|
Sustaining Reform
VUE Number 9, Fall 2005
An interview with Carolyn Akers,  Audio Clip 2
Executive Director, Mobile Area Education Foundation
What is the role of the Mobile Area Educational Foundation now, now that you've gone through this process and you're at the stage of implementing the reform? What is your organization's role?
Click on the  on the bar below to start the audio.
TRANSCRIPT:
Our organization, as the intermediary that has been working throughout with our district, the first thing I think our role is, is still full partner. We are the external champions, or the external change agents that are working in partnership. When I say we're working in partnership, I don't mean in a rhetorical sort of way. I'll give you an example: the leadership team at the district, that are all the direct reports to our superintendent; they make up the leadership team. We meet monthly to look at where we are on the plan, and what pieces of it we still need to advance. And I sit on that leadership team as well. So by incorporating and allowing an external person to sit there, there really is dual ownership. So that is one of the roles that we play.
The other thing that we do at the foundation–because we've been here for a long time and we've had programs that have been associated with usÑwe have retooled those programs to support what the community and the educational community have identified as our performance objectives and targets. So we're modeling, I guess, for other community-based organizations how you redefine based on what the plan says we need to do what your own mission of work is. So the foundation still has its programmatic work that it does, it still gives raises and gives funding, but now it's earmarked to things that are going to advance the work of the strategic plan. So there's a full commitment by our board, by the foundation board, for us to be working in sync with the district on the plan.
I think some of the other roles for us is, if the definition is really about developing an interrelated citizenry, a lot of our work revolves around us serving as that connector to the community. Then that brings in other roles, like translator to the community. So much of what happens in education reform is not clearly understood by the community. A lot of our work revolves around how do you not only engage the community but also inform them in ways that are relevant to them. So a lot of our work is around communicating and making sure that all of our stakeholders understand what is happening and where we are in the process, but also what their role in that is.
Our role continues at the foundation to be an investor. We have invested millions of dollars in professional development for teachers, and parent involvement work, and tutoring and that kind of thing. We continue to do that, because our board, from the beginning, has liked to see the impact that our organization makes, specifically in certain areas. So we will always continue to do that.
When I talk to other folks in different parts of the state, I talk about our work being on three frontiers: we apply pressure to the district to create a sense of urgency about what is important by looking at what our data is telling us about where the needs are. So sometimes we apply pressure. We apply support, either in the form of programs and work that we do or in helping, as a co-partner, implement the plan. And then the third role that we play here is, one that I call, for lack of something better, sometimes we have to provide cover. What we found is that anybody that is in education–most everyone that is in education–really is in that field because they want to make a difference and they believe that they can make a difference in the lives of all children. A lot of times, though, what's good for children gets caught up in political stuff. Sometimes the role of the foundation in this effort....
Here's where the question is: for us in Mobile County, the foundation has been the outside organization that has been able to earn, even though it's limited, some authority and some credibility in working on education improvement. Sometimes the boundary line is very grayed between the work of the foundation and the work of the Yes, We Can initiative, because truthfully that initiative was birthed through the foundation and it's still being run that way. But as I work with other communities around the state of Alabama, it's not always that clear that it's the local education foundation. It may be another center-of-strength organization. So it's really important to understand communities, what their context is, and also how they do people's business. That has to enter into the equation about who is going to drive this type of external part of the reform initiative, but for me, or for us in Mobile, the local education fund or foundation has been the right vehicle.
Top
|
|