February 3, 2015
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
For the past two years, I have had the privilege of serving as the director of the School Reform Initiative (SRI). I am writing today to share some important organizational news.
As many of you know, this work of adult collaboration for the benefit of students that we share began as part of the Annenberg Institute of School Reform at Brown University in 1995. At the time, the program was called the National School Reform Faculty (NSRF) and its initial focus was supporting schools in the Coalition of Essential Schools network. The first coaches’ institute took place in the summer of 1995 with approximately 88 coaches from 77 schools. The early design of this work was based on the findings of researchers who were doing cutting edge work on the relationship between learning communities and student achievement. Institutes have been held all over the United States as well as internationally, every year since 1995. NSRF expanded beyond CES schools and the program grew.
In 2000, Annenberg’s mission shifted and it could no longer provide a financial or programmatic home for NSRF, so a search began to find another nonprofit that could serve as a fiscal agent for NSRF. The Harmony School Corporation in Bloomington, Indiana was selected because of their affiliation with the CES network. At that time, NSRF became a program of Harmony, and developed their own Accountability Council to help govern the decisions affecting NSRF. Seminars of facilitators and the annual Winter Meeting continued and a new fee-for-services model was developed to be able to more intentionally support schools and districts across the country interested in redesigning their professional development practices, with an eye towards equity, collaboration, deprivatization, and reflection.
In 2008, the Accountability Council made the courageous decision to establish a nonprofit organization to gain greater control over the operation of NSRF. After several months of negotiations, the decision was eventually made to leave the Harmony School Corporation and operate as a fully independent nonprofit. The leaders of NSRF worked tirelessly to negotiate an amicable split from Harmony, and requested to bring the name NSRF and all associated materials with them as they founded the new organization. After much negotiation, no agreement could be reached, so the School Reform Initiative (SRI) was born with a mission to “create transformational learning communities fiercely committed to educational equity and excellence.” Harmony School Corporation continues to operate NSRF as a program of Harmony, continuing to do the work of training coaches and facilitators.
I’m writing now to share some new developments. In 2003, while the founders of SRI were still with Harmony/NSRF, Harmony School Corporation filed to trademark not only the term NSRF but also the term “Critical Friends Group ®” based on a claimed first use in 2000, and the trademark was successfully granted. The trademark has been maintained by Harmony School Corporation and is now incontestable according to the US Patent and Trademark Office.
In March 2014, SRI received a Cease and Desist letter from Harmony School Corporation asking us to stop using the trademarked term. We worked with our attorney to find a compromise, but could not at that time. In May 2014, Harmony School Corporation filed a lawsuit against SRI for trademark infringement, and we have been working with our attorneys to defend ourselves. Trademark legal cases are extremely expensive, and as a small nonprofit, it is not in our best interest to spend our limited resources in this manner. To that end we have worked with Harmony, and their attorneys, to find a compromise that allows SRI to continue building and supporting the creation of transformational learning communities, while saving time and precious resources so that we can continue to affect change in schools.
SRI has entered into a legal settlement agreement with Harmony School Corporation, which generally provides the following:
- We will not use the trademarks “Critical Friends Group” or “CFG” in any of the advertising and marketing of our products or services. We will not allow our affiliates or third parties to use “Critical Friends Group,” “Critical Friends” or “CFG” in advertising for seminars, products or materials that are posted on our website or any other manner that is under our control.
- SRI may use Critical Friends Group ® in historical, background or definitional ways if we appropriately attribute it as a trademark owned by Harmony School Corporation. Any other use of the trademarks “Critical Friends Group” or “CFG” requires the expressed written permission of Harmony School Corporation.
- We will continue to use the phrase ‘critical friendship’ within text in a definitional, historical or background context. When the term “Critical Friendship” is used in the titles of products, materials or in the promotion of seminars, etc., the term “SRI,” “School Reform Initiative, Inc.,” or “School Reform Initiative” must immediately precede the term ‘Critical Friendship’ and terms such as “training,”, “seminar”, “workshop”, “institute,” and the like, must not immediately follow it. For example, here are some acceptable uses for titles of events:- “Seminar on SRI Critical Friendship”
– “Institute on School Reform Initiative Critical Friendship”
– “Workshops based on the Principles and Practices of SRI Critical Friendship” - SRI may continue to use the term ‘critical friends’ within text in a definitional, historical or background context.
- We have a period of time to implement these changes. Our website, social media pages and electronic materials will reflect this change no later than May 31, 2015; and our current inventory of printed materials will be used until they are gone, and no later than December 31, 2015.
The SRI Board and staff spent considerable amounts of time reflecting and considering all of our options in this case, and reached the conclusion that the settlement is the best resolution for our organization. We have already begun the process of rethinking and reframing our work prior to this settlement agreement and will continue to do so both in light of the settlement agreement, but primarily within the context of fulfilling our mission and incorporating our learning from the past 20 years. In the coming months, we will be working with our affiliates and facilitators, particularly those who do work at the national level, to continue the conversation about how this settlement agreement might impact their individual work and support them as they continue to development their practice.
This is a lot of information that may need to be processed and then discussed, and you may have questions. I have set-up five conversation opportunities for us to gather virtually. These sessions will be on the following dates – please email me (kthierer@schoolreforminitiative.org) to let me know which date works for you and I will send the WebEx invitation:
February 4th – 7pm Eastern February 5th – 11am Eastern
February 10th – 7pm Eastern February 11th – 11am Eastern
February 11th – 5pm Eastern
I appreciate your time and attention to this announcement and the continuing development of SRI. I continue to be thankful for your commitment to schools and the students they serve. This work is too important – students and educators throughout the country need us to continue providing outstanding professional learning to create the schools our kids deserve. We will continue to innovate and evolve in our work with fierce dedication to making schools better places for all kids. Please feel free to contact me directly with any questions.
With gratitude,
Kari Thierer
Organizational Director
On behalf of the SRI Board of Directors
