The Collaborative for Education Organizing’s funders and nonprofit partners work diligently to increase the resources available to support the District’s young people in their education careers.  To date, CEO has had measurable impact:

On individuals. Ensuring that education reform is undertaken in a way that is reflective of the community can't be accomplished without voices of the community at "the table."  When CEO began its work, a handful of organizations were engaging too few individuals in the conversation on education reform.  Reform plan after reform plan had been devised by education professionals with too little input from those who would be impacted by these plans—parents and students.  CEO’s goal in leveraging human capital around the issue of education reform has been to substantially increase the number of parents and students influencing programs and policies that impact the academic and social development of public school students.

Today, CEO works with five nonprofits engaging more than 600 parents, students, and educators annually in the dialogue on education reform.  CEO nonprofit partners are mobilizing District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) and charter school parents and students to raise their voice—a voice that has all too often been drowned out in the conversation on education reform by those with less of a direct stake in the success or failure of local schools.  CEO parents and students are stepping up as leaders in the conversation—actively researching problems in schools and identifying solutions, offering testimony to the City Council and DCPS, showing their power through marches and protests—CEO parents and students are working to ensure their voices will no longer be ignored.  Click here to see a video of CEO parents and students making their voices heard at a recent DCPS Budget Hearing.

On institutions. Empowering parents and students to make a difference in their schools has been a process strengthened by the philanthropic community.  Ensuring that philanthropic capital is increased to support authentic community voice in education reform has been a priority for The Community Foundation since CEO’s inception.  More than one dozen local and national funders and individual donors have contributed to support the work of CEO.

Since 2007, CEO has invested more than $2.8 million toward these efforts.  What's more, we have leveraged more than $2.2 million in funding from foundation and donor partners in addition to the more than $600,000 in funds contributed from The Community Foundation.  These new funds represent the single largest direct and focused investment in education organizing in the District’s history, as well as one of the largest local investments in community organizing generally.  Beyond ensuring that resources are available, CEO works to bring donors and funders together, aligning efforts to magnify our impact.  From a return-on-investment perspective, CEO groups are going above and beyond to ensure that these valuable investments are leveraged.  Based upon recent policy wins, our current grants to Youth Education Alliance have leveraged $3 for every $1 invested, and for the DC Language Access Coalition the return has been $14 for every $1!

Our donors and funders are not only contributing their much-needed dollars to this effort, but their perspective as well.  Click here to listen to some of the stories of our donors to learn more.

On the community.  The work of improving our local schools is a process that will never end—not because the fight is too difficult, but because there is always room for improvement.  To this end, empowering individual parents and students to be a part of this conversation is not enough—enshrining the community’s role in the dialogue on education reform is critical to ensure that the power that is built by the communities is permanent.  Building relationships between the community and the educational system that encourage a free-flow of information and provide access to decision-makers is critical to ensuring parent and student voice is respected over the long term.  CEO nonprofit partners are working diligently to establish relationships with political and education leaders and make systemic changes that strengthen the community role in education in the District of Columbia.

CEO nonprofit partner DC Language Access Coalition, for example, has worked through its Student Multi-Ethnic Action Research Team (SMART) since 2008 to ensure that young people who are immigrants or have limited English proficiency are given the resources they need to participate fully in their schools.  SMART youth leaders helped to secure a more than $4.5 million increase in limited English proficient student support in 2009.  Additionally, SMART youth have been incorporated into planning and feedback sessions undertaken by the Chancellor and DCPS to improve the system’s track record in assisting immigrant students.  SMART has built connections that will work to keep their voice heard over the long-term.

Youth Education Alliance (YEA), another CEO nonprofit partner working in six DCPS comprehensive high schools, has made a central plank of its platform on school improvement the goal of increasing support for guidance counseling.  Inadequate guidance counselor support can leave students with few resources available to pursue post-secondary options such as college and technical school. In some DCPS high schools, the ratio of guidance counselors to students was nearly 1:600 before YEA’s efforts.  In 2009, YEA successfully worked with the DC City Council to secure funding to ensure that the ratio for guidance counselors would be no greater than 1:250 at Wilson, Ballou and Anacostia high schools.  YEA also secured $1 million in funding for professional development for DCPS guidance counselors to ensure that the quantity and quality of counseling available is superior.  YEA’s youth leaders have realized real wins in ensuring that the needs of the community are forefront in the DC reform debate.  However, there is more to be done.  Listen to Guidance Counselor Crisis Worsening in DC (click here) to understand the existent of the issue from the perspective of DCPS students.