issues regular releases providing the press and others with national and state-level data and information about the impact of improving educational achievement and attainment levels for secondary school students. The Alliance publishes a bi-weekly newsletter, Straight A's, which provides information on public education policy and progress in an accessible format.
Based in Washington, DC, the Alliance's audience includes policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels, as well as education organizations, the corporate, labor, and funding communities, the media, parents, administrators, teachers, students, and a concerned public.
The Alliance was founded in 2001 by philanthropists Gerard and Lilo Leeds. Alliance president Bob Wise, a former member of Congress and governor of West Virginia, provides leadership to a staff of over twenty dedicated and talented individuals. Funding for the organization comes from the Leeds family, other generous individuals, and foundations and corporations.
Alliance Leadership Team
Meet the Alliance's Board Chairman and Board of Directors
Alliance Staff
Learn more about members of the Alliance Staff
Board of Directors
Learn more about the Alliance's Board of Directors
Meet Our Advisory Groups
Meet the individuals who serve on the Alliance's four advisory groups:
- Intermediate and Adolescent Literacy
- Teacher and Principal Quality
- President's Policy Council
- Secondary School Improvement
Former Staff and Interns (Coming Soon)