CEO's primary goal is to strengthen the bonds between DC public and charter schools and the community -- ensuring that parents and students are central to the conversation of school reform.  To date, CEO has had measurable impact:

On individuals.  CEO-funded groups have increased community leadership in school reform with a particular focus on developing parent and youth leadership.  One example is DC Language Access Coalition, a coalition of dozens of immigrant-serving nonprofits who collectively support the SMART (Student Multiethnic Action Research Teams) program.  With SMART, limited-English proficient young people and their parents address issues of language access to educational services - bilingual guidance counselors, for example.  SMART now has chapers of students in five DC high schools.  The presence of the SMART program has helped schools to recognize the issues and challenges facing limited-English proficient students, as well as inspiring these students to play an active role in making thier schools more responsive to these challenges.  SMART member Matteus, also a DCPS student, said, "Most ESL students are shy and don't speak up, but SMART gives them a chance to discuss their issues . . . we help them and bring the issues back to the coalition."

Across the CEO initiative, more than 600 parents,students and community residents are engaged and supported to be leaders in their community.  In both traditional and public charter schools, these individuals are guiding conversations on reform and making change for their communities.

On institutions. CEO has worked to build the capacity of local education nonprofits to strengthen the "pipeline" of organizers - community leaders - to help ensure that these groups have adequate staffing and financial resources to develop and support parent and youth leadership.

To illustrate how CEO is building this capacity, take for example CEO grantees DC Alliance for Youth Advocates (DCAYA) and Critical Exposure.  Prior to CEO, neither of these groups was engaged in community organizing for education reform - one was a coalition of youth advocacy groups and the other a grassroots community arts and youth engagement group.  Both heard from their members and communtiies that education reform was a top priority, but that there were few venues where students could work together on these issues in a meaningful way that would actually impact their in-school experience.  CEO support enabled DCAYA and Critical Exposure to collaborate to create STEP Up DC, an innovative program that strengthens the leadership of young people to analyze education issues using traditional and non-traditional methods, such as photography, to define solutions and hold decision-makers accountable.  The end result has been a major new organizing entity that has built leadership from within.  

STEP Up DC is just one example.  In the past three years, CEO has enhanced the ability of eight local nonprofits to organize communities where before there were a maximum of two.

On the community.  From the beginning, CEO has been envisioned as a 7-10 year initiative - a major goal has been to ensure that what is built through CEO is sustainable over the long term.  To this end, one of our most important outcomes has been to build the infrastructure external to CEO that supports community engagement and leadership in education reform.

This infrastructure is best represented by CEO nonprofits DC Language Access Coalition and Youth Education Alliance.  Both membership-based groups, DC-LAC and YEA work to engage young people in DCPS high schools around issues ranging from suspension and truancy policies to guidance counselor supports.  DC-LAC and YEA work through school-based chapters - each one is responsive to the specific needs and environment of the school.  In this way, young people are leading reform conversations at the school level, making connectons to teachers, principals, and other allies, and becoming community leaders in ways that will long outlast the CEO initiative.  Before CEO, these groups had no chapters - today, they collectively represent each of DCPS' 10 comprehensive high schools and have collaborated with and mobilized more than 30 youth advocacy groups and engaged over 1,000 youth.

CEO has demystified for many DC's pubic education policy, and through participation in CEO and engaging in the community conversation, parents, youth, and others are starting to realize their power.