New schools, new programs, and new partnerships.
Innovate Public Schools aims to make the Bay Area a place where every student has access to a world-class public school.
This year, we worked alongside parents, educators, and community leaders to make that vision a reality.
Highlights of Our Work in 2016
We welcomed our first Entrepreneur-in-Residence, trained community organizers from across the country, organized a candidates forum for state assembly, expanded our organizing reach to San Francisco, and launched a partnership with GreatSchools. We have so much to celebrate!
In February, the Ravenswood school board approved a new KIPP charter school in response to hundreds of parents who asked them to support high-quality options. This win came after two years of organizing by Innovate parent leaders.
In January, GreatSchools and Innovate Public Schools launched a new school data and advocacy platform to empower parents to choose the best fit school for their child and push for better schools in their communities.
This year, Innovate started a new program to support talented school leaders to design and launch innovative new schools in the Bay. Anthony Johnson will be launching the first Promise Academy in 2018, and Terrence Davis is planning to launch a school in 2019.
2016 Jose Arenas Parent Leadership Institute
In February, Innovate Public Schools welcomed 100 parent leaders and education advocates from across the country for our second Jose Arenas Parent Leadership Institute. For three days, people came together to learn how to build powerful, parent-led organizations in their communities that can effectively advocate for great public schools.
Through Innovate, concerned parents have begun to organize in the Bayview and Mission neighborhoods of San Francisco. These parent organizations continue to grow and research the best strategies for improving the quality of education for their children, in this community with very low-performing schools for children of color.
In June, parent leaders with Innovate Public Schools hosted a forum to hear from candidates for the 24th Assembly District about their plans for education and housing. All eight candidates participated in the event in East Palo Alto, which was co-chaired by Innovate parent leaders Rocsana Enriquez and Jessenia Solorio. Parents shared their testimonies and asked tough questions about the candidates’ priorities.
Building on the success of our first Community Organizer Training Program in 2015, this year we welcomed our second cohort of professional community organizers and staff from education organizations around the country. Through this program, with 35 participants, Innovate is teaching the next generation of community organizers how to build parent-led campaigns for great public schools in their communities.
In October, we released our second annual Top Bay Area Schools for Underserved Students report, followed by a celebration in December of the 47 schools we recognized. Parents, students, teachers, and school leaders were well-represented. Ryan J. Smith, Executive Director of The Education Trust-West, delivered the keynote address, in dialogue with Innovate CEO Matt Hammer.
We continue to coach and support many of our Fellowship alumni, including school leaders and senior level leaders at ACE Charter School, Downtown College Prep, and Voices College Bound Language Academies. This year, we partnered with Oxford Day Academy, whose charter was unanimously approved at the San Mateo County Board of Education. Castro Elementary School, part of the Mountain View-Whisman School District, started implementing their school redesign this year and have already started to see gains.
We kicked off our 2016-2017 Fellowship with eight Start-up Schools fellows who are developing three new schools and working on one school redesign. Innovate has supported 13 new or redesigned schools through programs since we launched in 2013.
Parents with children with special needs in San Jose Unified began organizing with Innovate this year to try to improve the services their children receive.
- The power of parents to demand better schools for their children
- The power of educators to create excellent new schools and
- The power of community leaders to push for solutions and policies that support great schools for all students, especially low-income students and students of color.
We can’t do this work without your support. We hope you will consider contributing an end-of-year donation to Innovate Public Schools to support us in making an even greater impact in 2017.
We wish you and yours a happy holiday and all the best in the New Year!