charter schools

The report was recognized with the 2008 APEX Award for Publication Excellence in the category of One-of-a-kind Custom-Published Publications. The APEX Awards is an annual competition for writers, editors, publication staff and business and nonprofit communicators. Awards are based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content and overall communications effectiveness.

In addition, after the report’s release, Collaborative maintained a key role in supporting the Commission. Collaborative designed a post-release strategy to keep the Commission’s recommendations fresh in the field and to continue to lead the dialogue around the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. Collaborative provided consulting and support for advocacy strategies such as coalition-building, and on-going communications strategies such as research and regular e-mail alerts.

The Civic Index was released at the National Press Club in Washington, DC in June 2008, along with results from its national poll on how well the nation is supporting our public schools. Read more about the Civic Index on PEN’s Web site. At the time of release, eight cities and counties were using or would soon be using the Index to develop a local report card and work with their communities to improve their Index score in areas that need improvement.

Collaborative issued a press release, placed on PR Newswire, that was disseminated by more than 60 national media outlets on the afternoon of the release date alone. Coverage appeared in places such as Wall Street Journal Market Watch, Public Education Network's Newsblast and in online resources published by the American Association of School Librarians and Youth Today among others. Several of CSO's partner colleges also received mentions in national news outlets and posted custom press releases on their respective Web sites. In addition, CSO secured a $25,000 grant from the Wal-Mart foundation to conduct an impact analysis on how the Guide is utilized to demonstrate its effect.

In total, information about CSO and the Guide was directly disseminated to nearly 79,000 individuals, not including the projected thousands who were reached through media outreach efforts. The resulting efforts have laid the groundwork for CSO to sustain and open opportunities for new partnerships.

The summit was attended by leading visual artists, music advocates, policy-makers and experts in a range of academic subjects. They examined the importance of the visual arts to America. The group discussed visions for the future, values that guide the profession and strategies for making the general public appreciate all that the arts have to offer young people.

As a result of Collaborative’s tireless work, these advocacy tools are used to help principals become pre-K advocates and are a vital component in the effort to change the role of elementary school principals in children’s education.

The national education newspaper, Education Week, provided coverage on NAESP’s release of this new edition of Leading Learning Communities and of Vision 2021. Read the article, Principals’ Group Updates Standards for Leadership, published April 9, 2008. Together, these guidebooks form the Leading Learning Communities series, a series that continues to expand the horizon for principals while providing these leaders with the support they need.

The planning process resulted in a three-point strategic action plan for afterschool in Greenville. In one element, the plan will addressed services targeted to children at-risk of dropping out of school, with an outcome of increasing students’ academic success and graduation rates.

A second element focuses on the quality of services in the community. The third element will focus on how the United Way as an organization can focus its funding and support in future years to best support quality in afterschool services. Collaborative will help craft recommendations for a sustained effort, which include the necessary research, cost estimates and proposed timelines.

Collaborative worked with the steering committee to define what quality means for afterschool programs in Greenville, and developed of a quality assessment tool and a map of afterschool resources in the community. This quality assessment will have a far-reaching impact, helping not only Greenville United Way, but also the entire Greenville community to support and improve afterschool programs and systems. Ultimately, this work will feed back into the community-wide Graduate Greenville initiative as one strategy to help engage, motivate and support students toward the goal of increased graduation rates in Greenville County Schools.

The one-day summit brought together principals, teachers and educators to join in conversations on the Expanded Learning Time (ELT) initiative. This meeting demonstrates Collaborative’s continued experience with developing and hosting meetings for educational endeavors across the country.

Collaborative continued work with FOCPS in its efforts to facilitate community engagement regarding the future of the Hungerford Prep Academy in the historic community of Eatonville. This involved facilitating the coordinating committee, designing discussion guides and providing strategic consulting throughout the process. Collaborative wrote the culminating report that was presented to the Orange County Public School Board in late August 2008. This report is a synthesis of the community’s comments about the use of the Hungerford facility and its aspirations for good schools and strong supports for children in Orange County.