ABOUT
Great Schools For All (GS4A) is a group that believes equal opportunity requires that every family, no matter their zip code or income, is guaranteed access to an excellent public school. We are comprised of city and suburban residents, volunteers and institutional representatives with diverse experiential backgrounds.
We believe that every child deserves a quality education, and that a strong public school system is the foundation of a thriving community. Join us in our efforts to make sure every child in our community has the opportunity to reach their full potential!
The impact of high poverty schools has been well documented and we believe that now is the time for our community to correct the problem by employing a variety of solutions.
GS4A is committed to action. It is our intention to create a plan of action using short- and long-term goals focused around our central commitment: to reduce the impact of the concentration of poverty in area schools. We seek to link with existing efforts, while maintaining our core mission.
Our Vision
Every family in our community, no matter their zip code or income, will be guaranteed access to an excellent public school.
Our Mission
How We Formed
GS4A began as a small group from the 10-congregation Urban Presbyterians Together (UPT) consortium. The group began exploring problems with urban schools and was motivated to act after reading Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh, by Gerald Grant, Professor Emeritus, Syracuse University. We asked what we could learn from Raleigh that might be applied in Rochester. We were further motivated by conversations at Rochester’s 2013 GradNation Summit, and expanded our group beyond UPT to include other interested citizens from the community. We obtained a grant from the Rochester Area Community Foundation for a two-way exchange with Raleigh. In April 2014, eleven people from Rochester traveled to Wake County, N.C., to explore ways to break down the effects of concentration of poverty in public schools, interviewing over 75 community and school leaders. In November 2014, five Raleigh leaders traveled north to participate in a day-long educational symposium with some 150 participants from a broad cross-section of the greater Rochester community.
All students, no matter their zip code or income, are guaranteed access to diverse cross-district magnet schools across Monroe County. We envision existing school districts, colleges or partner organizations will operate these schools. This is the surest, shortest, and least expensive remedy for high-poverty schools.
Defining the Problem
While it has become cliché to say “poverty is no excuse” for the failure to learn, poverty is a huge impediment to learning. What does that mean, exactly? Basically, that the deck is stacked against children who often arrive at kindergarten with untreated and undiagnosed health issues (from nutritional deficiencies to poor eyesight), who may be well behind their middle class peers in acquiring basic math and reading skills, who are more likely to live in families and neighborhoods where few people have had a positive experience of school and who see education as the ticket to a better life. Many go through school never having family vacations, concerts or music lessons, youth sports, or summer jobs — the enrichment that can open them to life and career paths that could be theirs with the right education. No one says that poor children cannot succeed in school. But Great Schools for All believes that when schools are racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse, the odds for success dramatically improve for the children most at risk of failure—and diversity helps more affluent students improve their critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills, and to more effectively and compassionately navigate a very diverse society. Here's a little of what the research says: Students who attend integrated schools are 68 percent more likely to enroll in a four-year college than students who attend high-poverty schools. African American students who attend racially and socioeconomically integrated schools for at least five years earn 30 percent more income than students who attend high poverty schools, are less likely to be incarcerated as adults and are more likely to have stable marriages and good health. Low-income students in more affluent schools scored two years ahead of low-income students in high-poverty schools on standardized math tests. Certainly there are other ways to counter the impact of poverty-related conditions on educational outcomes. But it turns out the Supreme Court was right in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision: There is no such thing as separate but equal. The surest, most efficient and least expensive tool we have for improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children is integration.
TEAM
The Great Schools For All (GS4A) leadership group is an amalgam of city and suburban residents with diverse professional and experiential backgrounds seeking to build a coalition around socio-economic integration of schools in the greater Rochester, N.Y., area. GS4A is both “grassroots and grasstops;” individual volunteers and institutional representatives – parents, grandparents, business people, clergy, educators, researchers, journalists, lawyers, students, tutors, and community activists all dedicated to reversing the failure of high poverty schools through a variety of voluntary integration strategies. Members of the leadership group are not representatives of elected officials, school board members or administrators, school district employees, or advocates for a specific solution.
STRATEGY TEAM
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Ad Hoc Advisors
Marilyn DeLucia
Diane Larter
Larry Marx
Gladys Pedraza-Burgos
Jenn Poggi
Jeff Sciortino
Lynette Sparks
Jim Tiefenthal
John Wilkinson
Previous Strategy Members/
Steering Committee
Mark Foerster
Patricia Jackson
Ahlia Kitwana
Cornelia Labrum
Elizabeth Laidlaw
Jeffrey Linn
John Thomas
Travelers to Raleigh
Michael Ford
Mark Hare
Diane Larter
Corni Labrum
Beth Laidlaw
Larry Marx
Clay Osborne
Dorelis Osborne
Don Pryor
Lynette Sparks
John Thomas