The Power of Possibility: How IDRA and Our Partners are Transforming Public Education

(April 18, 2016) We are pleased to share with you IDRA’s 2015 Annual Report, The Power of Possibility: How IDRA and Our Partners are Transforming Public Education. The report highlights the ways in which 2015 was a pivotal year for children both in terms of progress and deepening disparities.

And it shows how IDRA and our partners are valuing children of all backgrounds by keeping a sharp focus on educational quality and equity. We are producing research and analyses that matter and putting in place effective programs, strategies, policies and solutions to secure public education that works for all children.

Our 2015 Annual Report is organized around IDRA’s empirically-based Quality Schools Action Framework, providing concrete examples of how IDRA’s work responds to the four guiding questions at the heart of the framework: What is needed? How do we make change happen? What fundamentals must be secured? Where do we focus change?

“It is our collaboration with schools, families, youth, community partners, and funders that make results like these possible,” said María “Cuca” Robledo Montecel, Ph.D., IDRA President & CEO. “We are grateful to be able work together for the day that All Means All – and we can assure quality educational opportunity for every child.”

We are grateful to the funders who partnered with IDRA in 2015 to make this body of work possible and to family, community, school and students for their leadership and partnership with us. Thank you for your commitment to our young people. We look forward to achieve equal educational opportunity for every child through strong public schools that prepare all children to access and succeed in college.

The 2015 annual report is also available as a PDF for printing.

New Publication Showcases Strategies that Deepen School Improvement

In a field where so many attempts at school reform are isolated, fragmented and short-lived, Essential Approaches for Excellence & Sustainable School System Transformation is a new resource for education leaders to build capacity for systemic change for equity and excellence for all students.

The publication was developed by the Equity-Centered Capacity Building Network (ECCBN), a network of 11 expert organizations from across the country. The network was formed to unite their work to increase the impact of capacity-building approaches that promote deep and sustainable school and systems change.

Dr. Bradley Scott, retired director of IDRA South Central Collaborative for Equity, wrote about the history, impact, current state of and possibilities with regional equity assistance centers around the country, in the chapter, “The Regional Equity Assistance Centers – Fifty Years And Counting: Forging Civil-Rights-Based Technical Assistance to Serve All Students by Building Equity-Centered Capacity in Public Schools.”

Essential Approaches for Excellence & Sustainable School System Transformation is available free online. Additional resources will be added over time.