Tools & Models

Advancing Community Organizing Skills, Part 5: Public Education as a Policy Battleground. Southern Echo, September 2000. (PDF, 54pgs.)
Training materials from a two day conference in 2000 on "Organizing the Community to Prevent the Use of Schools as a Means to Suppress the Future of African American Children" distributed and hosted by Southern Echo.

Guiding Questions to Evaluate School Quality. Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. (PDF, 1pg.)
A list of questions pertaining to the vision/mission, curriculum, instruction and learning, student performance and organizational visibility to assess overall school quality.

Indicators of Quality Schools. Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. (PDF, 2pgs.)
Using surveys of national educators, researchers identify the conditions a school needs to have in place for students to achieve at the highest levels.

Questions to Consider in Education Research. Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. (PDF, 2pgs.)
A handout contains key questions and resources for education researchers.

Survey Design Guide. Annenberg Institute for School Reform, Brown University. (PDF, 4pgs.)
A handout that identifies critical steps in conducting education related surveys, evaluates the benefits and drawbacks of using surveys, raises questions to consider and highlights additonal resources.

Students from the Philadelphia’s Youth United for Change embarked on a photo project sponsored by Good Schools Pennsylvania and the Education Law Center entitled “Critical Exposure: Eyes on Education.” Student photographer Chaunae Berry, a 10th grade student at Olney East High School, captures how she and her peers feel trapped in classrooms, as if school were jail. The "Critical Exposure" photo reveals the challenges and inequities students faced every day at some of Philadelphia’s most underprivileged schools.