A Common Agenda: How Three Communities Overcame Societal Tumult to Create Educational Equity Agendas
About: A nationwide study prepared by The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation.
Authors: Richard C. Harwood with a foreword from Nicole Rodriguez Leach
Publish Date: 2023
Description: This report tells a story about the power of community-led, community-driven change to ward off and overcome the divisive and narrow politics of our time. It details how Reading, PA, Lexington, KY, and Clarksville, TN, three very different communities with unique challenges and demographics, each produced a shared education equity agenda and are taking action on it. Grantmakers for Education’s Executive Director Nicole Rodriguez Leach contributed a foreword to the report to highlight what the education philanthropy sector can learn from these findings.
The report highlights seven common agenda items across these communities, from mental health and youth mentoring to after- and out-of-school activities. Just as importantly, it details how leaders and residents in all three communities emphasized shifting their civic culture in order to craft and ultimately act on these shared agendas.
