A Decade of (Re)Defining
Ten years ago, a group of community leaders came together around a simple but powerful belief: every child deserves access to a great public school. Since then, RedefinED Atlanta has stewarded $75M towards public education and locally based initiatives across the metro region.
As we celebrate this milestone, we reflect on the people and moments that brought us here and the work still to come.
From Our Executive Director Angira Sceusi
As we mark ten years of work and partnership in Metro Atlanta, I’m filled with profound gratitude for everyone who’s helped make this possible and a driving urgency to accelerate progress across the region.
That drive is what carries us into our next chapter, and I’m excited to share what’s ahead.
Educators, families, school leaders, community organizations, philanthropists, and partners drive our work forward. Their experiences, perspectives, and hopes for the future have fueled our progress and continue to guide what comes next. Click on any story to hear, in their own words, what this work has meant and why the next decade matters.
From Vision to Impact
We believe lasting impact requires courageous leadership, strong community partnerships, and bold, coordinated action. By lifting up a range of perspectives, we ensure solutions reflect the strengths and needs of our communities. Explore the map below to learn how we build strong partnerships across Metro Atlanta.
- A City Changing: Since 2018, our speaker series has brought together Atlantans to elevate educator and community voices, spark and scale bold ideas, and drive collective action toward more equitable, effective, and thriving public schools across Metro Atlanta.
- Relay (GSE): We helped bring Relay to Georgia, which has trained more than 250 teachers and 40 APS school leaders since 2018, with 100+ teachers added each year.
- TNTP Insight Survey: We’re using the Insight Survey to assess instructional culture and support leaders in improving teacher retention and student outcomes across dozens of Metro Atlanta schools.
- ANet: We’re partnering with ANet to bring Georgia Milestones–aligned reading and math benchmarks to grades 3–8, helping schools in our portfolio improve instruction and saving $25K per campus.
- BES/GCSA: Our long-standing partnerships with BES and GCSA help identify and prepare strong school leaders to launch trajectory-changing public charter schools that create meaningful academic results for students.
- The Center for Learner Equity: We’re partnering with The Center for Learner Equity to comprehensively analyze Metro Atlanta’s special education landscape, identify critical service gaps, and inform a strategic investment approach to strengthen support for students with disabilities and learning differences.
- State Policy Coalition: We convene a state policy coalition uniting advocates and policymakers to advance systems-level change—like stronger charter authorization practices and equitable school funding—ensuring state policies expand opportunity for all students.
- Atlanta Schools Data Project: We bring together key information about local schools in an accessible format, helping Metro Atlanta families, education leaders, and community members ask questions, get answers, and take action.
- Community Dialogues: We host Community Dialogues across Metro Atlanta, including Atlanta Public Schools and Clayton County Public Schools, which bring together families, educators, and community members to discuss policy, spotlight innovation, and inspire deeper involvement in shaping the future of local public schools.
- District Learning Journeys: We take school board members and district leaders on visits to other urban districts across the country. They see and experience new, innovative district-wide school concepts in action and learn through conversation with district leaders who lead this work.
Atlanta Thrive: We fund and partner with Atlanta Thrive and other local grassroots organizations dedicated to finding solutions that redress educational inequity and transform public schools.
We helped shape APS’s Goals and Guardrails policy, setting measurable targets, ensuring community voice, and advancing equity and accountability to drive lasting, student-centered improvement.
DC360: We’re partnering with communities and cross-sector stakeholders to co-design and advance strategies that will improve conditions for youth and families in the Douglass Cluster of APS.
We invested in Atlanta SMART Academy, which aims to help students become innovative solutionists through math, science, and the arts, and is now getting ready to expand their offerings to more grade levels.
We invested in Purpose Built Schools Atlanta's expansion into the Carver Cluster, supporting its work with APS to turn around historically underperforming schools.
We invested in the growth of KIPP Atlanta Schools as a region, including the addition of KIPP Woodson Park, a partnership school with APS.
We invested in The Kindezi Schools, a community of innovative public schools, including the original Kindezi O4W campus and its expansion to operate two partnership schools, Kindezi West, and Kindezi Gideons.
We designed the A.C.E. Fellowship to develop a network of Metro Atlanta leaders, which has thus far involved 44 leaders, invested $800,000 through participatory grantmaking, and impacted over 100,000 students across Atlanta Public Schools and Clayton County Public Schools.
We host Community Dialogues across Metro Atlanta, including Atlanta Public Schools and Clayton County Public Schools, which bring together families, educators, and community members to discuss policy, spotlight innovation, and inspire deeper involvement in shaping the future of local public schools.
Tapestry Public Charter School: We supported the expansion of Tapestry into Clayton County with a new 300-seat campus in 2026, serving both neurodivergent and neurotypical students.
We invested in the launch of Sankofa Montessori, a K–5 public charter school that honors individual learning styles and offers students mixed-age classrooms, small-group lessons, and flexible seating.
We backed the launch of Academy for Innovation in Medicine (AIM), a public charter school in partnership with Grady Health System, which will provide 850 middle and high school students with direct pathways to healthcare careers through rigorous academics, dual-enrollment college credits, and hands-on work-based learning.
We supported the expansion of Ethos Classical Charter School in 2019 and its expansion to K–8, which will serve over 1,000 students with a rigorous curriculum, strong, structured community, and an emphasis on the creative arts.
We invested in the launch of Liberation Academy, which offers a strong focus on computer science, leadership development, and problem-based learning.
We backed the expansion of Resurgence Hall, which focuses on design thinking, computer science, blended learning, and literacy through an extended school day and RISE to LEAD values.
We supported the launch of Movement School South Fulton, which provides a small-school setting and personalized instruction to help students become kind, honest, and brave.
