civil rights

Overview 

The Schott Foundation supports an “Opportunity to Learn” frame on educational policy, which focuses on ensuring that resources are provided for all students to have an equitable opportunity to learn and produce high achievement outcomes.

Our Relationship 

Collaborative has provided a spectrum of communications services in support of the Foundation’s efforts to create the strategy and infrastructure capable of engaging a state-based and national policy that ensure an opportunity to learn for all students. Our efforts have included the redesign of the Foundation’s Web site, which includes the creation of content management system and architecture that enables expanded grassroots advocacy and public engagement efforts. In addition, we have created federal policy recommendations, hosted Hill briefings, and conducted national and trade media to promote Lost Opportunity: A 50 State Report on the Opportunity To Learn in America.

In addition, we supported the agenda and partnership development of the Foundation’s 2009 Opportunity to Learn Summit, which included the participation of congressional, civil rights, research and philanthropic leaders, as well as a diverse group of stakeholders involved in civic engagement activities of students, practitioners and community leaders.

Our Services 
Overview 

United Way Worldwide is a worldwide network in 45 countries and territories, including nearly 1,300 local organizations in the U.S. It advances the common good, creating opportunities for a better life for all, by focusing on the three key building blocks of education, income and health. The United Way Worldwide movement creates long lasting community change by addressing the underlying causes of problems that prevent progress in these areas.

Our Relationship 

Collaborative has been called upon to provide trusted advice and consultation to United Way Worldwide on a wide variety of issues, including high-level executive consultation, strategic consulting, meeting facilitation, research and analysis, and production services.

Our Services 
Our Ideas 

Using Interactive Technology to Communicate Critical Information on Access and Equity in Public Education

The Challenge 

The Schott Foundation conducted a detailed study on the state of public education in the United States, resulting in the release of the report Lost Opportunity: A 50 State Report on the Opportunity to Learn in America. The report explores disparities in quality and proficiency, as well as access and equity in public education. The Foundation wanted to take the findings from their printed report and make them available on their Web site in a user-friendly format.

Our Approach 

Our approach was to present the information in an interactive, online map of the United States. Individual states are colored along a spectrum of performance, from red (poor performance) to blue (high performance). This color-coding approach enables visitors to view comparative snapshots of state performance in public education. Users click individual states to view specific data on access, or the chance that a disadvantaged student will have access to a high performing school compared to a white, non-Latino student; proficiency, or the percentage of eight graders who scored proficient or above on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) reading exam; and cost, or the total economic burden carried by state taxpayers because of inequity.

Our Impact 

This work supports The Schott Foundation's national Opportunity to Learn initiative. As the initiative expands and gains traction, the information found in the map will be essential to communicate the current disparities found in public education and motivate key stakeholders to drive change.