Recent Publications by Elaine Simon
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A New Conception of Parent Engagement: Community Organizing for School Reform
This chapter provides an indicators framework for understanding the contributions of community organization to school reform and a theory of change model that shows the link between school improvement and the work community organizing groups…
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Philadelphia Story: Building Civic Capacity for School Reform in a Privatizing System – Executive Summary
Following the 2001 state takeover of the School District of Philadelphia, a new governance structure was established and an ambitious set of reforms went into effect, generating renewed public confidence in the district. Despite this,…
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Looking for Indicators of the Impact of Community Organizing for School Reform
This report series, produced through the Education Organizing Indicators Project, presents a methodology for documenting the contribution of community organizing to school reform. The Project stemmed from the perceived need to make the positive impact…
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Reframing Accountability for Urban Schools: Efforts from the Ground Up to Improve Public Education
This paper, presented at the 2005 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) discusses the contributions of community organizing to current conceptions of accountability for the improvement of public schools. According to the…
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Communicating Evaluation Findings as a Process: The Case for Delayed Gratification
This chapter discusses two aspects of ethnographic evaluation essential to establishing an evaluation process which engages program stakeholders in considering what they are doing and why they are doing it. The authors use a case…
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Getting to Outcomes: A User’s Guide to a Revised Indicators Framework for Education Organizing
Research for Action (RFA) has been among those engaged in education organizing research and has drawn on its previous efforts–as well as the knowledge built by community organizing groups and other researchers–to create this User’s…
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Strong Neighborhoods, Strong Schools: Successful Community Organizing for School Reform
This report, the overview document for the report series ‘Strong Neighborhoods, Strong Schools,’ presents a process for documenting the contributions of community organizing to improving schools through an Indicators Framework for Education Organizing. The Indicators…
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Time to Engage? Civic Participation in Philadelphia’s School Reform
Philadelphia is at the forefront of a national trend towards privatization in education, making school reform in Philadelphia a topic of national and local consequence. The Philadelphia school district has created a new governance model,…
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An Evaluation of the Science Resource Leaders Program
An evaluation of the Science Resource Leaders Program, which was funded by the National Science Foundation and administered jointly by the School District of Philadelphia and PATHS/PRISM. SRL sought to train a two-person team of…
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Strong Neighborhoods, Strong Schools: Successful Community Organizing for School Reform – Executive Summary
This one-of-a-kind research project documents the results that empowered parents achieve in improving academic achievement and in strengthening community capacity.
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Philadelphia Story: Building Civic Capacity for School Reform in a Privatizing System
Following the 2001 state takeover of the School District of Philadelphia, a new governance structure was established and an ambitious set of reforms went into effect, generating renewed public confidence in the district. Despite this,…
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Networking Across Boundaries of Place, Culture, and Role: A Report for the Bread Loaf Rural Teacher Network Funded by the Dewitt-Wallace Reader’s Digest Foundation
A four-year evaluation of the Bread Loaf Rural Teacher Network established in 1992 at Middlebury College with grant funding from the DeWitt-Wallace Reader’s Digest Foundation. BLRTN seeks to accomplish two goals: 1) invigorating teaching of…
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Strong Neighborhoods, Strong Schools: The Education Organizing Indicators Framework: A User’s Guide
This guide is designed to help foundation program officers, educators and organizers understand and use the Education Organizing Indicators Framework to understand and advance the work of community organizing for school reform. The guide first…
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Public Education in Philadelphia: The Crucial Need for Civic Capacity in a Privatized Environment
This article explores the role of public engagement in Philadelphia public schools, answering the question of whether the form of private sector involvement now being pursued by the School District of Philadelphia is an adequate…
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Reforming Alone: Barriers to Organizational Learning in Urban School Change Initiatives
A review and synthesis of findings from evaluations of nine separate professional development initiatives implemented in urban schools. This article identifies school and district policies and structures that have the unintended effect of depleting or…
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Reframing Accountability for Urban Public Schools
Based on their research with community-organizing groups, Eva Gold and Elaine Simon from Research for Action and Chris Brown from the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform describe four strategies for building public accountability…
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Making Sense of Standards: Implementation Issues and the Impact on Teacher Practice
