For more hands-on materials, targeted at grassroots community advocates, leaders and parents, please look at our materials under the Trends in Policy tab.
Illinois
Grow Your Own Illinois: Grow Your Own Illinois Coalition is a technical assistance collaborative dedicated to the improvement of teaching in public schools in low-income communities in Illinois, by reducing teacher turnover and increasing the numbers of teachers who share the race/ethnicity and culture of the students through supporting parents, community leaders, and paraprofessionals with programs to help them become high quality teachers. Collaborative members include Action Now, Enlace Chicago, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, Logan Square Neighborhood Organization, Organization of the Northeast, Southwest Organizing Project, TARGET Area Development Corporation.
Voices of Youth in Chicago Education: Voices of Youth in Chicago Education Coalition (VOYCE) is a youth-led organizing collaborative comprised of students from 7 community organizations and 12 Chicago Public High Schools working in concert with them, including Albany Park Neighborhood Organization (Roosevelt, Mather, and Von Steuben High Schools), Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (Kelly High School), Organization of the Northeast (Senn High School and Uplift Community High School), Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (Dyett Academy and Kenwood Academy High Schools), Logan Square Neighborhood Association (North Grand and Kelvyn Park High Schools), TARGET Area Development Corporation (Perspectives Tech High School), and Southwest Organizing Project (Gage Park High School). VOYCE builds on these community based organizations’ histories of organizing both parents and students around school reform issues such as creating a policy change granting in-state tuition for undocumented students, securing the construction of new schools to relieve overcrowding, developing schools as community learning centers, and more.
Parents and Residents Invested in School and Education Reform; Parents and Residents Invested in School and Education (PRISE) Reform, is a dynamic learning coalition of parents, students, and community stakeholders that are developing an informed community voice for quality school reform. PRISE employs a series of leadership and learning opportunities, preparing participants to play a strategic decision-making role on issues of education. In April 2010, PRISE launched its Statewide Action and Grassroots Education (SAGE) Campaign. The SAGE Campaign is a multi-issue, cross-sector effort to move an education reform policy agenda built on the shared ideas, values, and concerns of community, business, labor, and faith organizations that are committed to improving the quality of education for all Illinois students. Coalition partners include Ambassadors For Christ Church (Chicago, IL), Central Pointe Church (Bloomington, IL), Central Pointe Community Services, Inc. (Bloomington, IL), Disciples for Christ Church (Oak Lawn, IL), Hands That Help, Inc. (Rockford, IL), Inner-City Muslim Action Network (Chicago, IL), Main Street Church (Decatur, IL), Mothers Opposed to Violence Everywhere (Chicago, IL), Neighbors United (Oak Lawn, IL), Peoples Church of the Harvest COGIC (Chicago, IL), Peoples Community Development Association of Chicago (Chicago, IL), South West Organizing Project (Chicago, IL), St. Paul Church of God in Christ (Rockford, IL), TARGET Area DevCorp (Chicago, IL), West Town Leadership United (Chicago, IL), Youth with a Positive Direction (Decatur, IL).
National Groups
Alliance for Educational Justice: The Alliance for Educational Justice (AEJ) is a national alliance of youth organizing and intergenerational groups working for educational justice. AEJ aims to bring grassroots groups together to bring about changes in federal education policy, build a national infrastructure for the education justice sector, and build the capacity of our organizations and our youth leaders to sustain and grow the progressive movement over the long haul.
Black Alliance for Educational Options: The Black Alliance for Educational Options works to increase access to high-quality educational options for Black children by actively supporting parental choice policies and programs that empower low-income and working-class Black families. BAEO is staunch in its belief that parental choice must be an integral part of any serious effort to reform education in America. BAEO firmly believes parental choice programs, which lead to the creation of quality educational options, not only rescue the children who can take advantage of such opportunities but also create powerful incentives for all schools, public and private, to improve. These twin measures of opportunity and improvement provide broad social and economic benefits for the children and families involved and for the entire community as well.
Communities for Excellent Public Schools: Communities For Excellent Public Schools (CEPS) is a coalition supported by 24 local, state and national parent and community organizing groups across the country. CEPS has launched a national campaign calling for dramatic action to improve low performing schools by emphasizing parent, student and community engagement and research-based educational practices.
Communities for Public Education Reform: Communities for Public Education Reform (CPER) 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. By bringing new resources to at least four sites for a minimum of three years, CPER promotes innovation and supports systemic reforms that address educational inequities at large.
GreatSchools: GreatSchools is a national nonprofit that inspires and guides parents to become effective champions of their children's education at home and in their communities. Parents turn to GreatSchools to find the right schools for their children, to get practical advice and information that will help them raise successful, college-ready kids, and to support the schools in their communities. Founded in 1998, GreatSchools reaches more than 37 million people each year — approximately one-in-three American families with school-age children. With over 200,000 profiles of public, public charter, and private schools serving students from Pre-K through high school and more than 800,000 parent ratings and reviews of schools, GreatSchools is the most comprehensive source of information on school quality today.
Stand for Children: Stand for Children exists because children in communities across America do not have the power to influence our democratic system to meet their fundamental needs. Stand seeks to make children and their needs a higher political priority. Stand envisions a society where all children receive the education and community supports that will enable them to live successful, fulfilling lives, and where parents and other concerned citizens are engaged and vigilant in ensuring that elected officials make decisions in the best interest of children and families. Stand for Children builds power by training everyday people to be effective citizen leaders who join together in a unified, grassroots voice. Stand uses that power strategically to win concrete, long-lasting improvements for children, at both state and local levels. State affiliates and local Chapters mobilize members, donors, and other supporters to hold leaders accountable for prioritizing children’s needs.
Teach Plus: The mission of Teach Plus is to support the retention of high quality teachers into a second stage of their careers by expanding leadership opportunities and financial incentives for those who demonstrate success in the classroom. It is founded on the premise that teachers want to learn and grow in the profession, and want to ensure that their development results in increased learning among their students.
The New Teacher Project: The New Teacher Project (TNTP) is a national nonprofit dedicated to closing the achievement gap by ensuring that high-need students get outstanding teachers. Founded by teachers in 1997, TNTP partners with school districts and states to implement scalable responses to their most acute teacher quality challenges. Since its inception, TNTP has trained or hired approximately 37,000 teachers, benefiting an estimated 5.9 million students nationwide. It has established more than 75 programs and initiatives in 31 states and published four seminal studies on urban teacher hiring and school staffing.
