| MassachussettsAlliance
for Educational Equity The Alliance for Educational Equity describes
itself as having been founded by parents, citizens, and legislators from Framingham,
Massachusetts who want the state and federal governments to fund the schools of
Massachusetts more fairly and equitably. The Alliance hopes to secure three major
sources affecting local educational funding-state foundation (Chapter 70) funding,
state special education funding, and federal special education (IDEA) funding-for
school communities. Its stated goal is to widen its coalition to work with those
on the community, state, and federal levels to achieve its aims. Contact:
L.J. Carroll
110 Maple Street
Framingham, MA 01701
(508) 405-1657
Educational_Equity@excite.com
The
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now ACORN describes
itself as the nation's largest community organization of low and moderate-income
families, with over 120,000 member families organized into 600 neighborhood chapters
in 45 cities across the country. Since 1970 ACORN has taken action on many of
the political and social issues which concern its members. ACORN's priorities
include: better housing for first time homebuyers and tenants, living wages for
low-wage workers, more investment in our communities from banks and governments,
and better public schools. ACORN hopes to achieve these goals by supporting community-based
organizations that have the power to affect change locally-- through direct action,
negotiation, legislation, and voter participation. ACORN®
1486
Dorchester Avenue
Boston, MA 02122
Phone: 617-436-7100
Fax: 617-436-4878
maacorn@acorn.org
Artists
for Humanity Artists for Humanity was founded in 1991 as an after-school
program in Boston. Students in the program participate in an apprenticeship where
they are paid to create artwork that is then marketed to the business community.
There are forty students on the staff, and the sale of the students' art generates
$100,000 in revenue each year. Students must maintain a 2.5 grade-point average
to stay in the program; ninety-eight percent of the students who complete the
program go on to college. Founder: Susan Rodgerson
288-300 A Street,
2nd floor
South Boston, MA 02210
Tel: (617) 737-2455
Fax: (617) 737-2457 Boston
Parent Organizing Network The Boston Parent Organizing Network
(BPON) is a new citywide initiative established to organize parents and communities
as advocates for improvement in the Boston Public Schools.
Director: Caprice Taylor Mendez
21 Lake Hall, Northeastern University
Boston, MA 02115
Tel: (617) 373-2595
Fax: (617) 373-8839
info@bpon.org
Center for Collaborative
Education The Center for Collaborative Education describes itself
as promoting small, caring communities in K-12 public schools. It aims to do that
by providing schools with professional development, assessment, research, and
advocacy so that they can serve every student individually and equitably, and
also by pushing for school autonomy. Its current projects
include the coordinating of four networks of small schools, an initiative to teach
math and science rigorously on the middle- and high-school levels, and studies
on the effects of the teaching and learning conditions available at small schools.
Executive Director: Dan French
1 Renaissance Park
1135 Tremont Street,
Suite 490
Boston, Massachusetts 02120
Phone: (617) 421-0134
Fax:
(617) 421-9016
info@ccebos.org
Community
Training and Assistance Center For more than 20 years, The Community
Training and Assistance Center (CTAC) has provided technical assistance to community-based
organizations and public institutions that work in education, health, housing,
and neighborhood revitalization. CTAC states that it helps schools complete site
assessments, gather diverse groups of stakeholders to envision what an ideal school
would look like, and ultimately put an actual reform plan together. CTAC's long-term
organizational assistance is designed to improve student achievement through accountability,
site and district planning, and strategic management. President: Bill Slotnick
30 Winter Street
Boston, MA 02138
(617) 423-1444
dgratz@ctausa.com
Council
for Fair School Finance
The Council for Fair School Finance, founded in 1975,
is currently involved in the Hancock v. Driscoll
case in Massachusetts. The Council believes that the
state of Massachusetts must increase its proportion
of state aid to local schools from 40% to about 60%
in order to satisfy the requirements of the Education
Reform Act of 1993. (For a summary of school-funding
litigation in Massachusetts, see the ACCESS
litigation page). Council members include a number
of Massachusetts advocacy, professional, and legal groups,
including the ACLU of Massachusetts, of which the Council
is an affiliate, the League
of Women Voters of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts
Federation of Teachers, and the firm of Weisman
and Associates, counsel for the Hancock plaintiffs,
as well as other advisors and individuals.
President: Norma Shapiro
c/o ACLU of Massachusetts
99 Chauncy Street, Suite 310
Boston, MA 02111
(617) 482-3170, ext. 325
norma@aclu-mass.org Hampshire
Educational Collaborative The Hampshire Educational Collaborative
is a nonprofit, multi-service agency whose mission is to link educators, schools,
and communities to opportunities that advance learning for all students. Since
1974 the Collaborative states that is has been helping teachers, schools, and
communities address fundamental needs of improving education. HEC has helped schools
and school districts share critical resources through regional planning, offered
a wide range of professional development and project-based learning programs,
and provided consulting services to enhance the learning opportunities for educators
and students in western Massachusetts. Director of Communications: Mark
Roessler
Hampshire Educational Collaborative
97 Hawley Street
Northampton,
MA 01060
(413) 586-4900
info@collaborative.org
Massachusetts
Advocates for Children Massachusetts Advocates for Children, formerly
the Massachusetts Advocacy Center, is a private, non-profit child advocacy organization
whose mission is to improve the educational opportunities open to children of
the Commonwealth. Founded in 1969 as the Task Force on Children Out of School,
the Center has lead significant and successful child advocacy projects since its
inception. For more than thirty years, the Center has applied a multi-issue, multi-strategy
approach to problems that have an especially harmful effect on low-income, minority
youth and children with disabilities. As one of the Center's three major programs,
the Boston School Reform Project promotes leadership training, data analysis,
and public policy advocacy to inform and organize a constituency that may better
help reform Boston Public Schools Executive Director: Jerold Mogul (ext.
