Public Education Network

Public involvement. Public education. Public benefit.

Public Education Network

Every day, in every community, every child in America benefits from a quality public education.

To build public demand and mobilize resources for quality public education for all children through a national constituency of local education funds and individuals.

Pennsylvania Education Policy & Leadership Conference

March 29, 2007



Public Education Network (PEN) is a national

organization of local education funds (LEFs) and

individuals working to improve public schools and

build citizen support for quality public education in

low-income communities across the nation.


A Powerful Base of Local Education Funds

United States 82 members in 34 states,

plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico

11 million children 1,600 school districts 16,000+ schools 7 of the top 10 cities 17 of the top 25 cities Key states of:

Florida, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, North Carolina, Texas, Ohio, and California

International

Mexico La Casa de La Ciencia

(reaches 1 million children)

Peru Foro Educativo

(reaches 6 million children)

Philippines Synergeia Foundation

(reaches 300,000 children)


A Constituency of One Million Individuals

• 850,000 individuals across LEF communities

• 150,000 from PEN’s online activists

• 100,000 volunteers donate 1.5 million hours annually totaling $25 million dollars


PEN History

From Projects to Systemic School Reform

1983

19831991

19911995

19961999

20002005

Public Education FundCreated by

The Ford Foundation

Test the viability ofCommunity-Based School Reform

Ten-Point Framework

Five Interrelated Policy Areas• School Finance• School Governance• Education Leadership• Curriculum and Assessment• Schools and Communities

Public EngagementPEN’s Theory of Action

Transformation and Growth Systemic School Reform(Building the Base)

Technical Assistance for Capacity Building

• Commitment• Standards and Outcomes• Assessments• Accountability• School Based Management

• Good Teachers• School Readiness• School Community Links• Technology• Public Engagement


• Raise roughly $200 million annually to improve public schools and increase student achievement

• Raised nearly $4 billion to date for quality public education

• Invested over $1.5 billion in teacher quality

• Donated over $2.5 billion in volunteer time

Resource Power of the Network


Leveraged roughly $13 billion in public dollars by supporting local bond and tax referenda, state and local budget increases, and litigation

Changed the composition and improved the quality of school boards in 50 school districts

LEF boards convene educators, corporations, philanthropies, and policy and public officials to build common ground

Civic Power of the Network


Local Education Funds (LEFs)

• Independent of their school districts

• Professionally staffed with boards reflective of its community

• Work in high-poverty areas (urban and rural)

• Committed to whole system reform, to ensure a high quality

education for all children

What is an LEF?


LEFs Advocate

Accountability

Advocates

Resources

Involvement Improvement

Accountability

PEN members advocate for accountability—they expect measurable results from all those who participate in local public education.

Improvement

PEN members advocate for improvement—they encourage innovative practices and programs that make public education better.

Involvement

PEN members advocate for community involvement—they help put the public in public education.

Resources

PEN members generate resources—they facilitate investment in public education from private, public, and philanthropic sources.

Advocates

PEN members advocate for excellence in public education —they are independent organizations that work with public schools to make a difference for all students.


LEFs Work

To build infrastructure

To build leadership

To build knowledge

To build momentum for innovation


Establish a positive

environment for reform

Build school

community capacity

Create long-term

outcomes for youth,

families, and

communities

Outcomes of LEF Work


Establish a positive

environment for reform

Public confidence

Committed school and

community actors

Shared agenda

Cross-constituency

alliances

High-quality ideas



Build school community capacity

District receptivity to ideas from outside

Policies and programs aligned with high-quality ideas

Reach and depth of implementation

Adequate resources equitably distributed

Coordinated services

High-quality school leadership and staff



Create long-term outcomes for youth, families, and communities

Improved student achievement

Economic development

Improved conditions for families

Equity of opportunity and conditions



PEN’s Model of Public Engagement

Public responsibility is a means to lasting policy change

With public support, leaders and policies have staying power, and school improvement can work

Public responsibility is an end in itself in a democracy

LEFs were charged with inspiring and equipping their communities to take on three policy areas:

Standards and accountability Schools and communities Teacher quality


PEN’s Model of Public Engagement

Civic Leaders Superintendents, school boards, mayors, council

members, business leaders, labor leaders, state officials

Higher education The Public-at-Large

Grassroots participants in community dialogues Leadership trainees

Professional Service Providers Community-based organizations, health-service

providers, police departments, etc. School principals, central-office staff, teachers

Who is “the community”?


Policy changes enacted Practice changes achieved Civic support gained from “grasstops” and

grassroots New ways of working—collaborating, listening to the

public voice—adopted by other organizations In Mobile, public responsibility grew and led to policy

and practice change within 3 years In many other sites, public responsibility grew and

may lead to future policy change

Types of Results

PEN’s Policy Initiatives Using Public Engagement to Reform our Public Schools


Election results Portland school board: defeat of anti-tax slate,

election of candidates with LEF ties Durham and Mobile bond issue

Programs addressing the achievement gap West Virginia’s HB 4669 Durham Public Schools’ formal commitment Mobile’s accountability system for school results

New policies on teacher hiring and induction in Seattle and the District of Columbia

Paterson school board resolution supporting community schools

Policy Changes Enacted



Services delivered under Schools and Community: 19 Community Learning Centers running in

Lincoln Aspects of community schools in place in 9

Lancaster schools Providence After-School Alliance, with Wallace

Foundation support, extending services citywide

Opportunities for teachers in New York and Chattanooga, planned under this initiative, grew with other philanthropic support


Practice Changes Achieved


As LEF board members, civic leaders learned about public engagement as a strategy

