Building Collective Power to Provide a Great K-12 Education for Every Student in 2022 and Beyond
We know transforming Atlanta into a place where every student receives a great K-12 education is only possible with leadership, buy-in and shared vision from our supporters.
For that reason, we engaged parents, caregivers, school talent and community leaders to listen, learn and identify opportunities to advocate for equity in education and grow great schools.
Our work is wholly about bringing our “village” together to serve, anticipate, and adjust to the rapidly evolving community and education landscape. In the words of W.E.B. Du Bois, “Education is that whole system of human training within and without the school house walls.”
Looking back over 2022, we focused outside those school house walls on building collective power for Atlanta’s K-12 students. Our A.R.I.S.E fellowship program engaged leaders from all nine of Atlanta Public Schools’ (APS) clusters to grow their advocacy for the city’s children. In addition, we’ve partnered with a new coalition of over 20 local education-focused nonprofits that are creating the space and structure for increased collaboration to move all our missions forward.
We’re motivated and inspired to build on the momentum from this year and continue creating real change for every student in 2023 and beyond.
2022 Highlights
A.R.I.S.E.
This year, we launched Atlanta Reimagining & Innovating for Schools Everywhere Fellowship (A.R.I.S.E.), a nine-month fellowship that aims to grow community power and influence by exploring the levers that drive systemic change for all of Atlanta’s children.
Through this fellowship, participants learned about the history of the APS district, explored student achievement trends and identified opportunities to partner with communities to allocate a two-year $300,000 grant fundthrough participatory grantmaking. These funds will offer support towards community-driven solutions focused on literacy outcomes for APS students.
Ultimately, graduates of this program can clearly articulate their commitment, goals and role in advocating for positive change in K-12 public education. We’re looking forward to opening applications for our next A.R.I.S.E. cohort in May 2023.
Education Community Convening
We facilitated quarterly convenings for more than 20 local education nonprofit organizations to work collectively in serving the expanding needs of children in Atlanta Public Schools. The Atlanta Board of Education’s introduction of the Goals and Guardrails policy in the spring of 2021 catalyzed the collaborative to grow into a working coalition.
After the policy passed in October 2021, the coalition’s participating organizations initiated efforts to formalize their partnership and announce the coalition and its focus during the 2022-2023 school year.
Scaling School Excellence
We worked closely to help expand two excellent charter schools, Amana Academy and Resurgence Hall, in Metro Atlanta to support their goals to serve more students.
Amana has consistently been a top-performing school in Fulton County for the past decade with outsized academic achievement and growth amongst a diverse student body.
Resurgence Hall has been one of the highest-performing schools in GA since its launch and was the only A-rated school on Georgia’s CCRPI in the area in 2019.
We have worked with both organizations for the past several years, but 2022 was special as we supported the launch of both Amana West and Resurgence Hall Middle School.
Amana West is the second school for Amana Academy and as they grow out, Amana will serve 750 students in the Metro Atlanta area.
Resurgence Hall has added a middle school to its existing campus to continue serving students in East Point. With the addition of the middle school, Resurgence Hall will grow to serve an additional 400 students.
We are so honored that our partnership and support of Amana and Resurgence will help ensure an additional 1,150 students in Metro Atlanta can attend a great public school.