February 17, 2016: Walk In for the Schools All Our Children Deserve
Walk In Resources:
- One Pager: Brief description of the nationwide walk-in action planned for February 17, 2016.
- Walk-Ins in Real Life: What does a walk-in actually look like? Here are links to three short videos taken from past walk-in events in Milwaukee and St. Paul.
- Planning Template: Getting ready for a walk-in? This template will help you think through your goals and steps towards building a successful walk-in. It can be used for a whole district, or a single school. Adjust accordingly!
- Organizing Timeline: As your walk-in planning gets underway, here’s a sample timeline of activities to get you on the road to a strong walk-in.
- Community/School sign-up template: Here’s a sample template you can use to create a sign-up sheet for community folks, organizational members or teachers, asking them to commit to joining a walk-in.
- Sign-Up Sample #2: Here’s another version of a sign-up card that you can use to get commitments for the walk-ins.
- Building Walk-In Commitment Form: Template you can use to sign up school sites to walk-in on February 17.
- Put ‘em to work! Here is a list of ways that you can put volunteers to work before and during the walk-ins! These are all critical tasks that someone should be in charge of!
- SAMPLE Day-Of Agenda and Program: The details of your walk-in will depend on the local context. But here’s a sample schedule for the day, starting when you gather at the site, and ending when you send students and teachers into the school.
- Flyer (Example 1, Example 2): Create a flyer to announce your walk-in! Here are two examples of flyers announcing the walk-in. As you make your own, feel free to use anything you want from these samples.
- Site Coordinator Form: Sample form you can use to collect information from each of your school sites on the day of the walk-ins to document participation, event highlights, and media hits.
- Using ESSA To Demand Sustainable Community Schools: The newly passed Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) reauthorizes the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This new law opens up opportunities for us to demand sustainable community schools in our cities and states, to reduce the impact of high-stakes assessments, and to redefine which schools need additional support to serve our students. Here are two analyses of ESSA, one from AROS and one from our friends at FairTest.
General Materials on Sustainable Community Schools:
- AROS Platform: "The Schools All Our Children Deserve: The Principles That Unite Us" [Brief version |Full version]
- AROS One-Pager: Sustainable Community Schools
- Our Children Are Not Collateral Damage! A Call for Sustainable School Transformation by Journey For Justice Alliance
- A Proposal for Sustainable School Transformation by Communities for Excellent Public Schools
- Power of Community- Organizing for the schools St. Paul children deserve by Saint Paul Federation of Teachers
- Elev8: Lifting Students, Families and Communities by Elev8
- Infographic: Alternatives to School Closure by The National Opportunity to Learn Campaign
Organizing Victories
Education Crisis
- Education Crisis Video by Alliance for Educational Justice
- Death by a Thousand Cuts: Racism, School Closures and Public School Sabotage by Journey for Justice
- Billions Behind: New York State Continues to Violate Students' Constitutional Rights by Alliance for Quality Education, NY
- The Black and White of Public Education in Chicago's Public Schools by Chicago Teachers Union
- Twelve Months Later: The Impact of School Closings in Chicago by Chicago Teachers Union
- Books Not Bars: Students for Safe & Fair Schools: A Community Analysis of the Implementation of the 2008 Denver School Discipline Policy
- Public Accountability for Charter Schools: Standards and Policy Recommendations for Effective Oversight
