Dear friends,

As we close out 2024, I’m struck by all that we’ve accomplished together this year. 

This spring, we graduated 10 of the second A.R.I.S.E.  Fellowship. By the end of the program, participants are now equipped to:

• • examine the educational landscape and history
  • explore innovation and opportunities through national/regional/local cases of districts reimagining education
  • understand the levers of change (people & money, political infrastructure, and ideas & narratives)
  • actively engage with stakeholders serving and fighting for children and families in the Atlanta Public Schools district
  • unearth their pathway toward advocacy and impact within K-12 public education
  • join a growing collective of advocates who are informed, engaged, and advocating for children to receive a great K-12 public education
    
    This year’s fellows awarded three $50,000 grants to support career and college readiness for the Carver Cluster’s middle and high school students. 

This fall, we said goodbye to our founding leader, Ed Chang, and hello to the idea of innovation schools, which was highlighted as part of our City Changing Speaker Series;

And we’ve answered the call to expand our reach, partnering directly with school districts and families in the City of Atlanta, Clayton County, and the community of south Cobb while also beginning to learn more about the needs of DeKalb, south Fulton, and Henry counties. 

Not all of our efforts worked out as we’d hoped. Driven by feedback from families looking for higher-quality options for students with special needs, we pushed for the Atlanta Board of Education to approve a charter for Tapestry public schools; instead, the Board denied the charter for a second time. We will continue to support Tapestry in 2025 as they seek to replicate and expand their neurodivergent-inclusive model to new communities of Atlanta students.

In that vein, the work is far from over. As a community, we must strive every day to grow Atlanta into a city where every student receives a great K-12 public education. This includes continuing to invest in our community and learning with expanded grantmaking, empowering community leaders with opportunities to guide decision-making, pushing for increased collaboration to support post-pandemic student recovery, and expanding our efforts beyond teacher recruitment to teacher retention.

We also released our impact report, covering spring 2022 to spring 2024, demonstrating, among other things, an investment of over $12 million to grassroots community efforts, school-level talent development, and improving K-12 education, particularly in organizations led by people of color; 

At redefinED atlanta, we are leading this charge with renewed focus, vision, and passion. I hope you will join us on this journey, not just supporting our continued efforts, but pushing us to be better and think bigger. 

I look forward to working alongside you to deliver higher-quality opportunities for students and families in 2025. 

Happy Holidays,

Angira Sceusi

Executive Director