Projects

CPER is currently supporting education-organizing campaigns in four sites: Chicago, Denver, New Jersey and Philadelphia. In each site, local CPER funders leverage national funding through a 1:1 dollar match.

• Chicago: In order to bring community voices into the education policymaking process, Chicago CPER is investing in two large-scale coalitions - Grow Your Own (GYO) Illinois and Voices of Youth in Chicago Education (VOYCE) -- composed of nine community-organizing groups. GYO is addressing the high rates of teacher turnover and low achievement in low-income Chicago neighborhood schools by implementing an innovative community-based model for teacher preparation and retention; VOYCE is a youth-led organizing effort seeking to reduce high-school dropout rates and increase college enrollment rates.

• Denver: Denver CPER seeks to create and strengthen effective policies and programs to assure that key marginalized groups - particularly immigrants, English Language Learners (ELLs) and low-income students - have access to high-quality educational experiences. Denver CPER is investing in two anchor grantees - Metro Organizations for People (MOP) and Padres y Jóvenes Unidos - to help them expand regionally and strengthen their state policy agenda. CPER is also supporting the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC), a partner organization to MOP and Padres in the Higher Education Access Alliance (HEAA), and Project VOYCE, a new organization that works with youth to conduct action research on education reform topics.

• New Jersey: CPER's work in New Jersey seeks to ensure the state equitably fund its 31 most-disadvantaged school districts (originally known as Abbott districts, after the state Supreme Court case). New Jersey CPER invests in a collaborative of organizing (Statewide Education Organizing Collaborative) and advocacy partners (Abbott Leadership Institute, Education Law Center and Paterson Education Fund) that are pushing for new school construction, facilities improvement and the provision of supplemental programs to low-income students - both statewide and locally in Newark, Jersey City and Paterson.

• Southeastern Pennsylvania: SEPA CPER's work focuses on finance equity and high-school reform. Through a collaborative of five organizing (Eastern Pennsylvania Organizing Project, Good Schools Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania ACORN, Philadelphia Student Union and Youth United for Change) and three allied groups (Education Law Center, Philadelphia Public School Notebook and Research for Action), Southeastern Pennsylvania CPER seeks to increase the capacity of stakeholders to hold the public education system accountable, promote high-school reform throughout Philadelphia, document and raise awareness of educational and education-funding inequities, and increase legislative funding for under-resourced schools.

For more information, download CPER's Grantee Directory (PDF).