Reality Check 2006, Issue No. 1

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The High Stakes of Stakeholder Engagement: A Plea for Careful Planning from Public Agenda

Alison Kadlec
Feb 1, 2012

This post was written for the 20 community colleges participating in Completion by Design, a five-year Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation initiative that aims to significantly increase completion rates for low-income students under 26. As a “National Assistance partner” for Completion by Design, Public Agenda provides direct assistance to the colleges to help them build capacity for solutions-oriented dialogue among faculty, staff and administration. Here, Public Agenda's Alison Kadlec discusses best practices for authentic internal stakeholder engagement. While the post is geared toward Completion by Design planning teams, the principles are useful for any authentic engagement process.

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You Can't Do It Alone: A New Guide to Creating Sustainable Change in Education Reform

Allison Rizzolo
Jan 24, 2012

Far too often, throughout our work in the education field, we've seen even the most earnest and promising ideas from experts and reformers for improving schools and ramping up student learning met with confusion, anxiety or even anger from teachers, parents, students or community members.

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Reality Check 2006, Issue No. 1

Are Parents and Students Ready for More Math and Science?

Jean Johnson, Ana Maria Arumi, Amber Ott and Michael Hamill Remaley

12/31/2005

The first in a series of Reality Check reports finds that parents and students do not share the concern of business and government leaders about flagging math and science skills. In fact, parents' concern about math and science achievement has actually declined since the mid-1990s.

Only one quarter of high school students say lack of emphasis on science and math is a problem in their own school. The survey found no significant differences between the attitudes of high school girls and boys, but minority students are more likely than whites to say math and science are "absolutely essential" and that lack of emphasis is a problem in their school.

This research was done with the support of the GE Foundation, the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and The Wallace Foundation.

Read More | Download Report (pdf) | Schedule Interview