Hope these photos bring back some great memories!

Community Organizing

First, I really have to thank Rosemary, Tom and Lisa for keeping up the posts on the blog. Even though I haven't been posting, I have been reading your posts and doing a lot of reflecting offline.

I hope I can add to the discussion today with feedback about a research publication I found on the Harvard Family Research Project web site. The research discusses lessons learned from community organizing -- and two concepts in particular resonated with me. One, I think the differences between 'parent involvement' and 'community organizing' are relevant to our work. Second, I believe there is application to our work on the Town Learning Community in the quote below.

Specifically, the quote theorizes that an obstacle to systemic improvement of student achievement is the act of "individualizing" issues. By developing relationships and connecting people, schools provide opportunities to identify systems issues that are not the result of an individual, but rather problems that are the responsibility of the organization to develop solutions for.

"Education organizing invests in building relationships among parents as the foundation of action. It focuses on “relational power,” which is the power to act collectively in order to make system change (Cortés, 1993). All too often schools individualize systemic problems (C. Brown, personal communication, October 3, 2003). For example, a student might be faulted for poor performance when in reality the problem also lies in a lack of qualified teachers and instructional materials. Organizing counters this individualizing trend by bringing people into relationships with one another so that they can identify and act on school issues. Through one-on-one conversations, group dialogue, and reflection, parents and other residents develop a strong sense of community, and learn how to use their collective power to advocate for school change. In contrast, parent involvement approaches that focus on individual skill building rarely provide opportunities for dialogue about common problems. The absence of these opportunities often precludes parents’ working together for school improvement."(Giles, 1998)

If you think this applies to our work moving forward, a theory of action about the Town Learning Community might be:

"If we provide opportunities for people to develop relationships with one another so that they can identify and act on school issues, they will develop a strong sense of community and learn how to use their collective power to advocate for school change, resulting in more students achieving the district's standards."

I've provided the link to research on the Harvard web site on the Message Board. I'd also like to suggest that we all read the research since it's rather brief and use it for a text-based discussion at one of our meetings. Through such a discussion, we might talk about the research, this proposed theory of action, and how to test its application to our work. We might also discuss whether this could help to form the basis for a focus question in our World Cafe forum.

Steering committee charts course for community involvement committee

Thanks for a great start last night to an important initiative in our Strategic Plan. I am looking forward to our follow-up discussions, as well as feedback from each of you after we all have a chance to complete our readings.

As promised, here is the link to the Annenberg research study on Community Involvement. I've included the full report as well as the Executive Summary.

http://www.annenberginstitute.org/pdf/OrganizedCommunities.pdf (Full Report)

http://www.annenberginstitute.org/pdf/Organized%20CommunitiesSummary.pdf (Summary)

RIPIN partnering with Cumberland to kick off town learning community

Happy New Year to all of you!

Behind the scenes, we've been putting the pieces together to kick-off the Community Involvement Committee. I'm really excited about the possibilities that are available to us with this dynamic group of teachers, parents, and community members who have been nominated.

Yesterday I got a commitment from the Rhode Island Parent Information Network (RIPIN) to help us organize the committee. Since parents will be a core element of the membership of the committee, the workshops they can offer us to support the development of this group will be free.

I'd like to meet with a small group of the Strategic Planning Committee who would be interested in steering this work. Let me know if you have an interest in stepping forward to help organize this...otherwise, I'll be in touch with several of you in the next week.

community involvement committee taking shape

One of the first important deadlines is facing us...organizing the Community Involvement Committee. This committee is one of the "big ideas" in our Strategic Plan since these individuals will take the lead on the Town Learning Community discussion.

The work of this committee is to "connect" with others in the town and "network" with adults in Cumberland who can support learning for our students. Is it a big responsibility...yes! Is this a chance to create a new framework for the way in which we view the education of students in the Cumberland schools...absolutely!

You already know the folks who should be on this inaugural committee since we live with them and work with them. They stand out because they have a natural ability to collaborate with others and a unique skill to draw people toward them. Perhaps it's their enthusiasm or ability to relate to others or a confidence that this person can get the job done!

Please think about the friends, neighbors, teachers and other professionals that you know who fit this description. Then it's simple...all you need to do to nominate an individual for consideration for the Community Involvement Committee is email his/her name to donna.morelle@cumberlandschools.org.

Don't delay! Our first meeting of this committee will be in early December.