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 lays out the distinguishing characteristics of the community organizing approach, and shows through a theory of change how community organizing effects change by building community capacity and linking that capacity to increased public accountability which creates the political will to improve conditions in schools and student learning. Along with a detailed explanation of each indicator area, the guide explains how the Framework can help different audiences advance the work of community organizing for school reform: for foundation program officers, through learning how to recognize and understand the accomplishments of community organizing groups; for educators, through appreciating how community organizing can complement their efforts and what it can accomplish that is outside the realm of professional educators; and for organizers and leaders, through gaining a vocabulary for describing their achievements and criteria for assessing their work.