Cross sector collaboration is catching on as a means to eliminate the barriers to a quality education for all students, and rightfully so. Rather than inhibiting connections between schools as a means to isolating quality, this powerful movement focuses on opening pathways as an end to more than just providing excellent educations in silos. Collaboration reinforces a self-sustaining support system between schools necessary for a network’s long term success.
With the help of a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, district and charter leaders in Philadelphia are working together “to expand the availability and types of high-quality options and to dramatically reduce the number of chronically underperforming schools in the city of Philadelphia, across all sectors of the K-12 educational system.” Aptly named, the Great Schools Compact assumes a “collective responsibility to ensure an educational system in Philadelphia that provides high-quality school choices and diverse learning opportunities to all students—regardless of race, income, first language or special needs” and includes the shared goals, commitments, and methods of its initiative.
STC School Leader Dr. Naomi Booker, President of Global Leadership Academy, has been appointed to the Great Schools Compact Committee “established to oversee implementation of the Compact tenants and action plan, adhering to a results-driven timeline.” STC schools are united under a mission of collaborating to grow quality seats of education city by city, and we are very proud of Dr. Booker’s extended dedication to this urgent cause.
The committee’s first meeting’s minutes testify to its dedication. Keep up with its progress at the Philadelphia School Partnership’s website.
Undoubtedly, the Philadelphia’s Great Schools Compact will prove to be an effective model for long term changes in the education standards of cities nationwide. The entire compact is available online.
Congratulations, Naomi!