Community Organizing as an Education Reform Strategy

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After resigning as Chancellor of the Washington, D.C. public schools, Michelle Rhee appeared on “Oprah” and on the cover of Newsweek to announce that she was launching a massive grassroots advocacy organization to advance the school reform goals embodied in her tenure as Chancellor. The new group, called Students First, aims to recruit one million members its first year. The goal is to shift the balance of power away from special interests that, Rhee claims in Newsweek, put adult needs first. She continues by arguing that “there is no big organized interest group that defends and promotes the interests of children.”

Rhee is right about the vital role of parents, students and community members in demanding change. But organized parents and students are shaping education policy and improving schools all over the country, right now. Earlier Commentaries have described parent-and student-led organizing in New York City and two emerging coalitions working to shape federal education policy. Mark Warren of the Harvard Graduate School of Education estimates that there are 500 groups active in education organizing today. While they aren't often invited to appear on national television or on the cover of magazines, grassroots organizations are working to ensure that all students have excellent schools in places like Boston and Washington, D.C., in Detroit and Phoenix, and in rural Vermont and the Rio Grande Valley.

On behalf of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the Annenberg Institute conducted a scan of six New England states to identify groups with education organizing capacity. The Nellie Mae Education Foundation recognizes the central role that parents, students and community members must play in sustainable reform, and wanted to understand the education organizing landscape before launching a major student-centered learning reform initiative in New England. The Annenberg Institute located more than 50 groups with substantial capacity to organize for effective, equitable schools in the region.

Most of these groups are already engaged in organizing or advocacy campaigns to change education policy, win resources for underserved districts and schools, or to support improvements in specific schools. Others are established community organizing groups that have not yet delved into school reform but have track records on health care, housing, immigration, child safety, and neighborhood policing. They are in large cities, industrial towns, and rural areas. Some are part of national organizing networks like PICO, and some are independent.

What they all have in common is that they engage in a cycle of knocking on doors and holding house meetings, identifying issues that impact people’s lives, developing solutions, and acting to hold public officials accountable. Their agendas come directly from the lived experiences and knowledge of parents, students and community members that have been most impacted by failing schools and unequal opportunities. They support those same people in becoming leaders who are articulate about education and skilled in negotiating with public officials.

A few examples of work in New England:

• The Pioneer Valley Project, a coalition of congregations and labor unions representing several thousand families in the metro Springfield region, established a Teacher Home Visit program in partnership with the Springfield Public Schools and the teachers union. Teachers are trained to visit students’ homes to build positive relationships with parents.
  
  
• Voices for Vermont’s Children, a statewide organization that organizes individuals as well as agencies that serve young people, successfully organized for legislation expanding services, including education, to 18-22-year-olds in state custody. They are deeply involved in efforts to make school funding in Vermont more equitable and stable.
  
  
• The Boston Youth Organizing Project, which has been organizing young people to improve high schools for fourteen years, won a new citywide contract for guidance counselors stipulating that they meet with all students twice a year. BYOP has formed a city-wide coalition with four other youth organizing groups to amplify the voices of young people in decisions about education and other areas that impact their lives.

The organizations of parents and students doing the hard work of holding school systems accountable to the goals of equity and opportunity need financial and technical support. Rural organizations in particular face challenges in connecting with other organizations and experts who can support their campaigns. Organizing groups need more local and national platforms for sharing their work and demonstrating the capacity of ordinary parents, students, and community members to make education work better.

REFERENCES
Warren, M.R. (2010). Community Organizing for Education Reform. In Orr, M. and J. Rogers (eds.), Public Engagement for Public Education. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 139-172.  

MORE COVERAGE ON THE WEB
Here are Websites that hightlight the Community Organizing as an Education Reform Strategy Series:
> Nellie Mae Education Foundation
> Philanthropy News Digest
> PEN NewsBlast
> Digital Journal
> Research for Action
> UT Austin: Division of Diversity and Community Engagement
> Urban Teacher Residence United
> Valleynewslive.com

PREPARED BY 
Sara McAlister
Research Associate, Annenberg Institute for School Reform 
Sara_McAlister@brown.edu