School Board School

Building & Supporting a Coalition for Change:School Board School recruits cohorts of aspiring school board members and education advocates that reflect the demographics of our community, and trains them in a 7-month learning program with a 22-session curriculum. Our learning program brings values-aligned community members together, grounds them in an understanding of how a school board works and why school boards are a critical component to building equitable school systems, and prepares them to effectively legislate and/or advocate for their children and community.After completing the learning program, we support our members over the long-term as they work together from seats across our community. Our members lead in classrooms, schools, districts, and nonprofits; run for office, including school board; organize & advocate at the local and state levels; and create equitable and inclusive policies and opportunities.We have been developing this coalition in Greater Cincinnati since 2018. In Greater Cincinnati, we have built one of the most diverse and informed networks of education leaders in the country. By investing in the development of future school board members and education advocates who reflect the diversity of our community's children, we are building a truly representative, informed, and sustainable coalition that is working together to ensure every child has the opportunity to succeed in school and in life.

Public Programming:To reach more people in more places, we also provide free virtual sessions open to anyone anywhere. Thousands of people have registered for these sessions, and evaluations show growth in their knowledge and skills, as well as in the actions they take on behalf of students.We also host a free day-long event called Advocate for Education Day, a day of learning, building community, and taking action. Those evaluations also show that participants grow in their knowledge, network, and likelihood to take action on behalfof students.

Growing Our Network: We are the only organization that brings together both aspiring school board members and education advocates, and provides them with the knowledge and network to influence systems level change. We know our model works, and we are expanding across the country. Organizations can now license our intellectual property and receive our coaching, and launch School Board School coalitions in their communities. We are building a nationwide network of elected leaders and grassroots advocates working together to ensure every student succeeds.

School Board Election Awareness Campaign:School board elections historically have low voter turnout. We set out to change that. As a nonprofit, we cannot discuss specific candidates. Our goal was to ensure voters knew about this election, why it was important to vote in it, and who was on the ballot. Our data partners analyzed our election data and found that our treatment precincts saw higher voter turnout and school board turnout, and lower down-ballot drop-off rates.