The University's Annenberg Institute for School Reform is opening a Center for Education Organizing in New York City to support organizations around the country in transforming urban public schools.
The center will offer training for youth and adult leaders, provide research and education policy analysis, build alliances across various groups and enable the sharing of successful organizing strategies, according to an April 4 press release.
The center is an expansion of the institute's office for education organizing, which was part of New York University until the office merged with the institute four years ago, said Richard Gray '85, co-director of community organizing and engagement at the Annenberg Institute, who is based at the center in New York.
The office's work in New York over the past four years is the subject of a documentary titled "Parent Power," which will be shown in a pre-premiere screening on campus April 25.
Prior to the creation of the new center, the office focused more on groups based in New York, but now the center will focus more on national organizations, he said.
In New York, the institute focused its attention on "community revitalization," formulating strategies for community organizations based on research and data, Gray said. This will also be the approach for the center's national work.
"Individual organizations in the cities will reach out to us and ask for support" to address problems such as school closings, financial cuts and lack of quality teachers, Gray said. The center will then advise these groups on the best ways to enact change.
The center will also link people associated with community organizations across the country through "webinars" and video conferences, Gray said.
"People want to learn from their peers," he said. "They want to know what is happening in Mississippi, California and Denver."
The center will "create a dialogue across all of these organizing groups," said Michelle Renee, senior research associate at the Annenberg Institute and assistant clinical professor in the Master's in Urban Education Policy program.
In addition to connecting people across the nation, the center hopes to bring together parent groups and teachers' unions. "Teachers and parents should be natural allies in creating and changing a positive learning environment for kids," Gray said.
The center currently has six staff members who work primarily in New York, although there are consultants in Washington and Los Angeles, Gray said.
Some of the work will require staff members to travel to particular sites, Renee said. For example, she is based in Los Angeles and is "meeting with parents in Las Vegas to explain the story of what has happened in New York."
The center is currently looking for funds to expand and will then be able to hire more staff members, Gray said.
Master's students from the Urban Education Policy program work at the center as interns. In addition, Gray said he hopes the center will eventually be able to offer internships to Brown undergraduates.
"Students will be able to come to us and identify places they would like to connect with," Gray said, adding that they will "participate in improving the quality of education around the country."
Gray called the creation of the center an "important step for a university that has historically had a commitment for improving quality of life" for both students and the community.
"We firmly believe that public education and getting access to education … is the civil rights issue of our era," Gray said.
