Global Cities Education Network

Asia Society created the Global Cities Education Network—a network of urban school systems in North America and Asia—to investigate common challenges in educational policy and practice and to collaboratively dream, design, and deliver internationally informed solutions to the issues with which education systems around the world are currently grappling. The idea is for these cities to go beyond sharing best practices related to any of these issues to designing and implementing solutions in the form of actionable policy plans and changes.

The first meeting of the Global Cities Education Network took place in Hong Kong in May 2012 and the second meeting convened in Seattle in January 2013 included participating cities: Chicago, Denver, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Seattle, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Toronto. Also participating was the EdVisions school network of primarily urban schools operating across several U.S. states.

During discussion at and between these meetings, participants identified several common, high-priority problems of practice and agreed to initially focus on two:

  1. The need to develop and sustain a high-quality teaching force
  2. The need to improve educational outcomes for low performing and linguistically and culturally diverse students

The Network engages in cycles of in-depth inquiry, discussion, planning, and action to address specific topics related to the themes of transforming learning and achieving equity. Each cycle involves knowledge sharing and problem solving, including at Global Cities Education Network Symposia and the production of research and knowledge products such as case studies, background papers, and meeting reports. The overarching goal is to develop practical wisdom from the research and experience of the world’s leading experts which reflects proven or promising efforts in Network cities, that can be used to enhance the effectiveness of Network and city school systems world wide.

GCEN Reports