Professional service providers and community organizations convened to work together

ACORN entered the education field in DC and NJ

Universities joined in the work in Chattanooga, Durham, Lancaster, Lincoln, and New York

Local philanthropy began to support community schools (Lancaster, Lincoln) and community engagement (Paterson, Seattle)


Civic Support Gained: Grasstops


Wider public participation in the discourse

Participants in community dialogues expressed their views in Chattanooga, DC, Durham, Mobile, New York, Paterson, Pennsylvania, Portland, Seattle, and West Virginia

Discussions were civil and rested on a norm of mutual respect—conditions not always present in these communities

Community members gathered and reported data in DC, Mobile, and Paterson


Civic Support Gained: Grassroots


LEFs join the civic infrastructure

Seattle’s school district and union have tried to adopt the LEF’s approach to public dialogue

Paterson community organizations are more inclined to work together and to listen to community views

West Virginia leaders attended the LEF’s Education Summit, listening to citizens


A New Way of Working Modeled


PEN’s scholars’ forum on public engagement and public education reform attempts to build the field.

PEN convened this forum because Public engagement must be a prerequisite, not

an afterthought, of school reform. It is critical to the sustainability of reform efforts.

Yet the literature on public engagement is episodic and not well-developed. Public engagement work by community-based organizations has been little studied.

PEN is well positioned to elevate public engagement as a critical element of systemic public education reform.

PEN’s Scholars’ Forum Using Public Engagement to Reform our Public Schools

PEN’s Scholars’ Forum: Why


The nation’s top researchers into a Scholars’ Forum on public engagement in public education reform.

The Forum’s 30 members represent many of the country’s foremost experts in public engagement, including professors from education, sociology, political science, and anthropology as well as community-based researchers and practitioners.


PEN’s Scholars’ Forum: Who


Strategies:1. Publish a reader that lays out the landscape

and analyzes the state of the field, including evidence of effectiveness.

2. Mount new research studies to examine critical, unanswered questions in the field.

3. Bring visibility to public engagement strategies in the arenas of academia, philanthropy, policy, and education reform.


PEN’s Scholars’ Forum: How


Outcomes:

PEN will have a robust body of work on the topic of public engagement and education reform.

Public engagement for public education reform will be a field of study that continues to be sustained and supported by the nation’s top universities.

The body of research coming out of PEN’s Scholars’ Forum will inform the work of LEFs and other advocates and the crafting of education policy.


PEN’s Scholars’ Forum: RESULTS

Building a Constituency

For Public Education

• Expansion of the LEF network

• Research

• Public engagement initiatives

• NCLB hearings

• Civic Index

Building the Campaign

Build a constituency of individuals that

use their voices and their votes to

achieve the goal of quality education for

every child.

The Campaign Goal

• We hosted 20 individual focus

groups/triads with over 130 different

individual respondents across the

demographic spectrum.

• Groups were held in Ohio, Texas,

California, Florida, Pennsylvania, and

Maryland.

Focus Groups

People Believe• EVERY child deserves a quality public education

at a good public school – not every child has access.

• EVERY child can learn.

• EVERY person in the community has a ROLE to play – although people say parents, teachers, and students are most involved and are most responsible.

• LOCAL elected officials are accountable for quality public schools.

What We Learned

• Every child deserves a quality public education, but not every child is receiving one.

• Every child can learn.

• Everyone in a community – not just parents – has a ROLE to play.

• Local elected officials are accountable for the quality of public schools.

What People Say About Education

• Public education is the number one concern among registered voters, along with the war in Iraq.

• 62% percent of voters say that candidates are not focusing enough on the issue of public education.

• 57% of Americans are frustrated and concerned about public schools.

2006 Education Poll Results

• Learn what you can do to demand quality public schools

• Vote for quality public education

• Act by demanding change in public education by engaging in GKGS activities

Call to Action & Platform

Built the campaign brand

Launched the web site in late August

Completed Give Kids Good Schools Week

- 200 events in 25 states and DC

- 40 LEFS and 16 partners

participated

Reached 60 million people via:

- earned and paid media

- PSAs

- GiveKidsGoodSchools.org

2006 Review

Web traffic highlights (6 months after launch)• 40,000+ visitors• 200,000+ page views• 5,700+ e-advocates• 4,000+ orders for free materials• 1,500+ pledge signatures

Advocacy emails sent• Average open rate is 25%

(industry avg 2%)

Give Kids Good SchoolsWeb Site Statistics

Give Kids Good Schools Week in 2006

Signed Proclamations:

Mobile, AL

Denver, CO

District of Columbia

Evansville, IN

Michigan

Lincoln, NE

Houston, TX

Bridgeport, CT

Public Service Announcement

2006 PSA Placements

2006 Media Coverage

Paid Media in 2006

Wrapping Up

• PEN conducted years of research to develop the campaign.

• The call to action platform is how PEN engages activists in the campaign.

• The media partnerships have been invaluable to helping the campaign reach more than 60M Americans.

• Developed a strong policy agenda to activate constituents

• 2007 promises to be even more successful with new web upgrades and successful partnerships.

Campaign Hotline (202) 628-GKGS [email protected]

Chrystal MorrisNational Campaign Manager(202) 628-7460 [email protected]

Emily Reynolds National Campaign Associate(202) 628-7460 [email protected]

Contact Us

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



Every day, in every community, every child in America benefits from a quality public education.

To build public demand and mobilize resources for quality public education for all children through a national constituency of local education funds and individuals.

Public Education Network

Documents

Transcript of Public Education Network