July 27, 2008
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Wendy D. Puriefoy, President of Public Education Network (PEN)
“While segregation based on race has been declared unlawful, segregation in educational quality based on poverty continues to be sanctioned.”
The Public Education Network, or PEN, is a national association of Local Education Funds (LEFs) and individuals working to advance public school reform in low-income communities across the country. Its motto is: “Public Involvement. Public Education. Public Benefit.” Wendy D. Puriefoy, PEN’s President since its inception in 1991, is a nationally recognized expert on issues of school reform and civil society. Prior to being recruited as president of PEN, Ms. Puriefoy was executive vice president and chief operating officer of The Boston Foundation. As president of PEN, she has been the leading force behind systemic reform initiatives in school finance and governance, curriculum and assessment, parent involvement, school libraries, and school health. Ms. Puriefoy, who holds degrees from William Smith College and Boston University, serves on the boards of numerous high-profile national organizations, including DEMOS, Hasbro Children’s Foundation, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and the National Center for Family Philanthropy. Technos “spoke” with Ms. Puriefoy via email in June.
T.: The mission of the Public Education Network is “to build public demand and mobilize resources for quality public education for all children through a national constituency of local education funds and individuals.” Please describe what a Local Education Fund, or LEF, is and how it works.
W.D.P.: Local Education Funds (LEFs) are tax-exempt, nonprofit, community-based organizations that work to improve student achievement for all children attending public schools. A local education fund convenes key players in the community, administers innovative school programs, brokers’ resources, awards grants, and enhances the visibility and value of the public schools. LEFs are independent of the school districts they serve and are focused on the improvement and reform of the public school system as a whole. LEFs are organized as ongoing community organizations, with professional full-time staff and a board of directors reflective of the communities they serve. LEFs work with public school systems serving a significant population of disadvantaged students.
LEFs convene a wide range of stakeholders to help develop and implement local public school improvement strategies. In cooperation with schools, businesses, and other community-based organizations, LEFs broker creative school reform initiatives with teachers, school boards, and administrators.
Their mission is the improvement of public education within a particular geographic area, and they have a long-term relationship with the schools and districts within that area. LEFs are highly influenced by their local context, constantly assessing the political landscape, then adapting and strategizing within the opportunities and limits that it offers. Because they are locally-based, LEFs’ value as agents of change is their ability to adapt innovation to the needs and contours of the local setting. They also contribute to the sustainability of reforms because of their commitment to a local community. Their purpose is to stimulate change that improves public education, particularly in low-income communities. They do this through building civic capacity, as well as school and district capacity to implement reforms.
A great example of LEF success can be seen in Mobile, Alabama, in an effort led by the Mobile Area Education Foundation. Hundreds of citizens from throughout Mobile County (including educators, parents, business and community leaders, students, and higher education officials) came together to launch an historic undertaking—the creation of a genuinely student-centered, community-driven long-range plan for the Mobile County Public Schools. The creation of the “YES WE CAN Community Agreement” led to the implementation of an unprecedented performance-based strategic plan for the school district. The community agreement represents the ideas and aspirations of more than 1,400 citizens from throughout Mobile County who participated in public forums on school quality and whose finding were officially presented to the school board. The community agreement, facilitated by the LEF, led to a district-wide focus on six areas of improvement: Communications, Equity, Governance, Parental and Community Involvement, Student Achievement, and Teacher Quality.
In what other ways does PEN “build public demand and mobilize resources” to ensure that all students have the opportunity for a quality education?
In a democratic society, public education cannot depend on acts of charity for survival. Public schools should not have to rely on private sources of funding to accomplish a federally mandated mission to leave no child behind. Yet the federal government is cutting taxes, states are slashing education budgets, and our most disadvantaged students and schools are paying the price—expected to know more, expected to do more, but not given any extra help to achieve more. If we truly expect greater levels of achievement from every child, then we must demand focused and sustained investment in the financial equity and human capital of every school.
PEN and its members see a vital link between the quality of public education and the quality of life in a democratic society. They look to public engagement as the basis of education reform. PEN believes that for significant improvement in public education to occur and be sustained, community will and capacity have to be strengthened to take on responsibility for improving education outcomes. School superintendents and school boards come and go and, as they move through the revolving door of leadership, improvements in policy and practice often get lost. This frequent change in direction and leadership diverts attention from complicated school reform issues and reduces the odds of achieving lasting reform. To mitigate this churn, PEN’s Theory of Action calls for the development of a community-held vision of education reform created through a variety of public engagement activities.
