Alliance should be saved
Worcester & Telegram Gazette
S. Paul Reville
April 21, 2003
It was recently announced that the Alliance for Education, Worcester's regional education advocacy organization was ceasing operations. Since 1985, the Alliance had organized and directed a wide range of philanthropic, business, university and community efforts to improve education in Worcester and Central Massachusetts.
Focused on engaging the public, building school/business/community partnerships, providing quality professional development and advocating for effective policy and practice in support of higher student achievement, the Alliance was a nationally recognized leader among its peer organizations which exist in cities all across the country and are affiliated with the Public Education Network in Washington D.C.
The work of the Alliance was always that of organizing various elements of a complex community to focus in depth and continuously on building better schools in Worcester and Central Massachusetts. The theory of action was that better schools, schools that educated more of their students to higher levels of achievement, meant stronger, more economically viable, more culturally and politically lively communities. The Alliance was not only concerned with educational excellence, but also with issues of equity: How are our schools, particularly urban schools, meeting the needs of those mostly low-income and minority children who public schools have generally failed to educate?
The Alliance's mission was not about fund raising but about friend raising. We were interested in cultivating critical friends for the school system, because we believed that society's aspirations for children were too ambitious and comprehensive for schools to achieve on their own. Although the Alliance directly or indirectly caused millions of private dollars to be offered to public schools, we were proudest of our capacity to engage thousands of citizens in what is arguably the society's most important work, educating our children.
We became known for Education Forums, Community Reading Day, Principal for a Day and Mini-Grants for Teachers, all efforts to build community understanding and support for better schools. Our belief was that effective public schools require well-organized, intelligent, continuous participation and support by the community. Schools will ultimately reflect the community's demand for quality and willingness to engage in assuring quality.
The Alliance had many victories in the worlds of educational policy and practice. We were instrumental in the development and passage of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, which has shaped a new era of reform and brought hundreds of millions of new dollars to the schools of Central Massachusetts. We provided some of the leadership for Worcester's extraordinary 1991 education override of Proposition 21/2. We provided hundreds of professional development programs, through the Professional Development Institute and the Principals' Center, to develop the knowledge, skills and effectiveness of the area's educational leaders and teachers. Our belief was that schools would only be as strong as the educators who led and taught in them.
We encouraged partnerships of all descriptions. We believed that the various institutions of this community had much to offer the educators and children of Central Massachusetts. The business community in particular provided both leadership and a focus for much of the Alliance's work. Prior to 1985, the business community engaged in mostly scattered, episodic efforts to support public education. The Alliance provided an important organizing vehicle for broadening and deepening the business community's day-to-day participation in supporting and improving the effectiveness of public schools.
The School-Business Partnership program was so successful that it spurred interest in the universities, non-profit organizations and philanthropies to become more involved in education. Once public education had been seen as just another division of municipal government, insulated from the public it served. The Alliance helped legitimize outside involvement in and support of public education. And it wasn't just about a check and a pat on the back. The involvement brought together serious people with differing ideas and generated a very healthy, ongoing conversation between school leaders and the community about how to improve public education.
All of the needs that the Alliance was designed to meet still exist. Can anyone genuinely think that the work is done? Most notably, we still have enormous achievement gaps, many of our students are well below proficiency. Our schools still need massive improvements if they are to be successful in educating all those students to the high levels of proficiency they will need to attain in order to be successful in higher education, employment, citizenship and as heads of families. Schools will not be able to meet the new, higher standards on their own. Children spend only 20 percent of their time in schools. The community will need to be a crucial, active part in building the strong schools that the region needs if it is to thrive.
The Alliance has been allowed to die. Community leaders should now be challenged to address, in a serious, sustained way, their role, their vision in shaping a school system, committed to excellence and equity, that will more effectively serve the children and the region in the future. This work should be top priority.
S. Paul Reville, of Worcester, was the founding executive director of the Alliance for Education and served in that position from 1985-1997. Currently, he is the executive director of the Center for Education Research and Policy at MassINC and a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
