Following last year's victory in helping pass a $575 Million bond package for local public schools, just part of the $2.5 Billion Albuquerque Interfaith has helped leverage since 2002, leaders are now fighting to implement school reforms.

120 leaders assembled with 11 of 16 Albuquerque Public School board candidates for a civic academy on Alliance Schools, small group conversations and pointed questions to the candidates about supporting the development of Alliance Schools in the district. To the person, each of the participating candidates pledged to directly support Alliance Schools and to help build support with the Superintendent.

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"The switch at Travis Heights has been in the making for nearly three years. Austin Interfaith, a coalition of schools, churches and unions, and district labor group Education Austin ...reached out to 100 campuses before they found a partner in Travis Heights willing to become a charter.

Their volunteers then went door-to-door, garnering support and hosting school meetings to find out what parents and teachers wanted in a school. They reached 90 percent of the school's households and got 99 percent support from parents and 97 percent support from staff...."

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"School board members have lauded the process that Travis Heights used to garner support for the transformation, which they approved last month. Unlike the district's failed partnership with ... the move to turn Travis Heights into a charter school had the enthusiastic backing of the school's parents and teachers, joined by Austin Interfaith and Education Austin.

'It's a real democratic process that empowers the parents, empowers the teachers, empowers the students,' said Britt Adams, a special education teacher at the school."

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More than 200 leaders of El Paso Interreligious Sponsoring Organization assembled to challenge Clint Independent School District board candidates to "eliminate all disparities in per student funding throughout the district if elected....Challengers Claudia García, Sonia Herrera, Susana Santillan, Dino Coronado and incumbent Patricia Randleel participated at the nonpartisan accountability session at the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Horizon City."

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"Approximately 1,000 people representing 35 church, school and union groups under the umbrella nonprofit Communities Organized for Public Service and the Metro Alliance, held their own press conference and publicly committed to backing Pre-K 4 SA."

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"Travis Heights is looking to partner with Education Austin and Austin Interfaith to start an in-district charter model allowing the school to have more autonomy. The school would focus on curriculum with its dual-language program, service learning model and a piloted blended learning program that incorporates digital media, Carstarphen said. 'They're not asking for more money; they're asking for more flexibility....'"

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The Alliance Schools Initiative grew out of relationships between member institutions in the local Texas IAF organizations and the public schools in their neighborhoods. The Texas Network took relational organizing principles into low income communities to engage parents and community in the transformation of their schools to improve student achievement. Texas IAF Network leaders built on the success of the Alliance Schools strategy to create the Investment Capital Fund, a $9 million competitive state grant to support school restructuring in collaboration with community organizations.

This model of school organizing has been replicated by other West and Southwest IAF organizations, and has been widely recognized by both the public and private sector as a successful strategy for community engagement and student achievement. Most recently, a study by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University credits Austin Interfaith's work with area Alliance Schools for increasing student achievement on standardized tests by an average of 15-19%, as well as for improving professional culture and parent involvement at the campuses. In fact, the Annenberg study found that Austin Interfaith's work with the schools benefited not only those particular campuses, but resulted in substantial new resources for all high poverty, low-performing schools in the district.

 

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Independent Studies:

Organized Communities, Stronger Schools: A Preview of Research Findings, Annenberg Institute (May 2009).

 

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In the Words of Executive Director Ernesto Cortes, Jr.:

Plenary speech on "Community Organizing, Democracy and Education" at 'Match on Dry Grass' Conference at Harvard University (2012). Part 1, Part 2

Metis and the Metrics of Success I Used to Think…And Now I Think… Edited by Richard Elmore. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press (2011).

Quality Education as a Civil Right: Reflections Quality Education as a Constitutional Right: Creating a Grassroots Movement to Transform Public Schools. Edited by Theresa Perry, Robert Moses, Joan Wynne, Ernesto Cortes, Jr. and Lisa Delpit. Boston: Beacon Press (2011).

 

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Additional Reading:

Click here for further reading on W/SWIAF school strategies