The more community stakeholders become engaged with one another, the more likely they are to discuss issues and work together to create solutions. By working through the difficult public decision-making process (finding common ground, building relationships, and getting various partners involved) the public will ultimately take responsibility for education improvement and for the policy changes necessary to sustain it.
A common thread runs through three PEN areas of school policy focus—standards and accountability, teacher quality, and schools and community—namely, that public engagement activities supported by reliable data will build community accountability for providing the policies, the practices, and the conditions needed for children to meet high standards of academic achievement.
PEN’s approach to school reform is ambitious. Its strength lies in people who are able to understand and participate in the decisions that affect them, their families, and their society. It rests on the belief that everyone has a stake in our public schools, and that an active citizenry has the responsibility to elect public officials who support quality public education and to hold them accountable for allocating the resources needed to improve schools for all children. The Theory of Action is about transformation. It is about the transformation of individual interests to collective interest, about moving people from involvement to engagement.
What is your definition of “capacity building”?
In a sentence, capacity building means: building infrastructure, generating knowledge, developing leadership, and creating momentum for innovation. Given their ability to create alliances and develop shared agendas that include civic as well as education actors, LEFs are uniquely positioned to foster a supportive civic environment for improving public education.
By crafting multi-dimensional programs operating at the juncture of the civic/school arena, LEFs contribute to the reform landscape by shaping a supportive civic environment that brings added value to efforts to improve public schools. LEF’s strategies, what we call strategic interventions, are designed to create civic environments able to stimulate, sustain, and sensitize education reform efforts.
LEFs are effective community change agents because they are highly adaptive organizations. They are in tune with the contours, challenges, and opportunities in their local contexts, and they use this deep understanding to make strategic decisions on how to position themselves in light of their core values. LEFs know they must involve a wide range of constituents in goal-setting processes and that there must be widespread agreement on any reform agenda for change to have momentum. They also recognize that they need the clout that comes with credibility to get constituents to the table and to make sure that agendas are framed by highly regarded, high-quality ideas. Often, these positioning decisions require LEFs to make trade-offs and, when the context shifts, to change course.
How do standards, accountability, and No Child Left Behind requirements fit into the education picture? What role can PEN play?
At PEN, we believe that true education accountability results in measurable increases in student achievement that help close the achievement gap between children of different races, cultural backgrounds, and economic levels.
Our intervention efforts are designed to build community accountability so that all children have the supports they need to meet high standards of achievement. Our work focuses on two outcomes: First, deeper community understanding of the implications for children, schools, and communities in setting high standards of academic achievement for all children; and second, greater community responsibility for making sure all children, especially those furthest from meeting standards, achieve at high levels.
Across the nation, we are working to enhance test-based accountability with PEN’s Opportunities-To-Learn Framework which articulates a vision where:
- Every child enters school ready to learn.
- Every child has access to a rich curriculum aligned to standards.
- Every child receives quality instruction in a school environment conducive to learning.
- Every child has access to community services that support and enhance learning.
In your statement before Democrats in the House and Senate nearly two years ago (in July 2003), you said that NCLB could be a “milestone” or a “millstone”; that without help and increased budgeting for states, “It will be a heavy burden that will impede—rather than accelerate—progress.” How would you describe NCLB today? Is it a milestone that is accelerating progress, or a millstone that is impeding it?
PEN recently hosted a series of public hearings across the country on NCLB. They revealed widespread confusion, concern, and anger over the implementation of the law. The hearings were designed to gain grassroots and civic input on the law from groups often left out of the policy debate, yet profoundly impacted by its implementation.
Throughout the hearings, the public rejected a single test as an accurate measure of school improvement. Parents and community leaders indicated that discrepancies between state and federal measures of school progress have created a deep mistrust of high-stakes tests and other NCLB indicators as accurate assessments of school performance. And, they believe that accountability must be expanded to include additional measures of school and student progress, developed with the input of local educators, parents, and the community.
Americans are also angered by the labeling of schools as “in need of improvement” because they say that this label erodes public support for these schools. Rather than increasing the public’s sense of responsibility for demanding additional support and resources, “in need of improvement” labels are perceived as punitive and can result in student, teacher, and community abandonment of the very schools most in need of support.
