Suppporting Grassroots Efforts to Win Quality Public Schools for All

The National Center for Schools and Communities (NCSC) is Fordham University’s bridge to New York City communities that have organized to fight for better public schools. We provide grassroots groups of students, parents, and their neighbors with the resources to back up their hard work to mobilize the people power needed to win education justice. Through mutually respectful partnerships, we contribute policy expertise and access to assets that might not be available in individual neighborhoods.

Conducting policy and data analysis to support education justice campaigns.
The devil may be in the details, but the truth is often in the numbers. We work with community groups to untangle available figures and, when necessary, dig up others to document individual issues. As part of our national work, we recently investigated the distribution of highly qualified teachers and challenging coursework in the Providence public schools. Closer to home, our groundbreaking study Equity or Exclusion examined the relationship between resources such as experienced teachers and behavior indicators like attendance and suspensions within New York City public schools.

Leveraging resources for school improvement and reform.
No Child Left Behind labels our schools and our kids as failures with few if any useful suggestions about what to do. As a member of networks such as the Laboratory for the Design and Redesign of Schools (a collaboration with Bank Street and Teachers College), we help groups access a range of staff development, strategic planning, and community building resources for schools undergoing restructuring under city, state, or federal requirements. We also play matchmaker with other possible partners such as Peace Games New York.

Doing the evaluations your funders require and the ones you might actually want.
Our evaluation services provide valuable feedback for organizational improvement and satisfy funder requirements. For instance, we evaluate 21st Century Community Learning Center after school programs run by YMCA centers and other groups for students from 15 schools. We work with community-based after school providers from drafting the funding proposal to preparing the annual report. (Click here for an example) Our years of experience working with after school programs can also support campaigns to win more and better youth programs.

Working with community partners.
We provide logistic assistance and strategic consulting for a variety of education justice organizations and coalitions and innovative school improvement strategies. In 2005, these have included the Independent Commission on Public Education (ICOPE), Progressive Education Network of New York (PENNY), Peace Games New York.

Find out how NCSC can work with your group
We work with community-based after school providers from drafting the funding proposal to preparing the annual report.
Is your student, parent or neighborhood group interested in working with the National Center for Schools and Communities? To discuss potential partnerships, please contact John Beam at (212) 636-6617 or beam@fordham.edu.