Indeed, Bay Area funders point to the Collaborative's leadership in helping them create--or recast--their own education programs as more effective parts of a larger, sustainable, regional mosaic. The advent of BASRC and the Hewlett-Annenberg Challenge, some note, has caused their foundations to reevaluate their approach to supporting local reform efforts. Rather than funding one school or program with a significant portion of their education budget, they are redirecting funds towards BASRC and other regional organizations, allowing them to leverage their dollars much further.

Some also consider an investment in BASRC as a contribution to sustainability of reform in the area, an appealing alternative to supporting isolated projects that often lose momentum once funding expires. Kim Ford, senior program officer at the Walter S. Johnson Foundation and one of the group of funders who originally helped plan the Collaborative, acknowledges that achieving enduring reform was one of the earliest goals of the Collaborative: "We saw the mission of BASRC as not only to support work in the schools but also to build the capacity of the region to continue to do this work forever."

"I'm very interested in the conversation about what happens next," said Ann Bowers of the Noyce Foundation, adding that she has been "working quietly" with respected educators to imagine what the future of school reform in the area might look like. "With BASRC coming close to the end of its charter as we know it, and Silicon Valley Joint Venture being in the same situation, I see a unique opportunity to bring the work together, which we should do if it's going to move forward. I hope we'll come up with something that, in my mind, looks like 'think globally, work locally,'" she said.

Jennifer Sims of Quantum underscored the need for ratcheting up the level of communication among all parties with a stake in school reform. "There really needs to be more information disseminated about the good things that are happening," she said. "Some of the superintendents we've talked to have suggested that someone put together a 'swat team' of people in industry to go out and talk to CEOs in other companies as well as legislators to demonstrate some of the great things happening in our own back yard that people never hear about. Teachers are staying in the system. Literacy rates are increasing. There's a lot of good news out there that we aren't sharing."

Like Bowers and Sims, many of those interviewed are already gearing up for a K-12 system that may look very different from today's. AT & T's Marilyn Reznick spoke of the ongoing evolution of her company's educational grantmaking focus, shifting over the past few years from computers to connectivity to training for teachers and finally to content. "We think professional development for teachers is really where it's at now, but I think the next big frontier out there is going to be content," she offered. Whether or not her prediction proves accurate, one eventuality seems certain: with a new California governor pointing to education as his number one priority, changes are in store. And no matter which organization or organizations are elected to carry forward the school reform flag, all will need appropriate resources to keep abreast of rapidly changing times.

Since the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative's vision of regional reform is unprecedented, it has no examples to draw upon while planning for the future. But as this and other studies of its impact on funders and educators alike suggest, BASRC has set in motion common work, a common vocabulary, and common learning that cannot help but support better schools and higher student achievement in the region for years to come.