We invested in the launch of Meliora, Gwinnett County’s first public charter school serving students in grades 6–12, which focuses on entrepreneurship and computer science through personalized learning and provides opportunities to earn industry credentials.
We supported the launch of Excelsior Village Academies, which provides 540 K–8 students with a co-designed, community-centered learning environment committed to service, impact, and equity in education.
We backed the expansion of Amana Academy West Atlanta, where students can become leaders of their own learning and be 21st-century STEM leaders and changemakers.
We supported the launch of Simple Vue Academy (SVA), which provides students with STREAM-based learning, real-world entrepreneurship, and a culture of belonging.
We supported the launch of Miles Ahead Charter School (MACS), which offers over 300 students strong academics, creative exploration, and social-emotional growth to foster a lifelong love for learning.
We are proud to support the launch of Power Public Schools, a public charter school within Cobb County Schools. Power Public is the first AI-powered charter school in the nation and will serve scholars in grades 6–12 in South Cobb.
We supported the launch of Peace Academy, which offers students intentional cultural immersion, problem solving and inquiry based learning, experiential learning, family-centered services, and more. Peace opened its middle school wing in 2026.
We backed the launch of DeKalb Brilliance Academy, which will provide 700+ students with career-connected, project-based learning.
We invested in the launch of The Anchor School, which not only provides students in grades 6–12 with a strong education but also serves the larger community through health services, support for local businesses, a hub for culture, learning, and innovation, and more.
A City Changing: Since 2018, our speaker series has brought together Atlantans to elevate educator and community voices, spark and scale bold ideas, and drive collective action toward more equitable, effective, and thriving public schools across Metro Atlanta.
Relay (GSE): We helped bring Relay to Georgia, which has trained more than 250 teachers and 40 APS school leaders since 2018, with 100+ teachers added each year.
We’re using the TNTP Insight Survey to assess instructional culture and support leaders in improving teacher retention and student outcomes across dozens of Metro Atlanta schools.
We’re partnering with ANet to bring Georgia Milestones–aligned reading and math benchmarks to grades 3–8, helping schools in our portfolio improve instruction and saving $25K per campus.
Our long-standing partnerships with BES and GCSA help identify and prepare strong school leaders to launch trajectory-changing public charter schools that create meaningful academic results for students.
We’re partnering with The Center for Learner Equity to comprehensively analyze Metro Atlanta’s special education landscape, identify critical service gaps, and inform a strategic investment approach to strengthen support for students with disabilities and learning differences.
We convene a state policy coalition uniting advocates and policymakers to advance systems-level change—like stronger charter authorization practices and equitable school funding—ensuring state policies expand opportunity for all students.
Atlanta Schools Data Project: We bring together key information about local schools in an accessible format, helping Metro Atlanta families, education leaders, and community members ask questions, get answers, and take action.
District Learning Journeys: We take school board members and district leaders on visits to other urban districts across the country. They see and experience new, innovative district-wide school concepts in action and learn through conversation with district leaders who lead this work.
The Next 12,000 Students
As we celebrate ten years of progress, we’re focused on what comes next.
A simple belief has always guided our work: every student deserves access to a high-quality public education that opens doors to opportunity. While we’ve made meaningful progress alongside our partners, the challenges facing Metro Atlanta remain significant. Today, our region ranks last among the nation’s 50 largest metro areas for economic mobility, and a child’s zip code still predicts too much about the opportunities available to them.
That’s why we’ve set an ambitious goal for our next chapter: ensuring 12,000 more students gain access to trajectory-changing public schools over the next three years.
To help make that vision a reality, our strategic plan details our path to raising and deploying $36 million across three interconnected areas of work: Schools & Talent, Policy & Advocacy, and Communications & Convenings. Together with our partners, we’re building on a decade of momentum to create a future where every student, in every community, has the opportunity to thrive.
Our program tailors hands-on experiences to the unique needs of the highest populations of students with disabilities in the Clayton County Public School District. [RedefinED Atlanta] gave us a lot of freedom to think outside the box and offer support in a more impactful and structured way.
Monica Ward, Assistant Principal, Riverdale Elementary School
One of the most important things [RedefinED Atlanta] did was give us the ability to really listen to families and help them feel like they are a part of the community.
Dr. Jimmy Cheek, District Level Magnet Lead, Clayton County Public Schools
All too often, organizations do things to people and not with people. We forget that people know the solutions, they just don’t have the time and resources to enact them. RedefinED is trying to do the slow, hard, necessary work.
Kim Anderson, Former RedefinED Atlanta Board Member
As a mom of three, I work hard to stay actively engaged with our school. As an A.R.I.S.E. fellow, I was able to better understand what the school board and superintendent do and bring perspective from outside the community to how we function as a PTA. I saw how all the different groups work together and gained insights on advocating for not just my children but all children.
Kristen Silton, Founding A.R.I.S.E. Alumni
I could not have done this without funding from organizations like RedefinED Atlanta. To receive a grant for planning, a grant for the opening year, all before data or results, believing in me and my leadership made the journey possible.
Ebony Payne Brown, Founder and Principal, PEACE Academy
[RedefinED] gave me an amazing partner in Vice President of Schools Emily Castillo León, who helped coach me about how to get the school open and successfully align resources.
Kolt Bloxson, Founder and Head of Schools, Miles Ahead Charter School
The unrestricted funding has let me do what is best for my school community.
Robin Christian, Principal, Barack and Michelle Obama Academy
I really like the community-centric approach that RedefinED takes. It is my sense that this organization really tries to put caregivers and communities at the center, so that they can lead the way. That’s how it should be, and that’s the type of work I want to support.
Tanya Frazee, Donor