Vital Voices: Building Constituencies for Public School Reform.

This report explores the insights and experiences of activists who build strong constituencies to reform public schools. It presents data from a 2-year study involving the seven primary constituency and coalition building grantees of the Ford Foundation's Constituency Building for Public School Reform Initiative. Data were collected from 14 diverse local sites. Part I reports on the participants' views of their work; their goals, strategies, and challenges; and their achievements. Chapters include an introduction that discusses public school reform in historical context and constituency building for public school reform; (2) "Goals, Principles, and Challenges of Constituency Building"; and (3) "Role and Impact of Constituency Building for School Reform" (e.g., creating political will and holding public education institutions accountable and changing roles, relationships, and power dynamics). Part II describes the major tasks of constituency building and includes the following: (4) "Defining the Territory"; (5) "Fostering Collective Action" (e.g., developing a sense of collectivity and promoting local leadership); (6) "Building on Diversity" (e.g., bridging diversity and adding value and working strategically with diversity); (7) "Addressing Inside/Outside Dynamics" (e.g., definitions of insiders and outsiders and common characteristics of inside/outside work); (8) "Shifting Power" (e.g., building relationships for shared power and broadening the power base through coalitions); and (9) "Meeting Organizational Challenges" (e.g., interplay of principles and operations and the role of national and regional organizations). Throughout the report, case studies illustrate constituency building and reform work. (Contains 63 references.) (SM)

Authors:Hirota, Janice M., Jacobs, Lauren E., Chicago Univ., IL. Chapin Hall Center for Children., Academy for Educational Development, Washington, DC.
Full-Text:ERIC full-text archive
Subject:Case Studies, Change Strategies, Community Cooperation, Community Involvement, Diversity, Educational Change, Elementary Secondary Education, Governance, Politics of Education, Power Structure, Public Schools
Type:Reports - Evaluative
ERIC ID:ED481606

Date:2003-00-00   Level:1  
PageCount:111   Publisher:Academy for Educational Development, 100 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011. Tel: 212-243-1110; Web site: http://www.aed.org/ses.  
DateAdded:2004   AccessRights:Yes  
Sponsor:Ford Foundation, New York, NY.   Keywords:Constituency Development  
Keywords:Reform Efforts   Language:English  

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