“We cannot continue to accept that barely half of the country’s black and Hispanic students are graduating from high school, or that white children can read at levels far exceeding those of minority children,” Chancellor Klein said. “These facts translate to diminished life opportunities for millions of students who are being denied their proper access to the American Dream.”

The event, held at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, was part of the Department of Education’s “Closing the Achievement Gap” series. The series of forums is designed to engage educators, parents, and other members of the New York City community in a dialogue about how to improve achievement.

Klein and Sharpton also co-authored a Wall Street Journal editorial calling on President Obama to nurture “a bipartisan coalition that challenges the entrenched education establishment…. [and] demonstrate an unflagging commitment to ‘what works’ to dramatically boost academic achievement — rather than clinging to reforms that we ‘wish would work.’”

Sign us at 20/20 up for that bipartisan coalition!

A similar call during the election last year resulted in Klein and Sharpton convening the Education Equality Project.  On eve of President-elect Obama’s historic inauguration, the EEP will host an Martin Luther King Day education rally in at Cardozo High School in Washington, DC, this Monday, January 19.

Reverend Sharpton and Chancellor Klein will lead the rally and will be joined by other civil rights, government, and education leaders including Mayors Booker (Newark) and Johnson (Sacramento), Martin Luther King III, Governor Romer, US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, Dr. Michael Lomax (President, United Negro College Fund), Geoffrey Canada (President and Chief Executive Officer for Harlem Children’s Zone), and Senator McCain.

UPDATE, 1/13/09: TODAY is the LAST DAY to

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20/20 Vision is proud to partner with Reload, a one day training event by the nation’s premier Urban Youth Workers Institute (and the undeniable best value for your training dollar!) on Saturday, January 17.  We are offering two workshops during the day, including the 20/20 Vision-casting workshop and the Enter The Matrix how-to workshop.  Check out the schedule and register online here.

TABLE FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS

The heart of the Forum consisted of thirteen table discussions designed to surface collaborative strategies for education transformation. Facilitated by Frances Hesselbein, Chairman and Founding President of the Leader-to-Leader Institute (formerly the Peter Drucker Foundation), the discussions focused on four key issues: collaboration, transcendent strategies, leadership and synergies. Table Moderators helped each group arrive at three findings and three recommendations for each topic.

The New York City Leadership Center has sifted through the written notes of all thirteen Tables, with the similar goal of synthesizing common themes into findings and recommendations. The consensus that emerged is reported in this section, and provides the basis for the next section’s proposed actionable plan. A complete transcription of the notes obtained from each of the 13 tables can be found in Appendix 7.

Issue I: Collaboration

Is collaboration across sectors (business, education, non-profit, government, religious, students, and families) for comprehensive education reform even possible? If so, how so? What challenges inhibit collaboration and how can they be overcome?

A. Findings

1. Collaboration is possible if cross-sector stakeholders commit to intentional communication, trust building, resource sharing, and coordination of efforts, facilitated by catalytic and creative leaders who have mutually agreed and are empowered by the stakeholders to shepherd the process on their collective behalf.
2. Challenges include: defining the issues or mission too narrowly; using exclusive language that fractures communities; either-or engagement paradigms that perpetuate mistrust; and traditional “every organization and agenda for itself” approaches.
3. Collaboration begins as each stakeholder raises awareness of the crisis within their respective spheres of influence and urges win-win approaches where each sector, and stakeholder, invests from its strengths to aid the others’ weaknesses.

B. Recommendations

1. Craft a common communications platform that nurtures trust among stakeholders, dispels suspicions, and open sources* education reform by: sharing ideas and access to resources and relationships; identifying and innovating best practices; decentralizing program controls to grassroots partners; and coordinating efforts around a shared mission and common objectives.

   * [Footnote] The technological concept of “open sourcing” innovation is illustrative as we tackle uniquely 21st century challenges to educating our children.

   In the early 1990s, upstart computer programmers discovered that the best way to solve common problems with the then-emerging Internet technology was to collaborate with others who shared an interest, but lacked the necessary time and resources to solve the problems on their own. “Open source” refers to their practice of allowing anyone, including potential competitors, to view and even improve upon source code – the underlying instructions that make computer software work – by making the code publicly available online, and permitting potential users to download the software for free. This radical departure from business-as-usual fueled the development of the World Wide Web, and its innovations empowered the information age in which we now live.

