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School reform tour highlights strategies, surprises

From teachers to administrators and parents to policymakers, many agree that this country’s urban schools are in crisis. Studies have found that poor and minority students – who comprise much of the student populations in large urban centers – often trail their wealthier counterparts in many areas of academic performance and are more likely to leave high school before graduating.

Residents of many urban communities are closely scrutinizing the underlying causes for such disparities and are forging ahead to address academic inequities in their schools. As profiled in the C.S. Mott Foundation’s December 2002 issue of Mott Mosaic, community-organizing strategies are gaining momentum in helping identify and address such issues and reform and revitalize public schools across the United States.

Those strategies – which have been the focus of 65 Mott grants totaling more than $10.6 million since 1999 – were further examined in November when the Foundation brought 20 representatives from the fields of education and philanthropy together to get a first-hand view of community-based school reform in action at sites in Texas and California, and to share some important – and oftentimes surprising – insights into the nature of community organizing.

Feature

Community Driven School Reform: Looking Beyond the Basics

When the C.S. Mott Foundation brought together representatives from education and philanthropy to explore community-driven school reform, it was with the intention of moving the conversation from concepts to action. Residents, organizers, and school teachers, principals and superintendents shared with participants the stark realities facing many of the country’s poor neighborhoods and under-resourced schools, as well as lessons learned regarding the impacts of organizing on education reform.

As the conversations developed, a number of eye-opening findings also emerged that illustrated for participants the potential and complexity of community organizing:

Connecting Power, Respect and Reform

One of the cornerstones of community organizing is the premise that by taking collective action in accordance with a shared vision or goal, people who may otherwise be perceived as “powerless” can take charge of their lives and bring about change in their communities.

Participants on the Mott-coordinated tour explored at length that shift in communities from “powerless” to “powerful,” and the role of power in transforming poor and historically disenfranchised neighborhoods and schools. Launching that conversation was a review of the numerous barriers to school improvement facing many communities, including:

Distrust and a diminished sense of mutual expectation between parents, teachers and administrators;
Culture of blame and lack of school and teacher accountability;
Power struggles among principals, teachers and unions;
Poor communication between schools and communities; and
Lack of public respect for the day-to-day work of teachers and principals.

One particularly powerful insight shared by community organizers with the tour participants was that, in order for real progress to be made on such issues, community-driven school reform must focus on building power, trust and respect among parents, teachers, administrators and community leaders. They noted that it is only then that issues and concerns can be openly and constructively explored, and realistic solutions pursued.

“Power respects power,” said one organizer. “Power can also build respect, which in turn builds trust. Once you achieve trust, then you can begin to take risks.”

Such logic helped tour participants understand that while selecting specific strategies to achieve school reform is important, it is a step best taken in conjunction with the basic task of building trust between constituencies.

“As advocates for education reform, we kept asking the community organizers we met about what school change models or initiatives they were supporting,” said tour participant Hilary Pennington, chief executive officer at the Boston-based Jobs for the Future.

“[The organizers] kept explaining that what mattered for them was not the particular initiative, but building a community of trust among diverse stakeholders and leveraging this community to exert power on behalf of their children's right to a quality education. This is essential for the rest of us to learn."

Developing Leadership and Relationships

The critical nature of leadership development in community-driven school reform was also an important insight for many tour participants. One rather surprising lesson shared was that while leadership is often equated with someone who “steps to the podium” and defines for others the issues, solutions and strategies at hand, leadership in community organizing is characterized by listening, not talking. That emphasis helps each party understand the others’ needs and concerns, and also highlights areas of common interest. As one organizer told the group, “Listening is a fundamental way to demonstrate both respect for others and the value of their perspectives.”

Community organizers further emphasized to the group that in order for school reform to be successful over the long-term, educational institutions must become “engaging institutions” – they must listen to and engage parents and community members in improving local school systems.

“Community organizing as a means to develop and deepen relationships among principals, teachers, students and parents can be an antidote to what Charles Payne [chair of African and African American Studies Program at Duke University] has described as the most ‘reform-proof’ schools,” said Alethea Frazier Raynor, principal associate at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University.

“Community organizing can help schools to build a culture of trust that is so needed to create real learning communities.”

Such cultures are the goal of many organizations currently working on issues of school reform. Participants learned about efforts by Texas-based Austin Interfaith to help school principals develop leaders within Austin’s own education community, with those individuals in turn helping to shape positive relationships with local residents. In fact, Austin Interfaith’s leadership training is based on the belief that all adults can learn the substance and skills necessary to achieve leadership in the public arena.

“True leadership supports the educational process by strengthening the relationship between the schools, students, families and neighborhoods,” said John Moore II, director of the Department of Community Education, Austin Intermediate School District.

