Education Policy and Organizing
A national grassroots movement to to win quality public education for all students and to engender education equity for all communities is rapidly gaining momentum. This movement takes many forms: parents of color in Denver question why their children always seem to attend the schools with the most inexperienced teachers. Students in Oakland organize against draconian discipline policies. Black and Latino residents of New York City demonstrate against a skewed distribution of curricula that tracks entire community school districts into failing high schools. Multi-ethnic community effort wins the nation's first dual-language Hmong-English public school in St. Paul.What ties these disparate efforts together is a growing sense on the part of parents and students that the quality of local schools varies dramatically, largely along race and class lines. At the local level, equity is fast becoming the lens through which communities focus their critique of what is wrong with their children's schools; the policy proposals around which they mobilize find common ground in a need to correct the structural inequities holding back their schools and therefore entire communities. Across the United States, the grassroots effort to rescue public schools from entrenched bureaucracies and indifferent politicians is becoming an important vehicle for engaging otherwise alienated groups of inner city residents in the decisions that have a direct impact on their children. PUBLICATIONS
Policing as Education Policy
This briefing summarizes key findings of a longer research paper analyzing the relationships among school attendance and other student behaviors, variable factors in school environments, and the initial implementation of the New York City Department of Education (DOE) Impact Schools program (Balmer, 2006). The Impact Schools program dramatically increases the police presence in selected, usually overcrowded schools.
When the schoolhouse feels like a jailhouse
This quasi-experimental study was conducted to examine whether the implementation of a punitive discipline policy, known as the Impact Schools intervention, in ten New York City high schools was successful in increasing attendance rate.
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26 CONVERSATIONS ABOUT ORGANIZING SCHOOL REFORM AND NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
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By: John Beam, Leigh Dingerson, Chris Brown [2004]
Investigators from NCSC, Center for Community Change, and the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform engage organizers in a round robin exploration of the impact No Child Left Behind is having on education justice work in 14 cities around the country.
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FIRST, DO NO HARM
A Response To the New York City Third Grade Retention Policy |
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By: Institute for Education and Social Policy, National Center for Schools and Communities [2004]
A Response to the Recently Adopted New York City Third Grade Retention Policy
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ACORN EDUCATION REFORM ORGANIZING
Evolution of a Model |
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By: John M. Beam and Sharmeen Irani [2003]
This report, ACORN Education Reform Organizing: Evolution of a Model, was requested and underwritten by the Hewlett Foundation and is an attempt to “get inside” ACORN’s extensive and varied experience around issues of school improvement and educational reform.
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FROM SCHOOLHOUSE TO STATEHOUSE
Community organizing for public school reform |
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By: National Center for Schools and Communities [2002]
From Schoolhouse to Statehouse provides an overview of the activities, strategies, successes and problems of a diverse set of organizing efforts across a 14-state national sample.
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UNLOCKING THE SCHOOLHOUSE DOOR
The Community Struggle For A Say In Our Children’s Education |
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By: John M. Beam, Dara Barlin, Gillian Eddins, Mike Eskenazi, Diane Pagen, Kate Scefonas, & Sharmeen Irani [2002]
Unlocking the Schoolhouse Door is one of a pair of inquiries growing out of our Scan Project, which explored the role of community organizations in school reform, and Building Bridges, which develops strategies for integrating the work of different sectors of the education justice movement.
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RESOURCES BY OUR COLLEAGUES
New York City's Middle-Grade Schools
A report by the Annaburg Institute Class Size Matters Parent Survey
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This study investigates the nationwide trend towards using zero tolerance polices in schools as a "take no prisoners" approach to dealing with the most trivial acts of student misconduct. The report also examines how students of color are disproportionately affected by these policies. |
Parent Involvement in Schools and Implications for NYC's Parent Coordinators Mapping the Field of Organizing for School Improvement
A report by NYU's Institute for Education and Social Policy The Indicators Project of the Cross City Campaign
This studiy examines the impact of community organizing for school reform and provides an overview of best practices.
( 1540.17Kb) Faith-Based Community Organizing: The State of the Field
Links to a report of the findings of a national survey conducted by Interfaith Funders. |
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