Community Advocacy Support.

 EJP partners with community organizations  to be more effective advocates in advancing the equity needs of their local school districts. We offer training and workshops to expand organizations’ knowledge of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging issues in the context of school systems, empower community organizations to have strategic conversations around data, and implement change collaboratively with all stakeholders to support students and build strong communities.

While the nature of each partnership will be unique based on needs, EJP works with organizations to accomplish the following:

Build upon existing knowledge of diversity, equity,  inclusion, and belonging issues .

Community organizations, and the families they serve, know first-hand the long-term and widespread harm of educational inequities. Community organizations are uniquely positioned to call attention to these inequities and to advocate for meaningful and sustainable change.

Honoring the local expertise of community organizations, our partnership builds upon this existing knowledge to fill in any gaps community organizations have in DEIB issues, particularly in the context of working with school district leadership and administrators. Our workshops provide organizations with the information, language, skills and tools that make them effective advocates on behalf of the students and families they serve. These training sessions can be tailored to address the particular issues and needs of the community and the staff that serves them.

Use data for effective lobbying.

Data drives many of the decisions made about schools and students from the federal level all the way down to individual classrooms. Operational and supplementary funding at the federal and state level is often dependent on everything from attendance data to socioeconomic data to performance data. Schools are often ranked on performance data and are asked to compile thousands of pieces of data on their students and teachers during each school year. Teachers regularly use assessment data to determine how to personalize learning for students in their classrooms.

Community organizations that are advocates for education equity are often driven by a passion for justice. While there can sometimes be a tension between data and passion, we at EJP believe that both are needed when it comes to advancing the work of diversity, equity,  inclusion and belonging. We need data to confirm obvious equity problems and uncover more subtle ones, and we need the passion that drives change to eliminate these problems.

However, based on our decades of experience with various state and local education agencies, we recognize that the public data for school communities is not presented in easily understood and digestible form. Most data are also not presented in ways that highlight the interconnection of various data points that may be leading to inequitable student outcomes. For example, state report cards show: (1) black-white achievement gap data, (2) per-pupil funding data, (3) students’ free and reduced lunch percentage, and (4) the percentage of teachers rated effective. Reviewed separately, this information tells an incomplete story. Why does a district with 99% of teachers rated effective have a high black-white achievement gap? Why does a high-poverty district have lower per-pupil spending than neighboring wealthier districts?  Reviewing the data as one story, we discover that this high-poverty district with a high achievement gap has teachers who are doing their best but because of a deep segregation in the community the students who qualify for free and reduced lunch poverty are concentrated in a few schools that are mostly staffed by new teachers. While qualified, these new teachers have not been appropriately prepared to face the learning challenges that accompany a concentration of poverty. In such a context, it is inevitable that achievement gaps persist.

EJP helps community organizations decipher the publicly available data and make the connections necessary to serve as informed equity advocates. We can also help organizations determine how to use the information to structure their lobbying and advocacy efforts for the greatest efficacy.

Implement change collaboratively with educators, administrators, and community stakeholders.

In an ideal world, necessary change would happen immediately, effortlessly, and painlessly. However, the reality of history shows that change is never immediate, effortless, nor pain-free. Change happens through a combination of brave and bold small steps and transformative giant leaps over time, passionate people who tirelessly devote their lives and resources to the cause, and determination to stay the course in the face of setbacks and disappointments that initially seem insurmountable. This combination is especially true when  working to implement equity changes in a school district; changes which often challenge deeply held beliefs, norms and values. An effective implementation strategy must take both the structural and personal dimensions of change into consideration. 

EJP can help community organizations develop and implement change strategies in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders. With our knowledge of how school districts function, we are particularly skilled at helping community organizations use compelling “data stories” to advocate for change, prioritize and layer their change plan, identify and effectively communicate with decision makers, and seek ways to positively align with districts’ strategic plans in order to build trust.