Community Organizing: The “Lever” That Launches School Reform

Community leaders emphasized to tour participants the importance of avoiding a “one-size-fits-all” approach to school reform. Several noted that while community organizing is proving to be an effective and necessary tool in reforming ailing schools, its implementation must be tailored to fit individual neighborhoods and educational systems, as well as the particular issues at hand.

While many tour participants were aware that organizing efforts are increasingly moving beyond individual schools and now involve entire school districts, several were surprised to learn the broadening scope of that work. Concerns about school cleanliness, safety and afterschool activities – topics historically addressed by community organizing strategies – are now joined by the more daunting issues of school budgets and recruitment of quality educators. Parent leaders explained that successful campaigns around smaller issues – such as placing crossing guards at high-traffic intersections – help those new to organizing prepare to call for more systemic changes in areas like education finance.

Organizers told participants that such shifts help residents maintain input into the fundamental decisions regarding local school systems, and that the parties operating those systems remain accountable to the entire community.

“Community organizing is the lever that helps us begin to challenge a culture of underachievement and make real changes in our schools,” said Greg Hodge, chief executive officer of the Oakland-based California Tomorrow and board president of the Oakland Unified School District.

Several tour participants learned that transforming that culture of underachievement to one of inclusion, equity and access is crucial to achieving quality educational opportunities for all youth. Organizers noted that such a culture requires genuine, two-way communication between the school system and the community, rather than the more common top-down model, which emphasizes “efficiency” but also puts relationships – and trust – at risk.

With the new insights offered by community organizers, tour participants also realized that while it takes significant work to attain education reform through organizing, it is often the most effective, sustainable and satisfying strategy.

“Many people – including parents – are afraid to dream [about changing their school systems] because they don’t believe they can make those dreams come true,” said Lillian Lopez, a parent leader at Oakland Community Organization in California.

“When you feel that no one is going to listen to you or your concerns, you are disempowered. We are helping these parents realize that not only are their dreams important, but that they also have the power to make them reality.”

Learn More About Community Organizing

The following resources offer additional information on the field of community organizing, including topics on community driven school reform:

General Information:

Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)

Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD)

Center for Community Change

Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform

The Education Trust

The NYU Institute for Education and Social Policy

Pacific Institute for Community Organization (PICO)

Profiles

Oakland Community Organizations

The first stop on the Mott-coordinated tour was the California-based Oakland Community Organizations (OCO), a Mott grantee. For more than 25 years, this federation of 35 religious congregations and allied community organizations has helped Oakland residents organize around a number of community concerns, including health care, housing, safety and education.

The organization’s success in community-driven school reform includes the Oakland Small Schools Initiative, which called upon local policymakers to endorse the development of small, autonomous schools designed to reduce class size, improve relationships among teachers and parents, and boost student performance. Within a year of the initiative’s passage, more than 1,000 children from largely poor and minority neighborhoods of east Oakland were attending five new elementary, middle and high schools throughout the community. Three more small school sites opened in 2002.

OCO members, along with the Pacific Institute for Community Organization, have also been instrumental in securing $50 million in state funds for afterschool programs, more than $30 million from the state for parent/teacher home visits, and $9.2 billion in state-issued bonds for school facility upkeep and repairs.

For more information about OCO, visit the Web site of Oakland Communty Organizations, call 510.639.1444 or write to 7200 Bancroft Avenue, #2 Eastmont Mall, Oakland, CA 94605.

Austin Interfaith

The tour also traveled to Texas to visit Austin Interfaith, a coalition of 45 schools, religious congregations and other organizations working on a range of issues – including education – in the greater Austin community. The organization, a Mott grantee that was established in 1985, is an affiliate of the Southwest Region of the Industrial Areas Foundation, a network of community organizing partners stretching from New Orleans to Los Angeles.

Austin Interfaith has a history of engaging residents in efforts to improve local school systems, including new opportunities in adult education and school reforms. In the late 1980s, its members organized a successful campaign to ensure that a portion of school construction funds from local bond issues was directed to several low-income schools in need of repair and expansion. Austin Interfaith has also helped capture city and county funds for afterschool programs in 28 area schools, as well as $3.6 million for the renovation of school playgrounds.

Today, Austin Interfaith members continue to call for increased parity among Austin’s “have” and “have not” schools, particularly those located in the city’s largely poor and minority eastside communities. Members are also helping parents learn how to track their children's academic progress, ask the tough and necessary questions of school teachers and administrators, and engage the local school district – and, if need be, the Texas Legislature – in addressing problems in Austin’s education system.

For more information about Austin Interfaith, call 512.916.0100 or write to 1301 South I-H35, Suite 313, Austin, Texas 78741.