Publications

The SCG team during a retreat in New York City earlier this year.

 

Our latest Field Notes offers lessons and resources for effective student organizing and power sharing. Pictures are students and leaders from the Kentucky Student Voice Team (KSVT) at the state capitol in Frankfort rallying for the passing of the CROWN Act in March.
Photo courtesy of KSVT. 

Photo courtesy of the Black and Brown Coalition for Educational Equity and Excellence - Montgomery County, Maryland

Our 2023 Year in Review!

As the year comes to a close - and we celebrate our fifth anniversary - we’ve been reflecting on our work with all of you - our community - during this past year. And what a year it has been! In 2023, our team has connected with more leaders and communities than ever before.

Read here →

 

Back to School: Students as Partners Towards Education Justice and Democracy

Since 2022, SANE has supported student and intergenerational efforts across 26 states and 55+ organizations. Through our unique participatory funding process, SANE has contributed over half a million dollars to support a growing movement of youth organizers, deconstructing the barriers that systemically deny young people access to change-making work. Read here →

SCG’s Immigration is American Collaboration Network

Earlier this year, Seek Common Ground launched the Immigration is American Collaboration Network, bringing together organizations that work with immigrant and refugee students and families, inside and outside of the classroom, to provide supports for children and their families to better understand and access the P-12 education system in America. Read here →

 

Community Building and Democracy in Action

Seek Common Ground has established the Leadership Collaboration Network. The Network provides space, funding, and expertise to empower, connect, and support a diverse cohort of leaders who share a commitment to making their leadership and community building practices more democratic and open. Read here →

Photo courtesy of Footpath Foundation

Accelerating a Whole Child Approach to Education in Ohio

Seek Common Ground supported 15 community organizations and leaders across Akron, Cleveland, and Southeast Ohio implementing innovative approaches to meet student needs using a whole child approach through our unique Action Accelerator model. The Ohio Whole Child Action Accelerator demonstrates the importance of engaging and supporting communities in co-creating sustainable change so that students, families, and communities can thrive. Read here →

More publications
2022 was another big year for Seek Common Ground! 
2022 was another big year for Seek Common Ground! 

Together, we launched the Student Action Network for Equity, concluded our biggest Action Accelerator to date (in Ohio), and continued to ensure, through our ARPA Action Accelerator, that communities were involved in setting priorities for federal relief spending. Read here →

Putting Community Needs First: SCG ARPA Action Accelerator
Putting Community Needs First: SCG ARPA Action Accelerator

These organizations in the third phase of Seek Common Ground’s ARPA Action Accelerator set out to build bridges and bust silos across agencies to ensure the promise of the influx of funding could be fulfilled.

SCG Amplifies Student Voice
SCG Amplifies Student Voice

Since its launch in January of this year, Seek Common Ground’s (SCG) Student Action Network for Equity (SANE) has connected students from Connecticut to California and distributed over $100,000 of funding to student- and intergenerationally-led groups along the way.

More publications
Field Notes - June 24th, 2022

The Seek Common Ground team is excited to introduce its two newest members, Alex Ames and Will Powers, our 2022 Summer Fellows.

Field Notes - May 4th, 2022

Right now, it can be challenging to find reasons to celebrate. The pandemic, classroom censorship bills, and raging culture wars are dispiriting. Bright spots can seem dim. Yet there are many, and they can be found by looking within our own communities.

Field Notes - March 30th, 2022

Explore relevant, innovative, and replicable resources created by our Learning Community in the SCG Innovation Hub.

Field Notes - December 15th, 2021

SCG Beyond the Numbers — 2021 was a big year for Seek Common Ground!

Field Notes - November 10th, 2021

If the point of public education is to prepare young people to enter American society, it’s worth asking how assessment and accountability policies and practices serve that goal.

Field Notes - October 20th, 2021

Meet a few of the inspiring Ohio leaders and organizations we’ve gotten to know.

Column: Kristen Amundson column: For Virginia's new school year, some ideas to close the learning gaps before they become canyons

In this Richmond Times-Dispatch column, author Kristen Amundson highlights the Seek Common Ground Family Guides as a resource for teachers and caretakers.

Field Notes - September 2nd, 2021

Family Guides for the New School Year!

