Organizing as Bridge-Building: Connecting Local Communities and District and School Leaders

• In Event: 65.080 - Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: 65.080-13 - Organizing for Educational Justice

Abstract

This paper examines a foundation-supported effort to organize parents and communities to build their engagement in district reform. Specifically, it examines two local organizing efforts, asking what promising practices and challenges have emerged from their work that can inform efforts in the field to build bridges between district change efforts and local communities. Education organizing literature emphasizes strategies for empowerment within communities, but this study offers an important reminder that organizing is more likely to succeed when school and district-based staff are also prepared and supported to realize the benefits of collaborating with organized parents and communities. It also raises questions about the role foundations/philanthropy might play in shaping conditions in which both communities and schools work for change.

Authors

• Mara Casey Tieken, Bates College

• Tracie Potochnik, Annenberg Institute for School Reform

• Keith C. Catone, Brown University