   On the Internet platform it helped create, open source methodology has evolved beyond just programming practices to social networking, content creation, media production, political campaigning, publishing, and even commerce. Why not education as well?

2. Identify grassroots community institutions and influencers such as faith congregations, businesses, and non-profits to educate, equip and mobilize individuals to act both personally and collectively for education reform; empower their success by supplying research, best practices, training, and scalable initiatives that can be decentralized, owned and implemented at the local level.
3. Inject accountability into reform by emphasizing shared ownership, including responsibility for the problems and opportunities to innovate solutions; protect accountability by rejecting old-style blame shifting and focusing instead on rigorous standards, feedback, and evaluation.

Issue 2: Transcendent Strategies

Do any specific educational issues transcend regional, demographic, and religious differences around which we can mobilize? Which one(s)? How should we mobilize, and to what end(s)?

A. Findings

1. Chronic underperformance metrics nationwide (such as literacy, drop-out rates, college admission and retention, and job readiness), especially in urban and rural communities, suggest widespread institutional and individual failures.
2. Inequitable distribution and management of resources – financial, personnel, and otherwise – have contributed to de facto educational apartheid, where the place of one’s home often dictates – unjustly – the quality of education one will receive.
3. A strategy that integrates the need for systemic reform with the need for character education that empowers personal responsibility (of students, teachers, parents, administrators, etc), and supportive services that compensate for gaps in family and social assistance, must be pursued in a complementary way.

B. Recommendations

1. Appoint a delegation of stakeholders who would craft a comprehensive mission, vision, values, and agenda for an education reform movement that responds to educational injustices and collaborative opportunities for meaningful change.
2. Overcome resource constraints by developing a web of partner supports that identifies existing (and nurtures new) womb through college interventions and services both regionally and at the grassroots level.
3. Build infrastructure for ongoing networking and coordination of efforts, resources, and communication that leverages technology for exponential reach.

Issue 3: Leadership

What is the role of leadership in addressing the educational crisis? What kind of leadership is required (top-down, bottom-up, indigenous, expert, both/and, other)? How do we discover, develop, and deploy students themselves to provide meaningful leadership in both conceiving and implementing solutions to entrenched problems?

A. Findings

1. Leadership is the linchpin for comprehensive education reform and requires a compelling vision of the future; the courage to pioneer new approaches to both collaboration and education; the determination not to settle for anything short of long-term transformation; the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances; and a willingness to be accountable for results.
2. Collaborative leadership must be ethnically, economically, gender, and sector diverse, and reflect all of the above leadership styles, without the arrogance that suggests one style, demographic, or sector is inherently more important or valuable than the others in the process.
3. Empowering effective student leadership requires changing our paradigm of students from customer (adults do “for” them by teaching, parenting, etc.) to owner (investing in their own lives, communities, and futures by cultivating their own education); and releasing real authority to students – along with corresponding mentorship and supervision – both to make decisions for themselves and their schools and to deal with the consequences thereof, whether good, bad, or messy.

B. Recommendations

1. Define stakeholder roles clearly (while preserving flexibility for adjusting as necessary), even as stakeholders empower a leadership team to coordinate this effort, and align their personal and institutional agendas with that team.
2. Co-create among the diverse groups of leaders by demonstrating a willingness to meet the “other” on their terms, in their space, according to their language and customs. Model student leadership development by retaining the attitude of an ever-learning servant leader.
3. Identify existing and potential student leaders, whether formally through student groups and achievement records, or informally through personal observation and peer or teacher recommendations; nurture student leadership development inside or outside schools through mentoring, leadership clubs, and formal training; and create platforms for them to be heard and to actually lead.

Issue 4: Synergies

What will you bring (individually and organizationally) to an ongoing engagement strategy? How can NYCLC help facilitate your continuing participation both locally and nationally? What other institutions and individuals need to be engaged in this dialogue?

