Bringing local innovation to the national stage (1)
10/27/2014
It's often said that here in Jacksonville we have a little bit of an inferiority complex. Sometimes our public education system bears the brunt of that.
Not here at the Jacksonville Public Education Fund. We're really excited to say that the momentum for public education in Duval County is getting attention from around the nation this month. Here are a few examples:
- Last week in Miami Beach at the national Grantmakers for Education Annual Conference, our president, Trey Csar, moderated a panel discussion on the Quality Education for All Fund with philanthropists Cindy Edelman and Gary Chartrand, Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Nikolai P. Vitti, and Nina Waters, President of The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida.
- The work done through the Quality Education for All Fund and ONE by ONE was also recently featured in this Huffington Post article looking at the intersection of philanthropy and community engagement through these initiatives in Jacksonville, and in an Associated Press story showing that personal giving to education led the Jacksonville metro area to rank highly among communities nation-wide.
- This fall, the Fund for Educational Excellence in Baltimore completed their City Speaks initiative, which was modeled on the ONE by ONE campaign, to great success. The Baltimore initiative engaged 859 people in 63 conversations in 55 communities across the city over the year. The ONE by ONE campaign engaged nearly 1,700 people in 169 conversations across Duval County, concluding in 2012 and leading to unprecedented community input into the new Duval County Public Schools strategic plan. ONE by ONE and its associated art exhibition have inspired similar efforts in places such as Newark and Monroe County.
- This month, we found out that our proposal to present at South by Southwest Education (SXSWedu) was accepted! Jason Rose will partner with colleagues from Achieve Hartford!, Harvard University, and the Newark Trust for Education to talk about making public data more accessible and engaging to everyone -- such as with School Facts Jax -- to help build an informed education community.
It's great to have a chance to showcase what's happening in Jacksonville outside the city. But there's so much more to talk about - what progress would you like to share on the national stage? Let us know in the comments!
-- Deirdre