The Center for Cities & Schools (CC&S) at UC Berkeley is an interdisciplinary research center, promoting high quality education as an essential component of urban and metropolitan vitality to create equitable, healthy, and sustainable cities and schools for all. Our work focuses on two interrelated questions:

How can neighborhoods, cities, and regions promote high quality public education?
How can public education promote healthy, vibrant neighborhoods, cities, and regions?

Working at the intersection of urban policy and public education, we utilize three strategies to advance our work: Education, Collaborative Practice, and Research. Through public forums and courses at UC Berkeley, the Center educates future and current leaders on how to improve both cities and schools through their professional work. To engage the broader community, the Center provides direct service "collaborative practice" through activities such as: professional development workshops for public school teachers, district officials, and elected leaders; and public events and symposiums highlighting key issues. To better inform practice and policy decisions, the Center conducts and disseminates scholarly research. Through these mechanisms, the Center cultivates systems change by bringing diverse actors together, growing active and informed participants, and constructing common language to leverage school and community improvement.

Center for Cities and Schools

The Mechanics of City-School Initiatives: Transforming Neighborhoods of Distress & Despair into Neighborhoods of Choice & Promise