Americans support the goals of the federal No Child Left Behind Act and believe accountability is necessary to improve our public schools. However, this law was written with a specific emphasis on public and parental involvement at the center of the legislation. We heard repeated testimony that the public felt uninformed and, in some cases, actively excluded from having a voice in the school improvement process.
While parents and students voiced their frustration and concern, they did say they were willing to do their part to improve public schools in their communities. They believe that schools cannot achieve the goals of NCLB alone and that community support and accountability are crucial for school and student success. Parents believe that part of accountability means providing kids with the academic, social, and community supports they need to succeed—and they called for shared responsibility within the community.
The public also recommended the following changes to the law and its implementation including:
We published a report on these nine public hearings, Open to the Public: The Public Speaks Out on No Child Left Behind, and it is available in .pdf form free of charge at our Web site.
What can PEN and its constituents do about improving teacher quality in under-performing schools? How can local community leaders and school administrators work to improve the quality of its teachers?
The need for quality teachers presents a daunting challenge to states and local school districts. Teacher shortages are most acute at the secondary level, where advanced content-area expertise and academic majors in fields such as mathematics and science are critically important for student achievement.
In far too many districts, meaningful improvement in the way teachers are prepared, assigned, and supported professionally has not occurred. Novice teachers, often given the most difficult assignments in classrooms with the most diverse populations, receive little or no preparation, support, or professional development.
To address this issue, PEN has launched an initiative to improve the quality of teaching in public middle and high schools by focusing on teacher skills and capacity, working conditions, and compensation. Building practitioner capacity is a critical factor in strengthening teaching and learning, whether you have a Local Education Fund in your community or not. As the people who work in and with schools, teachers, administrators and other staff have the greatest effect on the day-to-day implementation of public school reform efforts. Through engagement efforts, educators become responsible for their own continued learning and learn to advocate for quality professional development. For LEFs, working directly with educators is the best way to build understanding of the work of schools and of the capacities needed for effective practice.
What response have you received from local school districts/administrators/teachers, parents and students, and community leaders to your efforts? How are results measured in those districts and schools?
PEN believes positive academic and social outcomes for children can only be achieved through collaboration and coordination, with schools and communities working together to implement effective education reform and provide comprehensive supports and programs. Positive outcomes and results we have seen include:
Administrators generally have positive appraisals of the work and approach of LEFs, as these comments demonstrate:
“The staff at the LEF are most cooperative and willing to help and listen. They will try to make a proposal work. They don’t criticize us but will give us input and work with us to improve on things. Some of our people are negative, but no one has really criticized the LEF.” (Superintendent)
“The LEF has the expertise and is a pusher and a primer. It keeps us connected to the national picture. They have a long track record and are winners. They produce. They will tailor a program to assist us, and they understand us.” (Director of Professional Development)
“Some of the most innovative ideas have come from the LEF…. We could not have developed academic standards without the grant from them. It is the best initiative we have in the system.” (Associate Superintendent)
You’ve stated that education reform is, in fact, societal reform…in what ways? What role does the accessibility to technology in learning situations play in this reform of American society?
PEN shares the following guiding principals with LEFs and our individual and organizational partners:
- Public education is fundamental to a democratic, civil, prosperous society.
- Public schools are critical institutions for breaking the cycle of poverty and redressing social inequities.
- Education reform must be systemic to be effective.
- Public engagement, community support, and adequate resources are essential to the success of public education.
- Independent community-based organizations must play a central role in building and sustaining broad support for quality public education and for achieving significant reform in the nation’s public schools.
- Parents and caregivers should be involved in all attempts to improve public schools.
It is clear that individuals who understand and can manipulate technology have a distinct advantage over those who do not. Teaching students to use computers is essential to preparing them for the working world. Schools are often the only place where many poor and minority students have access to computers, software, and the Internet; access to technology at school is particularly indispensable to students whose families cannot afford access at home. The disparity of experience between students who have a computer at home and those who do not is significant, and this disparity goes beyond a simple piece of equipment.
Integrating technology into the life of a school is a much more involved process than simply providing hardware and software. It requires providing access to information technology. It requires training teachers and students how to use these tools. It necessitates merging technology into the curriculum and helping teachers to understand the creative potential of information technology across all academic subject areas. It necessitates that schools see community members as dynamic resources in curriculum development and in designing innovative strategies for using instructional technology.
