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RedefinED Atlanta’s 2026–2028 Strategic Plan

Redefining What’s Possible for Metro Atlanta Students.

Today, Metro Atlanta’s 805,000 public school students navigate systems that too often reflect and reproduce longstanding inequities. Communities are ready for progress, yet promising solutions remain disconnected and out of reach.

Our region is at a pivotal moment, and so is RedefinED Atlanta. Our 2026–2028 Strategic Plan lays out a focused strategy for deepening our role as an insight leader, advocate, convener, and funder, working alongside communities to ensure many more students gain access to high-quality public schools that support choice-filled lives.

The charge is clear: Ensure 12,000 additional students have access to trajectory-changing public schools.

View Strategic Priorities

Why Now?

The data is unequivocal:

  • Metro Atlanta now ranks 50th out of 50 major U.S. metro areas for economic mobility.
  • Student outcomes remain deeply uneven across and within districts—where a child grows up still predicts their access to opportunity.
  • Educator talent pipelines are strained.
  • System alignment is inconsistent.

We believe that great schools, aligned systems, and strong community partnerships can change the odds for students and strengthen Metro Atlanta for generations to come.

The 2026–2028 Fund: A $36-million commitment to students, systems, and long-term mobility

To achieve our goals, RedefinED Atlanta is raising and deploying $36 million over three years across three interconnected portfolios:

  • Schools & Talent
  • Policy & Advocacy
  • Communications & Convenings

Our strategy and fund focuses on four priorities that will take us from challenge to change. Together, we will move our region closer to a future where every student has the opportunities they need to grow, achieve, and thrive, regardless of their zip code.

Three-Year Strategic Priorities

Advance System Improvement

Strengthening the ecosystem conditions that enable sustainable student success.

We work with districts, policymakers, and community partners to improve the policies and environments that shape every child’s school experience. This includes:

  • Addressing gaps in talent, governance, and school support systems
  • Partnering on accountability systems that keep student outcomes at the center
  • Aligning community voice with system-level opportunities for impact
  • Catalyzing policy shifts that expand access to high-quality public schools

Major Initiatives and Investments

  • Launch and sustain four active, aligned working groups made up of DC360 taskforce members.
  • Partner with TNTP to enhance teacher and instructional culture in the Metro Atlanta area.
  • Partner with schools to implement Georgia Milestones Assessment System (GMAS)–aligned benchmarks and data-informed instructional practices
  • Increase achievement and access for students with disabilities through investment and policy strategies.
  • Establish a pipeline for long-term policy work, including comprehensive research in partnership with others.
  • Advocate for student-centered decision-making in school closures and consolidations.

The Impact

Stronger alignment, clear expectations, and better conditions for schools to deliver meaningful outcomes.

Launch & Grow Trajectory-Changing Public Schools

Expanding access to high-quality district, charter, and innovation schools.

We seed, support, and scale public schools that show strong academic growth, close gaps, and prepare students for postsecondary success — with a focus on those furthest from opportunity.
Our work includes:

  • Identifying promising school models and community needs
    Recruiting and supporting high-impact school leaders
  • Providing funding and technical assistance for school launch, expansion, or replication
  • Building long-term public support for innovative, high-quality public school options

Major Initiatives and Investments

  • Innovation schools: Drive equitable student achievement and a cohesive network of trajectory-changing public schools by cultivating an innovation school pathway in one metro district.
  • High-impact school leaders: Invest in one new, proven, mid-level program that supports the bench building of leaders for the expansion or replication of high-quality schools.
  • Teacher certification pathway: Establish a high-quality teacher certification pathway to support metro Atlanta teacher pipelines.
  • New Schools: Support the launch of 2-3 new trajectory-changing K-12 public schools each year and develop a strategy for school expansion and replication.

The Impact

Thousands more students gain access to schools that change life trajectories — not just in APS, but across the full ARC region.

Elevate Insights & Galvanize Around Best Practices

Turning data and community knowledge into action.

As the region’s insight leader, we help partners understand what works and identify where change is most needed. We do this by:

  • Learning What’s Working: Conducting research and gathering insights from schools, communities, and system data.
  • Sharing What’s Working: Surfacing trends that guide investments, priorities, and policy decisions, and sharing findings through strategic communications, convenings and more.
  • Driving the Conversation: Unifying stakeholders around a shared charge for student success.

