Experienced education journalist Jeff Bryant is collecting stories about successful community schools and he would like to hear from you.
Jeff writes:
Education Writers, Bloggers, Podcasters, Content Sharers WantedA national network has organized a project to lift up stories from public schools about their success in using the community schools approach for transformational school improvement. There is a treasure trove of powerful stories about community schools ready to be told. There is authoritative research to validate the approach. And there are audiences eager to learn of an alternative to decades of failed education policies. But we need people – writers, podcasters, TV and print journalists, videographers and community leaders — to tell those stories to the American public. We can connect you to people in these communities so you can tell their stories through your own outlet, your social media channels, or in a regional or national media outlet to a much larger audience. if you’re interested in joining this network, contact Jeff Bryant at jeffb.cdm@gmail.com.
Jeff
Thanks Diane!
Public schools have no marketing teams, no dark money from billionaire supporters and no way to fund lobbyists. This why the some of the great stories from community public schools never get told. This is an opportunity to share wonderful community based success stories with the public at large.
I really wish I had a happy story to tell–but alas I do not.
The pandemic exposed the myriad of flaws in meritocracy. We need to continue to expose. It’s not a happy tale, but if we reveal the truth, we work toward a story with a happy: to be continued…
Jeez, Left Coast, I worked in the New York City Department of Education for just over 15 years, and I never saw any evidence that merit advanced one’s career. In fact, I watched many solid, hardworking and dedicated teachers persecuted for their efforts. In that bureaucracy, it was sycophancy, an ability to play the political game, and blind, uncritical submission and obedience that advanced one’s career. In the end, I just couldn’t stomach it; the students, in this milieu, were basically an abstraction. I became a teacher to help kids, particularly kids who struggle in school. The obstacles to that, in the end, became too much for me to surmount. Even now, as I look for a teaching job for next year, there is a part of me that is inclined to take a job in one of the local factories in this town, and finish out the rest of my working life in mindless ease.
Jeff, contact Allison Gendar at agendar@uft.org, she can steer you to sources,
I think there are several posts on my education-focused blog where I shared success stories that took place in the community-based schools where I taught for thirty years.
https://crazynormaltheclassroomexpose.com/
Contact the Board of Education of the respective communities. Many send out newsletters to community members describing special projects and successes within their district. I often see photos and stories. We are semi rural and midsized but we don’t have a financial publicity problem.