BOOK: 81 Questions for Parents: Helping Your Kids Succeed in School

As a former teacher, school board chair, and state legislator, Kristen J. Amundson has spent decades answering parents’ questions about school. This book highlights 81 questions, covering a child’s school journey from preschool to postsecondary education, and heavily features the SCG Family Guides.

Field Notes - July 28th, 2021

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How Families Can Help Students Accelerate Back to Grade Level This Fall

This blog post written by TNTP Project Director Kristy Sullivan references the SCG Family Guides as a way for families and caregivers can support learning acceleration at home.

Image Credit: TNTP.org

Boyd & Briggs: As Schools Return to in-Person Learning, They Must Keep Parent Engagement Going. Our Family Guides Can Help

Seek Common Ground CEO, Sandy Boyd, and Student Achievement Partners President, Amy Briggs, write about the Family Guides in this opinion piece published by the 74.

Why the Critical Race Theory Fight Is Harder for Educators Than the Common Core Battle

Seek Common Ground CEO Sandy Boyd is interviewed and quoted in this Education Week article written by Andrew Ujifusa.

Column: 3 big questions for parents now that schools have reopened

This Richmond Times-Dispatch column, authored by Kristen Amundson, plugs the Seek Common Ground Family Guides while informing parents what questions they should be asking as students return to school buildings.

Image Credit: BOB BROWN/TIMES-DISPATCH

The Key to Address Inequities in School Systems: Work with Communities

As the pandemic forced schools across the country to close in the spring and summer, policy actors in the education sector began to formulate solutions that could get students and educators safely back to school in the fall.

But for many local community activists, one voice was missing in the debate: their own.

Article: Family Engagement During the Pandemic

Authored by National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) Communication Director, Renee Rybak Lang, this article featured in the Jan. 2021 NASBE magazine highlights Seek Common Ground and Student Achievement Partners’ Family Guides as a resource for creating meaningful conversations between parents, educators, and school communities.

MAA II Action Accelerator Lessons Learned

While each of the six organizations—Advance Illinois, Council for a Better Louisiana, The Education Trust-New York, Expect More Arizona, Ohio Excels and Tennessee SCORE— developed a unique project to inform and engage families in their state around assessment and accountability issues, there were shared learnings across projects. This is noteworthy as the conditions (political, and otherwise) in each of the states was quite different and yet, there were common themes.

Editorial: COVID-19 and education: A Q&A with Kris Amundson and Sandy Boyd

In this Richmond Times-Dispatch Editorial piece, authors Pamela Stallsmith and Chris Gentilviso talk to Seek Common Ground CEO Sandy Boyd and former chair of the Fairfax County School Board Kris Amundson about education and the challenges they’re facing with COVID-19.

Image credit: BOB BROWN/TIMES-DISPATCH

Press Release: Seek Common Ground and Student Achievement Partners Announce Release of Family Guides for 2020-21

K-5 Guides in English and Spanish Aim to Help Families Navigate the 2020-21 School Year.

Opinion: Pandemic Is Strengthening the Home-School Connection. How Education Nonprofits Are Boosting Family Engagement to Help Kids Succeed

Authored by Ambika Kapur and Laverne Srinivansan, this opinion piece from the 74 features the Family Guides created by Seek Common Ground and Student Achievement Partners.

Press Release: Families and Communities Key to Assessment and Accountability Decisions During the Pandemic School Year

Seek Common Ground Brings Together Six Statewide Education Advocacy Organizations Elevating Community Voices to Grapple with a School Year Like No Other

Press Release: New COVID-19 Recovery Action Accelerator Focused on Elevating Voices in School Reopening Plans Launched.

Seek Common Ground Brings Together 12 Community-based Organizations to Ensure Families, Students, and Educators Drive What School Looks Like This Fall.

Carnegie's Challenge Paper: Next Generation Family Engagement

Seek Common Ground Board Member, Nate Bowling, is featured on the cover of Carnegie Corporation’s new report on transformative family engagement (photo credit: Chris Barron). Also accompanying the report is the essay written by Sandy Boyd and Michael Gilligan that first appeared in the 74 ,“From Traditional Campaigns to Building A Movement: The Evolution of Family am Community Engagement-Based Advocacy”

Local Advocacy, National Impact: Analyzing the growth and evolution of the Coalition Support Network

A Report from The Redstone Strategy Group.

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