On October 6, 2003, the Board of Education of DeKalb District 428 approved an historic agreement with Northern Illinois University to develop and operate a K-5 Partnership School in the former Malta High School building.

From its inception, the partnership school was established to improve education throughout the district by pioneering new techniques at a single site.

More than fifty NIU staff and school district personnel were involved in planning Wright Elementary School “from the ground up.” Armed with standard district curriculum and extensive studies on how to improve student performance, the planners quickly focused on an approach that infuses the fine arts and technology into all subjects at Wright Elementary School.

Students at Wright come from all over the district, bringing a diverse mix of academic preparedness and ethnic backgrounds that mirror the typical student body at any other district school. Likewise, the school budget, teaching staff and other resources match those around the district.

The difference between Wright Elementary and any other district school is the involvement of NIU faculty, staff and students in every aspect of school life. On-site faculty liaisons, dedicated observation classrooms and continuous advice and support from one of the nation’s leading public universities is what makes this school special.

For education students and faculty at NIU, the partnership school is a living classroom where innovative teaching techniques can be studied and mastered. For District 428, the partnership school provides a way to “fast-track” new ideas that benefit the whole district. And for about 250 five-to-eleven-year-olds, Wright Elementary is simply “their school” – a place to learn, play and grow.

We invite you to learn more about this project and other aspects of the NIU-DeKalb District 428 partnership in the pages of this Web site and its parent site, www.dekalbpartnership.niu.edu.