The Urgency of Now
Education
On behalf of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, Global Policy Solutions led the media and policy-maker outreach efforts for the release of The Urgency of Now: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males. The report was featured in print, online and broadcast outlets that reached a potential audience of more than 120 million. It was featured in an Associated Press article that was published in outlets across the country including USA Today, Washington Post, New York Daily News, Newsday, National Journal, Atlanta Journal Constitution, and hundreds of other local and regional papers and online news sites. In total, the Associated Press story was published in more than 300 outlets across the country.
The report was also featured in articles in Education Week, the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, Thegrio.com, The Daily Kos, Uptown Magazine, Wave Newspapers and on NPR’s Tell Me More, the Daily Circuit on Minnesota Public Radio, the Roland Martin Reports podcast as well as in editorials in the Seattle Times and the Orlando Sentinel. The report was also featured in numerous local television broadcasts, including in Rochester, N.Y.; New York N.Y. Baltimore, Md.; and others.
Our social media campaign engaged Schott Foundation grantees, partners, allies, advocates and the general public. The Urgency of Now was disseminated online through social media and direct email to more than 1.5 million people.
Over the first two days of the campaign we sent out more than 75 tweets to highlight statistics from each state as well as the broader campaign talking points. The Associated Press (@AP) tweeted its story on the report to 1.2 million followers and received 152 retweets. Other influential tweeters potentially reached nearly 250,000 people in their networks.
The report was sent to over 7,000 policymakers at the local, state and federal level, including staff and members of Congress and state legislatures, mayors and city council-members, superintendents, school board members and other elected officials.
Campaign for High School Equity
Education
The Alliance for Excellent Education was concerned that communities of color were not represented at the national level in policy debates about high school reform and hired Global Policy Solutions to build a coalition of civil rights organizations focused on the issue of high school reform. Global Policy Solutions identified and implemented memoranda of understanding with key strategic partner organizations.
Global Policy Solutions brought the groups together and guided discussions on issues relevant to their communities. The coalition ultimately reached agreement on a common high school policy agenda that would serve the interests of all communities. The resulting policy recommendations were outlined in A Plan for Success: Communities of Color Define Policy Priorities for High School Reform.
The coalition was broadened by identifying and engaging potential funders and mainstream organizations. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ultimately invested in the coalition and provided the resources needed for the coalition to become the Campaign for High School Equity, which continues to provide guidance to policymakers on high school reform policy.
2020 Vision Roadmap for Educational Success
Education
The Schott Foundation for Public Education asked Global Policy Solutions to create a blueprint for comprehensive education reform based upon its Opportunity to Learn framework which embraces elements that make students more likely to achieve state proficiency standards, graduate from high school, and have higher postsecondary education attainment rates.
Different from most calls for reform, the 2020 Vision Roadmap: A Pre-K Through Postsecondary Roadmap for Educational Success considers the educational pipeline in its entirety—from early childhood through postsecondary attainment—and offers evidence-informed strategies to boost access, quantity and quality at every stage. The strategies offered in this blueprint provide policymakers, school officials, education advocates, and business and community leaders with the guidance they need to pursue policy and practice-based changes that will unleash the power and potential of our nation’s youth; a fundamental component of America’s economic engine and its most precious resource.