An examination of standards implementation in Philadelphia public schools as part of a series of progress reports on the Children Achieving Challenge from the 1996-97 school year. This report addresses how standards influence instruction in…
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Bringing Community Organizing into the School Reform Picture
Community organizing is growing in importance as a means of achieving and sustaining urban school reform. The authors identify eight distinct areas in which community organizing groups are connecting community capacity to school improvement. Leadership…
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Bringing a Public Voice to the School Governance Debate: The Campaign for Better Schools and Mayoral Control in New York City (Executive Summary)
In this two-year study, Research for Action (RFA), working in collaboration with Jeffrey Henig of Teachers College, assessed the formation and development of a coalition of organizing and advocacy groups, funded by the Donors’ Education…
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Bringing a Public Voice to the School Governance Debate: The Campaign for Better Schools and Mayoral Control in New York City (Year One Report)
In this two-year study, Research for Action (RFA), working in collaboration with Jeffrey Henig of Teachers College, assessed the formation and development of a coalition of organizing and advocacy groups, funded by the Donors’ Education…
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Strong Neighborhoods, Strong Schools: Appendix: Case Studies
The appendix brings together the five case studies of community organizing groups carried out as part of the Indicators Project on Education Organizing. Each report describes the background and context of the organization’s work and…
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Locating Local Education Funds: A Conceptual Framework for Describing LEF’s Contribution to Public Education
This report presents the findings of RFA’s intitial literature review of research and other writings and documentation on local education funds as well as other education reform nonprofits working within communities at the local level.…
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Bringing a Public Voice to the School Governance Debate: The Campaign for Better Schools and Mayoral Control in New York City (Year Two Report)
In this two-year study, Research for Action (RFA), working in collaboration with Jeffrey Henig of Teachers College, assessed the formation and development of a coalition of organizing and advocacy groups, funded by the Donors’ Education…
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Strong Neighborhoods, Strong Schools: Case Study: Alliance Organizing Project
The Alliance Organizing Project (AOP) is a Philadelphia-based, single-issue parent organizing group with the goal of making parents and families ‘full partners’ in public school reform. AOP was formed in 1995 as a component of…
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Meanings of Cultural Participation at the Neighborhood Level: A Focus Group Analysis
This report was prepared for the Philadelphia Cultural Benchmark Project, a collaborative project between Research for Action, Audience Insight LLC, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Social Impacts of the Arts Project (SIAP). It draws from…
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Challenges to Freshman Year Interventions in Philadelphia
Philadelphia made early investments in reforms designed to address the challenges of large neighborhood high schools, including supports for the critical ninth grade transition year. Well over a decade later, our research shows that freshman…
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Strong Neighborhoods, Strong Schools: Case Study: Austin Interfaith
Austin Interfaith, founded in 1985, is a multi-issue group made up of forty-five religious congregations, schools, and other institutions. Austin Interfaith is an affiliate of the Texas Industrial Areas Foundation Network, which developed the Alliance…
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Crafting a Civic Stage for Public Education Reform: Understanding the Work and Accomplishments of Local Education Funds
This report is based on research focusing on understanding and assessing how Local Education Funds (LEFs)carryout their mission and demonstrate success. It offers a conceptual model for understanding the decisions that LEFs make as they…
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Transition to High School: School ‘Choice’ and Freshman Year in Philadelphia
The School District of Philadelphia’s tiered system of selective, nonselective, and charter high schools, and the process for high school choice, has created real variation in the degree to which high schools can successfully meet…
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Strong Neighborhoods, Strong Schools: Case Study: New York ACORN
ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is a nation-wide, multi-issue organization composed of neighborhood-based chapters that organize communities to advance the interests of low- and moderate-income families. Its areas of emphasis include…
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Cultural Leaders’ Reflections on Cultural Participation and Preliminary Research
This report was prepared for the Philadelphia Cultural Benchmark Project, a collaborative project between Research for Action, Audience Insight LLC, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Social Impacts of the Arts Project (SIAP). It draws from…
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Uneven Playing Field: Demographic Differences and High School ‘Choice’ in Philadelphia
Every fall, eighth graders participate in the School District of Philadelphia’s high school application and admissions process, vying for spots in a tiered system of public high schools across the city. This policy brief looks…
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Strong Neighborhoods, Strong Schools: Case Study: Oakland Community Organizations
Oakland Community Organizations (OCO) is composed of several dozen faith-based organizations whose congregants participate in OCO through the religious institution to which they belong. Affiliated since its inception with the Pacific Institute for Community Organizing…