| Massachussetts
Alliance
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
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
ctac@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
jmogul@massadvocates.org
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 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.
Research Director: Benjamin Forman
MassINC, Publisher
of the CommonWealth magazine
18 Tremont Street, Suite 1120
Boston,
MA 02108
Phone: (617) 742-6800
Fax: (617) 589-0929
bforman@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.
President: Noah Berger
37 Temple Place, 3rd Floor
Boston, MA 02111
Phone: (617) 426-1228
Fax: (617) 695-1295
nberger@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 B. Samoriski
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 Campaign Coordinator: Anika Gregg
26 Smith Place, 2nd Floor
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 547-3800
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