For many students from disadvantaged backgrounds, including most racial minorities, advances in computing power and connectivity will not be enough to bridge the computer experience gap. White students in high school and college are still much more likely than black students to have computers in their homes and to use the World Wide Web. Elevating the level of technology use and access in schools located in disadvantaged communities to that in other schools throughout the nation is a challenge of enormous magnitude.
What do you think is the most challenging issue for Americans for today and the future, especially in educational situations: race, class, or gender? And what can be done about these challenges?
Our courts, our government, and many of our citizens still behave as if they subscribe to that discredited “separate but equal” theory. While segregation based on race has been declared unlawful, segregation in educational quality based on poverty continues to be sanctioned.
Every community across this land is concerned about the quality of its public education system. If we are to give poor and minority children in America the opportunity they both need and deserve, we must join the isolated interests and concerns of Americans into a common and shared cause to build a movement—not unlike the civil rights movement of the 1960s. And we should take a lesson from that movement.
Civil rights leaders realized that racial equality was not just a Southern issue—it was every American’s issue. And, the leaders seized the opportunity to build social capital around this issue by reaching out to other Americans who understood fairness and opportunity and embraced this noble cause. The point is that when the rest of the nation began to consider Birmingham’s problem and Selma’s problem its problem, the civil rights movement was infused with the energy and resources of an entire nation. And, on that basis the battle was waged and won. We could not have a better lesson to guide our footsteps in the years ahead. Public institutions are governed by consent of the people. Without that consent, no institution can govern justly or effectively. This is as true for public education as it was for public accommodations such as restrooms, public buildings, and public transportation. Today, our challenge is to reconnect Americans with the most vital public institution—public education. We are reminded that people cannot consent to an institution they don’t know and don’t understand, and in too many communities this is the case.
LEFs are the “window” through which a local community sees and hears what is happening in its schools, the reforms that are being initiated, and the expectations that are articulated for students and adults. Now, more than ever, the nation’s poor and disadvantaged children need more LEFs in more communities to keep them informed and offer a vehicle for their participation.
To this end, PEN will soon be launching a national campaign focusing on improving public education. We encourage all concerned people to sign up for updates by visiting: www.givekidsgoodschools.org
On a personal note: What training did you have for your professional activities with PEN? Who are your mentors? How did you come to be involved with PEN? What one thing do you want to achieve in your professional life?
Making sure every generation of Americans supports the continuous improvement of our public schools—as well as understands and appreciates the individual and collective contributions of public education to our democratic way of life—is the issue that defines and happily consumes my life. The improvement and reform of the nation’s public schools is the work through which I express my intellect, my creativity, my patriotism, my passion and my hope for my country. Simply stated, I am an education advocate.
My pedigree for public education comes from my family. When I was growing up, public education came a close second to politics in our family. My mother served on the local school board. My father was very active in civic affairs as a way of ensuring that the segregated community we lived in did not permanently damage his children or other people’s children. My bothers, my sister, and I attended public schools from Kindergarten through Grade 12. Because of our preparation in those public schools, each of us went on to college and graduate school. My gifted brother experienced “mainstreaming” through the dedication of his teachers. And, even though we all graduated, you could say we never really left. My sister went on to teach special education in the Philadelphia public schools for nearly thirty years. One of my brothers became a school principal in Philadelphia. And I taught education policy in college; served in Massachusetts state government; and now lead PEN—whose mission is to improve public education and build public support for quality public schools for all children, particularly children from low-income and poor families.
Just like many people who grew up during the Depression, my family understood the miracle of education — how learning can not only help us unlock the mysteries of the world around us but can also help us move into the great American middle class. I was taught that education was the link, the bridge that would transport you from the lowly status too many African-Americans were confined to, to a world where you could be trained to fulfill your God-given talent, be a credit to your family, your community, and your country.
We have all seen education create its magic, in our own lifetimes and in our own families. Public schools can and must be the places where young people awaken to their intellectual capacity, their dignity, their destiny.
For more information about public education reform in the United States, access the PEN Weekly NewsBlast, and subscribe for a free email subscription.
Read Ms. Puriefoy’s Featured Essay in this issue of Technos e-Zine.