2011 MetLife Survey of the American Teacher - Conducted annually, this survey examines the views of teachers, parents and students about the teaching profession, parent and community engagement, and effects of the economy on teaching and learning in schools. Notable findings include parent and community engagement with schools has increased, and there are constructive practices to be shared. The survey raises concerns, however, especially around teacher satisfaction. (Metlife, Inc. March 2012)...

What's Trust Got to Do With It: A Communications and Engagement Guide for School Leaders Tackling the Problem of Persistently Failing Schools - Public Agenda presents a blueprint for education leaders on how to engage communities in transforming persistently failing schools so that they create the conditions under which teachers and students can succeed. The report includes best outreach practices culled from education, communications and engagement experts that hold varying perspectives on how to approach school reform. (Public Agenda, December 2011)...

Don't Count Us Out: How An Overreliance on Accountability Could Undermine the Public's Confidence in Schools, Business, Government, and More - This report describes a potentially corrosive gap between the way leaders in government, business, education, health care and other sectors define accountability and the way typical Americans think about it. (Kettering Foundation and Public Agenda, August 2011)...

Fixing Failing Schools: Building Family and Community Demand for Dramatic Change - This report addresses specific barriers leaders need to tackle when taking action in persistently failing schools, and presents effective strategies for overcoming barriers and building demand for change. (Public Impact, May 2011)...

The Rural Solution: How Community Schools Can Reinvigorate Rural Education - This report addresses the potential of the community school movement to concentrate supports and resources in low-wealth rural schools and build the kind of community-school partnerships that help children, their families, the school and the community succeed and thrive. The paper also includes profiles of three communities that have applied the concept in their schools. (Center for American Progress, September 2010)...

Squeeze Play 2009--The Public's Views on College Costs Today: Public Agenda and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education - This series of studies from Public Agenda and the National Center have monitored two different trends in the public perception of college education: 1) The necessity of higher education; and 2) the availability of higher education. Today, two thirds of Americans (67%) now saying that access to higher education is a problem. (National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, March 2009) ...

Reality Check 2006: Is Support for Standards Fading? - This report finds that five years into the implementation of NCLB and over a dozen years into the standards movement in American education, the public now sees these reforms as "necessary, but not sufficient." The report shows that relatively few parents, teachers, principals or superintendents see more of the same as the best course for the future. Among parents, standards and testing come in a distant second to backing smaller classes and more funding. Fewer than one in four parents picked standards out of the four options. Among the educators, support for focusing primarily on standards and testing is in the single digits. (Jean Johnson, Ana Maria Arumi and Amber Ott, Public Agenda, 2006) ...

Citizen Mobilization and Community Institutions: The Public Education Network's Policy Initiatives - This report analyzes the results of a bold set of initiatives designed to stimulate and support public responsibility for public education in 14 locales around the country. Local education funds (LEFs) led these initiatives, which received support from the Annenberg Foundation through the LEFs’ national organization, the Public Education Network. In each of the three initiatives, the LEFs were expected to lead a process of community engagement in one area of local education policy: equipping students to meet the standards set forth in accountability systems; improving teaching quality; or strengthening school-community ties. Also available is an executive summary. (Brenda J. Turnbull, Public Education Network, May 2006)...

Constituents of Change - Community organizing has grown dramatically in the last decade as citizens seek to improve student achievement and transform the relationships between schools and communities. This report examines eight urban groups from communities across the country. The first in a planned series of papers on a five-year study, this paper details the historical foundations, ideological bases, theoretical models and contextual factors shaping each group’s school reform goals, values, strategies and methods. (Kavitha Mediratta, New York University, September 2004)...

New Relationships With Schools: Organizations That Build Community by Connecting With Schools - This is the second study by Collaborative Communications Group examining organizations that work to improve schools as part of broader efforts to improve communities In this study, the authors ask how the organizations define public, how they interact with the public and what impediments they encounter in approaching their work. The organizations described in this report act on behalf of the neighborhood, the community or a constituency group and help residents build the networks, understanding and power to identify and address problems with their schools. (Collaborative Communications Group, November 2004)...

Learn. Vote. Act. The Public's Responsibility for Public Education - This national poll finds that voters place a higher priority on public education than they do on terrorism, security or healthcare issues. The poll also finds that Americans want funding for public education protected from budget cuts and want more public investment in education. (Public Education Network and Education Week, 2004)...

Vital Voices: Building Constituencies for Public School Reform - This report identifies pivotal values, tasks and challenges of constituency building, as well as some of the many promising approaches and accomplishments of participants. The analysis is based primarily on participants’ experiences and insights; at the same time, it looks across individual statements to identify larger commonalities and differences that mark the work. In addition, the researchers draw on the growing body of literature on the topic to help place the work of these practitioners in a meaningful context.(Academy for Educational Development and Chapin Hall Center for Children, 2003)...

Organizing for School Reform: How Communities Are Finding Their Voice and Reclaiming Their Public Schools - This study, conducted by the Institute for Education and Social Policy, examines the work of 66 community groups that are organizing to improve public education in low-performing schools and districts. The report outlines seven key findings: (1) community organizing around school reform is growing; (2) schools are improving and better communities are built; (3) community organizing is shaped by the issues and members involved; (4) adult and youth organizing groups work separately, but intergenerational organizing is growing; (5) organizing groups are becoming more sophisticated; (6) groups are addressing access, legitimacy and accountability; and (7) organizing groups need support to scale up. (Kavitha Mediratta, Norm Fruchter and Anne C. Lewis, Institute for Education and Social Policy, Steinhardt School of Education and New York University, October 2002)...