Establishing A System of Public Education In Which All Children Achieve At High Levels and Reach Their Full Potential

Excerpt from the Covenant with Black America

Without question, education is the key to progress and prosperity in the United States today. Whether fair or not, educational opportunity and academic achievement are directly tied to the social divisions associated with race, ethnicity, gender, first language, and social class. The level and quality of educational attainment either open the doors to opportunity or close them.

Education starts at home, in neighborhoods, and in communities. Reading to children, creating time and space for homework, and demonstrating—through words and deeds—that education is important are the key first building blocks for high educational achievement. While schools are responsible for what children are taught, reinforcement at home is essential. As members of the black community, we must take responsibility for educating all our children—whether ours by birth or otherwise—to uplift our people as a whole.

-excerpt from Edmund W. Gordon’s essay in the Covenant with Black America

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Organizations Advocating For Change

Developing Opportunities through Meaningful Education(DOME)

DOME was founded in 1973 to challenge the myriad threats to youngsters who have fallen through the cracks of the traditional school system by creating an alternative school program. Since it’s beginning, The DOME Project has dedicated itself to meeting the complex needs of young people in trouble with the law, their schools, and themselves. For over thirty years, The DOME has built a staff and service network that has successfully helped thousands of young people to succeed and develop the necessary skills to regain a sense of self-worth and prepare for success in their education and beyond.

Other Organizations

Children's Defense Fund Freedom Schools

Public Education Network

NAACP

National Coalition for African American Parent Involvement in Education

The mission of The DOME Project is to assist young people who are economically, socially, and academically challenged to focus on their education as a means to success. The overall goal is to provide youngsters with alternatives to the negative pressures they face every day in their communities and to help them develop a healthy, positive sense of themselves as individuals who can thrive in society.

Find out more about DOME

The Campaign for Fiscal Equity

The Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Inc. is a coalition of parent organizations, community school boards, concerned citizens, and advocacy groups. It seeks to reform New York State's school finance system to ensure adequate resources and the opportunity for a sound basic education for all students in New York City. Its efforts will help secure the same opportunity for students throughout the state who are not currently receiving a sound basic education.

For over 35 years Advocates for Children of New York, Inc. (AFC) has worked in partnership with New York City's most impoverished and vulnerable families to secure quality and equal public education services. AFC works on behalf of children from infancy to age 21 who are at greatest risk for school-based discrimination and/or academic failure. These include children with disabilities, ethnic minorities, immigrants, homeless children, foster care children, limited English proficient children and those living in poverty. AFC provides a full range of services: free individual case advocacy, technical assistance, and training for parents, students, and professionals about children's educational entitlements and due process rights in New York City.

AFC's outreach educates and empowers its clients to challenge unfair and exclusionary school-based systems, policies and practices. AFC's work on institutional reform aims to engage key public policy making entities in strategies to modify existing educational legal structures, procedures and regulations which negatively impact on young people's academic success. AFC's efforts are strengthened by ongoing policy analysis focused on the institutionalization of inclusionary, effective, and equitable school practices.

Find out more about The Campaign for Fiscal Equity