View any of the following publications or visit one of the resources listed below to learn more about issues surrounding community organizing for education reform.

Education Data and Statistics
Public Will-Building
Youth Development
Community/Parent Engagement
Additional Resources

Education Data and Statistics

Education Pays 2010, published every three years, presents detailed evidence of the private and public benefits of higher education.  It also sheds light on the distribution of these benefits by examining both the increases and the persistent disparities in college participation and completion.

Double the Numbers for College Success. Using the best available data, the report details the result of cohort analysis to determine the degree of secondary and postsecondary success for students attending District of Columbia public schools. 

Left Behind in America: The Nation’s Dropout Crisis defines the extent of the dropout crisis in the US and solutions to the crisis.  

Quality Schools, Health Neighborhoods, and the Future of DC examines public schools in Washington DC, both District of Columbia Public Schools and public charter schools asserting a focus on public school improvement, expansion of affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization will create a more family-friendly city. 

Public Will-Building

Working Together to Achieve Greater Impact: The Donor’s Education Collaborative of New York City examines the work of the Donors’ Education Collaborative of New York (DEC) that came together during the mid-1990’s to pool funds to support a common goal of increasing public support for New York City’s public schools.

Funding Community Organizing: Social Change Through Civic Participation.  Grantmakers discuss how and why community organizing works to build community, increase democratic participation and solve problems. Experienced funders offer a grounding in organizing basics, describe how the field is changing, and explain how they support relationships (and manage tensions) with grantees.

Youth Development

Betrayal: Accountability from the Bottom.  Drawing on the voices of youth in New York and California, the authors find that the promises for improvement in current education policy, under No Child Left Behind,  represent a cruel hoax.  Young people want a better education, but they are denied even the most basic conditions for learning.

Employers, Low-Income Young Adults, and Postsecondary Credentials.  The report presents a model by which business, education and community leaders can provide high-school graduates the necessary post-secondary skills to succeed.

What Is After-School Worth? Developing Literacy and Identity Out of School ?  Today's visual age demands a broadened view of literacy that encompassess understanding and using new technologies.  After-school programs can help young people develop this form of literacy and express their newly created identities.

Community/Parent Engagement

Building Leadership Capacity in Smart Education Systems.  A new approach to leadership is needed to ensure that school systems equitable and effectively prepare all their community's young people to succeed.  Education leaders are finding that a different approach to leadership, based on community partnership, yields better results and greater equity.

Community Organizing for Reform at Scale: 
Balancing Demand and Support.  A community organizing strategy that combines collaboration with institutional partners while using pressure when necessary to move reform forward, can be a powerful driver of school improvement at scale.

Parents Building Communities in Schools.  This case study examines an effort to engage parents, most immigrant mothers or daughters of immigrants, in Chicago schools which resulted in benefits to both school and the parents.

Urban Education Reform: Recalibrating the Federal Role.  The brief economic boom of the 1990s brought hope and energy to urban communities, with public policy marked by an alliance between the public, the political, financial and business establishments.  The recent economic bust; however, has all but eliminated public trust in the establishment.  This article examines how federal policies should address community engagement and equity in order to build "smart education systems" that improve outcomes for urban children and youths.

Additional Resources
Please visit these websites for additional information on education organizing locally and nationally.

Annenberg Institute for School Reform adopted its current mission in 1998: “to develop, share, and act on knowledge that improves the conditions and in schools serving disadvantaged children.” Their vision is to transform traditional school systems into smart education systems.

Center for Community Change helps establish and develop community organizations across the country with the goal of bringing attention to major national issues related to poverty and "insuring that government programs are responsive to community needs.

Communities for Public Education Reform supports the growing field of education organizing through grants and technical assistance to community organizations working to ensure that parents and students have a strong voice in shaping the policies that affect their public schools.

Donors Education Collaborative  was founded by a group of New York City-based grantmakers, this Collaborative is building a progressive constituency for public education.

Funders Collaborative on Youth Organizing  is a collective of national, regional and local grantmakers and youth organizing practitioners dedicated to advancing youth organizing as a strategy for youth development and social justice.

Grantmakers for Education a national membership organization providing professional development, information and networking to grantmakers to help foundations and donors improve achievement and opportunities for all students through their investments.

Public Education Network  builds demand and mobilizes resources for quality public education for all children through a national constituency of local education funds and individuals.

Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers’ Public Education Working Group is a local working group of Washington, DC-based funders working on strategies for education reform in the District of Columbia.