Community Organizing and School Reform -- It's Not Just About Protests and PTA Meetings

Community organizing around education issues is no easy feat, but it's an important and often overlooked part of making school systems better and more responsive.

This month's Cleveland Catalyst has an eye-opening series of articles about that city's struggles to grow and maintain successful community efforts around school reform.

In particular, there is an analysis of how community groups can help support district schools, and a couple of mini- profiles I wrote about three potential models in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Chicago.

For a more academic/conceptual background on community organizating around education, look here: Civic community, organization and education (Infed), or here: Communities and Schools: A New View of Urban Education Reform (Harvard University).

There's also an interesting look at community organizating around education from the AYPF: Community Organizing for School Reform.