All 500 principals and their teachers from the metropolitan area are invited to hear national presenters on school improvement. The event is a two-day conference on a topic deemed relevant by Fellows. At past institutes, the Center has contracted with the Ruby Payne organization to conduct sessions on teaching children of poverty and with the Kagan organization to conduct sessions on differentiated instruction. In most cases, over 200 educators will attend these institutes. From this conference staff has noted other conferences have been added to meet needs of schools. Several of these include a skill-building sessions for school secretaries, grant searching and writing workshops, and computer software workshops.