He also developed a plan for accountability based on student performance. His success in working with elected and appointed officials, students, parents, teachers, administrators, businesspeople, church leaders and community organizations meshes well with the Annenberg Institute's focus on uniting all the strands that influence school reform. The Annenberg Institute's Senior Fellows Program gathers leaders in education reform who combine hands-on school experience with rigorous theoretical and research grounding. Senior fellows pursue their own work while simultaneously helping to shape the direction of the Annenberg Institute. Each year, the senior fellows and Professor Theodore R. Sizer, the Annenberg Institute's director, set an agenda for their combined work.
Senior fellows serve terms of one to three years.
Current senior fellows of the Annenberg Institute include Deborah Meier and Dennis Littky. Meier, a McArthur Fellow, has become one of the most widely recognized figures in education. She started the renowned Central Park East Secondary School in East Harlem, which has become a beacon for a 23-member school network, the Small Schools Collaborative. She is now president of the Center for Collaborative Education in New York City, as well as acting chair of the New York Network for School Renewal Consultation Committee. Littky, for 13 years the principal of Thayer High School in Winchester, N.H., has drawn national attention both for the success of his push for improved schooling and for the controversy those changes engendered.