A. Findings

1. The capacity exists for the 120 participating executives at the Forum to contribute significantly to education reform in New York City and beyond, both individually and on behalf of their organizations. Expanding the circle to include others not already at the table only enhances the capacity for systemic and lasting change.
2. Mobilizing existing networks and spheres of influence (employees, parishioners, friends, etc) requires commitments by each participant to educate themselves on the issues (using resources provided by NYCLC, partners, and other interested parties), pledge personal and/or institutional support, and champion the cause whenever and wherever possible.
3. The technological and media capacity exists to open sourceIbid. education reform so that every stakeholder can learn from the others’ successes and challenges; innovate and share solutions; and leverage scalable impacts as a result.

B. Recommendations

1. Process the data from the Forum thoroughly and timely; distribute it freely to as wide an audience as possible; and coordinate actionable next steps for existing and future participating stakeholders.
2. Identify from within the current participants names, contact information, and affiliations of others who need to engage the conversation; and create onramps for them to catch-up quickly and contribute meaningfully.
3. Invite specific contributions from participating and future stakeholders.

20/20 Vision for Schools & NYC Leadership Center Launch Event

September 20, 2008 @ Christian Cultural Center

Here’s the session that officially launched 20/20 Vision for Schools during the NYC Leadership Center Launch Event on Saturday, September 20, 2008: “The Power of Promise: Empowering Emerging Leaders.”

+ Part 1, Gary Frost (17:02 mins)

+ Part 2, Allan Houston (9:28 mins) (Yes, that Allan Houston, former NBA All Star member of the NY Knicks and Olympic gold medalist; and yes, he’s attempting to come back from what everyone believed was a career ending injury beginning this week at Knicks training camp.)

+ Part 3, Jeremy Del Rio (25:55 mins)

Listen Online

Download the Joshua Paradox powerpoint to get the full impact of Part 3 (Note, the online powerpoint includes slides not covered in the speech). We also watched this video during my time.

Courtesy: Christian Cultural Center and The NYC Leadership Center

Here are some initial thoughts and a synopsis of two launch events in three days.




1) The New York City Leadership Center’s Executive Forum
“An Urgent Appeal to Engage a Generation At-Risk: Helping Everyone Reach Their Highest Potential,” Thursday, September 18, 12-5 pm, at The Cornell Club

Hosted by:

• Hon. Dr. Wilson Goode, former mayor of Philadelphia and president of Amachi
• C. William Pollard, former CEO of ServiceMaster and chairman of FairWyn Investment Co.
• Dr. Frances Hesselbein, former CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA and chairwoman of Leader to Leader Institute

Convened by:

• The New York City Leadership Center

Presenters included:

• Hon. Cory Booker, Newark Mayor
• Rev. Dr. Floyd Flake, Pastor of Greater Allen Cathedral and former US Congressman (D-NY)
• Hon. Dr. Wilson Goode
• C. William Pollard
• Dr. Frances Hesselbein
• Jeremy Del Rio, architect of 20/20 Vision for Schools
• Edward Tom, principal of Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics
• Peter Vanacore, executive director of the Christian Association of Youth Mentoring
• William Collins, executive director of the National Church Adopt-a-School Initiative
• Mark Goldsmith, president and CEO of Getting Out and Staying Out
• Dr. Larry Acosta, president of Urban Youth Workers Institute

Participants:

• 120 Executives Representing Religious, Business, Government and Social Sectors to Collaborate to Address a Generation At-Risk
• Participants include representatives of the Geneva School, United Federation of Teachers, Teach For America, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Cornell University, New York University, Deutsche Bank, M&T Bank, Salem Communications, Dow Corning Corp., Princeton Theological Seminary, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, American Express Business Travel, The West Paces Hotel Group, World Vision, Latino Pastoral Action Center, hedge funds, and more.

Format

In keeping with our theme – “An Urgent Appeal to Engage a Generation At-Risk” – we structured the program into four parts.

The first part laid the framework for the rest of the afternoon. In their introductory remarks, Mayor Wilson Goode and Jeremy Del Rio made the case for the urgency of the appeal by describing the risk factors confronting young people in 2008. Hon. Goode focused on the national crisis and Del Rio emphasized the dynamics in New York City, while also putting flesh and blood on the stats.

Next, a panel facilitated by Mr. William Pollard explored how the panelists are empowering young people to overcome the various risk factors in their unique contexts, as well as recommendations for how they, and the other guests, can collaborate for scalable impact.

