The Role of Principal Leadership in
Increasing Teacher Retention: Creating a Supportive
Environment (2007) |
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Charlotte
Advocates for Education (NC): The
Role of Principal Leadership in Increasing Teacher
Retention:
Creating a Supportive Environment looks at the relationship
between principals and teacher retention by studying
Charlotte principals, particularly those in high-needs
schools that have been more successful in retaining
teachers, while also increasing student achievement.
Download report on the Charlotte Advocates for
Education website |
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Case Study: Calling the Question (2007)
Portland Schools Foundation (PSF)
Procuring resources for public school reform can be a powerful focusing
incentive. The Portland Schools Foundation (PSF), a sophisticated LEF
with a strong leader, has learned how to leverage its funding and
relationships to call the question and bring local and national attention
to bear on local educational issues.
Click here (PDF) |
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Case Study: Public Engagement Initiative (2007)
San Francisco Education Fund
The San Francisco Education Fund has a long history of community engagement. One of the first
local education funds (LEFs) in the country, it was founded in 1979 after Proposition 13
significantly reduced funding to the California public schools. The Ed Fund was established to
involve the community in improving the quality of teaching and learning in the San Francisco
Unified School District (SFUSD). “By acting as a bridge between the community and the classroom,
the Ed Fund increases the availability and impact of resources for students and teachers
throughout San Francisco public schools.”
Click here (PDF) |
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Case Study: Teacher Compensation (2007)
Mobile Area Education Foundation (MAEF)
In the spring of 2001, the Mobile Area Education Fund (MAEF) began a concerted and
unprecedented effort to organize and engage the public. What began as a project to support a tax
referendum to fund education in the county became a way of
life for MAEF and the citizens of Mobile. It was at this time
that MAEF launched a public campaign (Yes We Can) to
inform the citizens of Mobile about an upcoming referendum
that would tax the people of Mobile to support education in
the county. The campaign was successful, and on May 15,
2001, for the first time in 41 years, the people of Mobile
voted to support this tax.
Click here (PDF) |
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Case Study: Teacher Evaluation (2007)
Alliance for Education
The Alliance for Education, the Seattle-based local education fund (LEF), has focused its efforts on
teaching quality issues since participating in the Annenberg Teacher Quality initiative in 2001. The
Alliance’s work began with a grassroots effort to engage the community, especially those who had
been traditionally disenfranchised, around what it would take to for teachers to provide high quality
instruction, and how the public could support teaching quality in Seattle. The Alliance aimed to build
trust between the “community and the classroom” because it perceived that a lack of trust could
undermine reform initiatives. In addition to listening to the community, the Alliance worked
strategically with key stakeholders in the district (e.g., the union, district office, parent-teacher
association, university fellows, etc.) to understand and accomplish its reform goals.
Click here (PDF) |
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Case Study: Teacher Induction (2007)
Durham Public Education Network (DPEN)
In March 2003, the Durham Public Education Network (DPEN) convened hundreds of public leaders
in the community for a high-profile signing ceremony. They were gathered to sign a one-page
community covenant would that allow the community to hold district and community leaders
accountable for supporting school improvement.
Click here (PDF) |
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From Plan to Action: Local Education Funds Deepening Public Engagement on Teacher Quality (2007)
PEN’s venture was guided by its theory of action. In simplest form the theory is: reform idea plus
public engagement equals change in education practice; reform idea minus public engagement
equals inability to cope with an intricate process. The world of public education reform obviously
has many complexities not captured in our preliminary model, but our experiences in the Annenberg
public engagement initiative pointed us in the direction of identifying those complexities, thinking
about how to incorporate them into a more refined theory of change, and ultimately of achieving that
change.
Click here (PDF) |
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Public Affairs: The Community’s Role in Public Education (2007)
At first mention, school reform brings to mind moments of high drama – the Kentucky Supreme Court’s ruling
that the state’s public school system in its entirety was unconstitutional; the issuance of A Nation at Risk by the
National Commission on Excellence in Education; and the bipartisan enactment of No Child Left Behind. Each
event was extraordinary, and each signaled that education was no longer to be regarded as a matter of routine
concern. Each recognized not only that today’s world calls for equitable education of first quality, but also that
we are still a long way from realizing that goal.
Click here (PDF) |
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Once & For All: Placing
a Highly Qualified Teacher in Every Philadelphia
Classroom,
What We Know and Need To Do (2007) |
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The Philadelphia Public Education Fund (PA),
in conjunction with the research firm Research
for Action
(Philadelphia, PA): Once & For All: Placing a
Highly Qualified Teacher in Every Philadelphia Classroom,
What We Know and Need To Do. This study examines
Philadelphia’s teacher recruitment, retention,
certification and quality challenges.
Download report on the Philadelphia Public Education
Fund website. |
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Archive
A Community Action Guide to Teacher Quality (2002)
Teacher Professional Development: A Primer for Parents & Community Leaders (2004)
The Voice of the New Teacher (2003) |
