Systemic Change

Background

There are many challenges to the work of improving educational results for children. Some of those challenges come from shortcomings in the education system itself. California has long been hailed a beacon of opportunity, innovation, and technological prowess. Why, then, do California children attend schools designed for a factory-model economy of an industrially-focused century that ended nearly a decade ago?

Over the past decade, California's students have made steady, modest gains in achievement. But progress remains painfully, unacceptably slow, and pernicious achievement gaps persist. By nearly every measure, for every segment of our population, California's education benchmarks are still among the lowest in America.

For California's children to be competitive in the technology-driven, globally connected 21st century, we must radically transform the way we approach the work of educating our students by addressing the entire educational system and helping to enact change. It is no longer enough to process students in batches and aim for improvements on averages.

Many organizations try to improve education. But too often their efforts are fragmented and uncoordinated. Full Circle Fund began developing a vision for systemic change in 2009 with the EACH approach. In 2011 Full Circle built on that approach by joining with ChildrenNow to develop the Children's Movement, an effort to improve communication and alignment among organizations advocating for the benefit of children in California.

Mission

Systemic Change is an umbrella project containing five sub-project teams. The project's mission is to provide a coherent framework for Full Circle Fund teams to examine and engage in key issues that affect education reform in California.

Full Circle Fund Role

Make complex education policy more accessible and understandable to Full Circle Fund members and a much broader audience of interested individuals. (This effort led to the development of Ed100.org.)

Connect policy makers and educators to resources and expertise. (This aspiration contributed to the 2011 decision to partner with Children Now.)

Convene and facilitate high impact policy discussions, focusing for 2009-2010 on Alternative Teacher Compensation and Equitable Local Funding as well as (in 2010) the implications for education of a possible constitutional convention.

Drive policy change towards better outcomes for children, with a specific focus on children in low-income communities. (In 2010 this effort took form in the EACH approach, a platform of recommendations for state policy changes.)

Catalyze community-driven policy leadership to create quality public education for all children (This became the heart of the partnership with Children Now.)

More about the Constitutional Convention.

Many of the systemic challenges for education in California are constitutional in nature. In August 2009, Full Circle joined a growing movement calling for a Constitutional Convention. With the Bay Area Council as an event partner, Full Circle convened Bay Area leaders to learn about the options. Education Impact Circle Chair Jeff Camp presented [insert link to slidecast, or to the relevant news page] possible ways that such a convention could help California's schools by remedying policies that harm the life prospects of California's students.

NAME: Systemic Change
LOCATION: California
GRANT TERM: 2009-2011
TEAM LEADS: Natasha Hoehn, Casey Farmer and James Lee