231)
Office Manager: Tania Duarte (ext.224)
100 Boylston Street, Room
200
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 357-8431
To
contact by e-mail Massachusetts
Institute for a New Commonwealth (MassINC) The Massachusetts
Institute for a New Commonwealth (MassINC) describes itself as a non-partisan
group that advocates for the growth and flourishing of the middle class. MassINC
sees its values of opportunity, personal responsibility, and a strong commonwealth
at the core of the American Dream. The organization sees itself as combining the
approach of a policy think-tank with that of an advocacy campaign. MassINC has
four
permanent initiatives: Economic Prosperity; Lifelong Learning; Safe Neighborhoods;
and Civic Renewal. MassINC has also joined with Paul Reville, chairman of Massachusetts'
Education Reform Review Commission, to launch the Center for Education Research
and Policy, which will evaluate the state's education reforms. MassINC also does
policy. Executive
Director: Ian Bowles
Research Director: Dr. Dana Ansel
MassINC, Publisher
of the CommonWealth magazine
18 Tremont Street, Suite 1120
Boston,
MA 02108
Phone: (617) 742-6800
Fax: (617) 589-0929
tjones@massinc.org
Massachusetts
Budget and Policy Center (Formerly the Tax Equity Alliance for Massachusetts
[TEAM])
The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center describes
itself as a statewide organization dedicated to advocating
for tax fairness, economic justice, and socially responsible
budgeting. The Center sponsors an Education Fund whose
independent analysis and timely research is a source
relied upon by the media, policymakers, and advocates.
The Center also does policy.
Executive Director: Noah Berger
37 Temple Place, 3rd Floor
Boston,
MA 02111
Phone: (617) 426-1228
Fax: (617) 695-1295
jim@massbudget.org
Massachusetts
Business Alliance for Education (MBAE)
The Massachusetts Business
Alliance for Education is committed to ensuring a quality education for every
child. MBAE brings together business and education leaders to promote public education
reform through collaborative research, policy development, and advocacy. Established
in 1988, MBAE is a result of concerns by members of the business community that
the public school system needed substantial reform to produce graduates who would
lead a 21st century democracy and economy. By 1991, MBAE had crafted the conceptual
framework for the Education Reform Act of 1993. Just
for the Kids, an initiative of MBAE, is developing a system for assessing
the quality of education and public schools in the state. Assistant Director:
Karen Vigue
400 Atlantic Avenue
Boston MA 02110
Phone: (617) 737-3126
info@mbae.org
Public
Education Network Local Affiliates: Alliance
for Education The Alliance for Education states that its mission is
to foster a partnership between local business and public education. The purpose
of the Alliance is to assist public education reform so that all schools are effective
in preparing every child to be a knowledgeable, skillful adult; an informed, responsible
citizen; and a productive worker. The Alliance is organized as an independent,
non-profit corporation serving Worcester and Central Massachusetts. Acting
Executive Director: Kathleen A. Gagnon
The Denholm Building, 484 Main Street,
Suite 400
Worcester, MA 01605-1223
Phone: (508) 754-9425
Fax: (508)
831-1303
jkrause@allfored.org
Boston Plan for Excellence
in Public Schools Boston Plan for Excellence states that its mission
is to be a catalyst for education reform and provide support to the Boston Public
School System in transforming instruction to improve the performance of every
student. Executive Director: Ellen Guiney
6 Beacon Street, Suite 615
Boston, MA 02108
Phone (617) 227-8055
Fax (617) 227-8446
mcohen@bpe.org
Cambridge Partnership for Public Education The Cambridge
Partnership for Public Education endeavors to helps the students of the Cambridge
Public Schools and their families to be productive citizens by strengthening educational
systems and programs. The Partnership hopes to achieve its goal by providing an
opportunity outside the traditional school setting for all stakeholders in public
education to work together, leveraging their individual expertise and resources.
Co-chair, Board of Directors: Kathleen Granchelli
c/o Cambridge Chamber
of Commerce
859 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Phone: (617)
253-7063
Fax: (617) 258-5573
kgranchelli@draper.com
Lynn Business/Education Foundation Founded in 1986, the
Lynn Business/Education Foundation describes itself a vehicle through which business
resources can affect positive change in the Lynn Schools. Executive Director:
Dr. Frederick Cole
56 Central Avenue, Suite 201
Lynn, MA 01901
Phone:
(781) 592-5599
Fax: (781) 593-0561
lbef@shore.net
Mary Lyon Education
Fund, Inc. The Mary Lyon Education Fund was founded in 1991 and
describes itself as a community based, non-profit organization which supports
all aspects of quality public education in Shelburne, Massachusetts and in eight
rural western Massachusetts towns. Executive Director: Dr. Susan Silvester
6 Water Street
Shelburne Falls, MA 01370
Phone: (413) 625-2555
Fax:
(413) 625-0065
mlef@shaysnet.com
Stand
for Children
Stand for Children is a grassroots advocacy organization
that advocates for state and local programs that improve
the lives and well-being of children, particularly in
the areas of education and health care. Their mission
is to “teach everyday people how to join together
in an effective grassroots voice in order to win concrete,
long- lasting improvements for children.” They
are a national organization with state affiliates in
Massachusetts, Oregon, and Tennessee.
State Director: Meg Ansara
26 Smith Place, 2nd Floor
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 547-3800
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