The heart of the gathering was the table discussions facilitated by Ms. Frances Hesselbein. The audience consisted of experts in their respective fields, including business leaders, youth specialists, educators, and foundation executives. The round tables solicited their collective wisdom to find common cause for future collaborations for exponential effectiveness in New York City and beyond. We will post the table questions separately as discussion questions in the 20/20 FaceBook Group. Join the group today so you can weigh in.

Finally, Dr. Larry Acosta captured the day’s recommendations and proposed workable next steps for a scalable engagement strategy. Rev. Gary Frost concluded with specific suggestions for how the NYCLC can serve an ongoing conversation.

Jeremy Del Rio will be working with a team of contributors to collate the findings and recommendations into a White Paper and action plan consistent with 20/20 Vision for Schools.

2. The Launch Event
Saturday, September 20, 2008 @ Christian Cultural Center

Fifteen hundred church leaders attended the launch of The New York City Leadership Center and 20/20 Vision for Schools. Pastors Rick Warren and Dr. A. R. Bernard headlined the event, and sandwiched between them was a session co-facilitated by Pastor Gary Frost and Jeremy Del Rio called, “The Power of Promise: Empowering Emerging Leaders.”

Pastor Gary contrasted Moses’ investment in Joshua with Solomon’s lack of investment in Rehoboam. Del Rio introduced the concept of the Joshua Paradox (“Moses groomed Joshua and others to lead in his absence, but Joshua’s generation failed to reproduce the investment — and their children and grandchildren paid a steep price”), and from there focused on the failure of successive generations to invest in the education of our children. Against that backdrop we launched 20/20.

If you haven’t already done so, register your church today.

Some have asked me about the relationship between 20/20 Vision for Schools and the New York City Leadership Center. Officially, 20/20 Vision has launched as a joint venture between the Coalition of Urban Youth Workers, the local network of youth workers who conceived and birthed the plan called 20/20, and the NYCLC. At the executive forum, The NYCLC described their interest in 20/20 this way:

The New York City Leadership Center has embraced education reform through 20/20 Vision for Schools as its first initiative because investing in future-oriented, emerging leaders insures leadership for generations to come; and transformational leadership requires engaging critical social issues with meaningful solutions.

20/20 Vision begins with the idea that New York City public schools can and must be transformed within a single generation of students, so that first graders in September 2008 – who are the graduating high school class of 2020 – reverse decades-long, chronic under-performance. We seek to mobilize grass-roots community partners to reject status quo failure and fight for our students’ future.

Related

+ Download launch weekend PowerPoints
+ Event photos coming soon

The New York City Leadership Center Executive Forum , 9/18/08

+ Hon W. Wilson Goode, “Children and Youth in Crisis in America” — Includes extensive statistical research and demographic data about the plight of young people in America, especially the urban poor.

+ Jeremy Del Rio, “An Urgent Appeal for a (ge)N(er)ation ‘At Risk’” — Reminds us of the people behind the numbers. Puts flesh and blood on young people and those who reach them, with particular emphases on educational injustice and New York City.

The NYCLC and 20/20 Launch Event, 9/20/08

+ Jeremy Del Rio, “The Joshua Paradox: Empowering a (ge)N(er)ation ‘At Risk’” — The second half of “The Power of Promise: Empowering an Emerging Generation” general session co-led by Rev. Gary Frost with an appearance by Allan Houston.

Bonus Photo

How one church adopted a public school. More pics like this here.

Saturday, September 20, 2008
“Spiritual Leadership in the
Global City” Launch Event!

GROUP RATE:
Register a group of 25 or more for the discounted rate of $50 per person!
Call for details: 718-721-2626 x219. Register by September 8th.
INDIVIDUALS:
$75 per person if you register by September 8th (rate goes up to $100 afterward). Fee includes lunch, leadership book and conference materials. Register online at www.NYCLeadership.com .

Session Topics
Rick Warren – 40 Days to Regional Transformation
Jeremy Del Rio & Gary Frost – The Power of Promise: Empowering Emerging Leaders*

A.R. Bernard – The Power of Christ in Culture*

David Ireland – The Power of Christ in Culture**

Frances Hesselbein & Harry Tucker

- The Power of Intentional Leadership**

*Brooklyn Location Only **Ocean Grove Location Only

Speaker Photos Partner Logos
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Speaker Headshots