Major Initiatives and Investments

  • Community Dialogues: Build a pipeline of engaged and informed stakeholders.
  • A.R.I.S.E. Fellowship Program: Build a pipeline of informed advocates to advance system improvement.
  • Annual Speaker Series: Enable the conversations that drive equitable student achievement across the Metro Atlanta ecosystem.
  • Data-Driven Instruction: Partner with metro area schools to implement GMAS-aligned benchmarks and data-informed instructional practices.
  • Atlanta Schools Data Project (ASDP): Further develop and promote the Atlanta Schools Data Project as an accessible source of information for the Metro Atlanta community.

The Impact

Better decisions, better alignment, and a common understanding of what drives strong outcomes.

Invest & Activate

Mobilizing resources and partners to accelerate student success.

Meeting our three-year goals requires sustainable, aligned investment. Through our $36M, three-year fund, we:

  • Deploy grants to schools, partners, and initiatives tied to our strategic goals
  • Engage funders, educators, and civic leaders in coordinated regional action
  • Build organizational capacity to deliver on systems-level work
  • Track and report how investments create and influence lasting change

Major Initiatives and Investments

  • Schools and talent dashboard (ROI): Develop and implement a performance-based school investment model, and use district and school-level data to monitor and share student outcome insights with stakeholders.
  • Policy and advocacy dashboard (ROI): Align the community portfolio to policy goals to promote stronger engagement and alignment to schools, talent, and ecosystem development work.
  • Raising and leveraging philanthropic dollars to support ecosystem priorities: Establish sustainability to ensure both present and future revenue for the organization. Translate strategic plan initiatives to build support and enhance local philanthropic investments.
  • Strengthening board and internal operations for scale and sustainability: Evaluate organizational structure to build sustainable infrastructure, enhance agility and decision-making, strengthen stewardship and transparency, and create a scalable operating model.

The Impact

A stronger, more coordinated education ecosystem — and resources that match the scale of the challenge.

Ready to help us realize our 3-year vision?

Learn How to Get Involved
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Dr. Keith Colbert

Dr. Keith A. Colbert has served in the Clayton County Public Schools (CCPS) system since 1998, starting his career as a fourth-grade teacher at Northcutt Elementary School. After a two-year tenure at Northcutt Elementary, he transferred to Morrow High School, where he served as a math teacher, special education teacher, and assistant head basketball coach. To gain insightful leadership experience, Dr. Colbert shadowed the administrative team, gained useful school leadership experience, and obtained a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Troy State University.

Dr. Colbert was selected as assistant principal of Mundy’s Mill High School (MMHS) in 2003 under the leadership of Dr. Anthony W. Smith. During his tenure at MMHS, he was instrumental in preparing the first class to graduate from the newly constructed school.

Dr. Colbert was recognized as a future principal leader in the district and was selected as one of twelve future leaders to participate in the principal preparation program, “A Forward-LEAP.” After completing this program, Dr. Colbert was appointed principal of Lovejoy Middle School in 2006, where he led more than 1,400 students. At the time, Lovejoy Middle School was the largest middle school in the district and considered underperforming. Dr. Colbert and his team led the school to substantial improvements in student achievement and were consequently selected as the 2008 Georgia PTSA Principal of the Year.

Driven to nurture a class of students from 6th grade to graduation, Dr. Colbert was appointed principal of Lovejoy High School in July 2009, where he served for seven years. He is one of the few principals in traditional high schools who is fortunate to have guided sixth graders to graduation with the Class of 2013. During his tenure at Lovejoy High School, the school was recognized as a Title I Rewards school in 2012 and 2013, SAT’s greatest gains school in 2012, and a USA News top high school in 2011. Dr. Colbert’s achievements led to a finalist for Principal of the Year for Clayton County Public Schools in 2011 and 2013.

In June of 2016, Dr. Keith A. Colbert was appointed Assistant Superintendent of Schools for Clayton County Public Schools.

Cayanna Good, Ph.D.

Dr. Cayanna Good serves as Deputy Commissioner for Innovation and Impact at the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG), where she leads systemwide strategic planning and drives organizational improvement across all institutional pillars.
Previously, she served as Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Adult Education, overseeing statewide literacy initiatives, workforce alignment, and Georgia’s high school equivalency credentialing program.

Before joining TCSG, Dr. Good held leadership roles at the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, the Georgia Department of Education, Teach For America, and TNTP. Her career began in the classroom in Houston — an experience that continues to ground her unwavering commitment to equity, access, and opportunity for all learners.

Dr. Good earned her bachelor’s degree from Fisk University, her master’s from Georgia State University, and her doctorate from Mercer University. She serves as Chairperson of the State Charter School Commission, she is a member of the Georgia Commission for Service and Volunteerism, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and a member of the Brookwood High School Local School Council.