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Shani Adia Evans is a contributing writer and member of the Notebook editorial board.
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Looking to organizing groups to win changes in schools
Parents, students increase clout through collective action
by Shani Adia Evans
When they aren’t intellectually challenged and encouraged, many Philadelphia students – thousands each year – simply stop going to school.
But some have decided to do something about it and organize for their right to a quality education.
This year a group of students at Mastbaum Technical High School developed a platform for improving instruction at their school and met with teachers to seek their commitment to challenging academic standards.
The Mastbaum students belong to a nonprofit youth group, Youth United for Change. They provide one local example of how organized groups of students, parents, or community members, working collectively, find they have power to make significant changes in their schools.
Youth United for Change, or YUC, founded in 1991, organizes students for educational justice in five Philadelphia high schools. While many have been part of other youth groups, YUC members describe organizing as a unique experience.
“Other organizations give false promises,” says Karl Knowles, a senior at Edison High School, “YUC decides what we’re going to work on, and then we do it ourselves. We make YUC.”
Through organizing, students “build power by making changes that last a long time,” explains Marcella Gibbs, a senior at Kensington International Business, Finance, and Entrepreneurship High School.
A study conducted in 2002 by Research for Action and the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform found that organizing makes a valuable – though often unrecognized – contribution to school reform efforts.
A fundamental goal of organizing is to help disenfranchised communities develop the capacity to advance their demands and influence political decision-making. Organizing groups typically help communities to identify shared concerns, develop leadership skills, and implement political action campaigns.
Informal groups that do not have support from paid staff can also engage in organizing campaigns, though having staff makes it easier to learn effective organizing strategies.
Philadelphia Student Union (PSU), a high school-based organizing group founded in 1995, successfully pressured the School District to implement “Student Success Centers” in ten Philadelphia high schools. These centers provide college guidance, social work services, and a place for students to study and research post-secondary options. In addition, for several years, PSU has been pushing for West Philadelphia High School to be split into four small schools and has kept alive a District commitment to construct a new building for the school.
ACORN and the Eastern Pennsylvania Organizing Project (EPOP) are two Philadelphia groups that have engaged parents in education organizing for over a decade.
Carol Hemingway, a District grandparent of two and 17-year member of ACORN explains, “Organizing gets people to come together as a force to advocate for something.” Through ACORN, Hemingway was recently involved in a successful campaign for state regulations ensuring that all certified teachers receive training to teach students with disabilities and English language learners in inclusive settings.
Hemingway is also involved with Parent Leadership Academy (PLA), a District-affiliated program that “works to educate parents so they can become partners with their school.” But while PLA plays an important role, she says, parents also need a place to learn how to collaborate and take action. She explains, “PLA is concerned with the [parental] education piece that is necessary. But advocacy is the focus of organizing and that’s the difference.”
“Let’s become a power base,” said Hemingway, “so that the elected officials and [the School Reform Commission] understand that they are answerable to parents – that they’re not making decisions in a vacuum.”
Dolores Shaw, a mother of three who is a longtime parent leader in EPOP, adds, “I see organizing as a way for parents to unionize. There are a lot of groups around the city that do advocacy work for you…but the power has to come from the stakeholders that are most affected by the education system, and that’s the parents and youth.”
When Shaw’s children were enrolled at McClure Elementary School, she and other parents, organized through EPOP, renovated the school library and acquired new library materials. Recently, parents working with EPOP at overcrowded Willard Elementary School successfully pushed for the District to replace a century-old building that had no cafeteria, library, or gym (see story).
“That speaks to the power and capacity that parents have to move things,” Shaw says.
Education organizing groups are almost always independent from school districts. The separation allows groups to advocate for their needs even if it means going against the wishes of those in power.
In this respect, youth organizing is very different from School District strategies for youth engagement, such as student government.
Typically, student government representatives are elected to speak on behalf of the student body, and are a recognized part of the system. Sometimes these representatives are treated as valued partners, and other times they are not. Sometimes, frustrated student government members have turned to organizing.
YUC member and recent Kensington CAPA graduate William Elkins-Crosby says his student government had no voice. “We were supposed to meet with our principal once a month, but she was never available,” he says. “She ignored our needs. In YUC, we make them listen to us.”
At Strawberry Mansion High School, the principal did not allow students to hold YUC meetings at their school, YUC members say. As a result, says Odessa Ogletree, a junior, “we learned that when we want something and the principal doesn’t listen, we can go above the principal.” YUC contacted a lawyer, who informed the principal of the students’ right to organize and meet in school.
YUC members have also learned how to collect information and use data to develop strategies. “Now we understand that we can’t just go to the District and complain,” says Kensington Business senior Saeda Washington. “We have to do research and let them know what we’ve learned.”
For instance, Kensington High School students spent two years researching small schools and then proposed that Kensington be divided into four small schools. In 2006, after three years of advocacy, Kensington was split into three schools, and students are now working towards establishing a fourth. Students at Olney High School, which was divided into two small schools, are pushing for the creation of a third.
Those involved say the campaign for small schools has been long and arduous. “I think organizing is a long-term thing, and the principals don’t understand that,” says Christina Holley, a junior at Olney. “My principal says he doesn’t think about the next day. He thinks minute by minute. But in organizing, you have to think three steps ahead. If one plan doesn’t work, you have to find another one.”
YUC members offer a long list of skills they’ve developed through organizing, including leadership, public speaking, patience, and the ability to teach other people what they’ve learned.
As she worked with her group, Marcella Gibbs says that she learned about “the outside world of politics. Before YUC, I never even knew what politics was!”