Over the last decade, a new generation of innovators has been improving the approach that state-based reform advocates take to push for change. These groups have recognized that strategies employed in recent decades that rely primarily on bringing rational evidence to policymakers isn’t enough. These leading innovators have studied the most effective advocacy organizations outside of education and have adopted similar models of organizing to change education in their states. A central goal of the network is to share these best practices across the network.
| Many assume that ... | | | | | But PIE Network members know that ... |
| Increasingly, education reform is being driven from Washington and national strategies are working to move reform. | | | | | States have had and will continue to have an enormous role in the adoption and implementation of national reforms. State partnerships are key to moving the reform agenda forward. The pending surge of federal education spending through the stimulus package will only increase the stakes in the state policymaking arena.
|
| The last thing we need is yet another national policy network. | | | | | We need a different kind of national network that brings diverse interests to a common strategic effort, crossing ideological lines to solve common challenges in public education and bringing the public's interest to the forefront of education policymaking.
|
Policymakers don't set strong policies because they lack information. Exposing them to better policy research will change their thinking. | | | | | Policymaking is not a strictly rational process. Better information helps, but it's often insufficient to drive reform without being paired with sound advocacy that engages new voices, including parents and the public, in the policymaking process. |
If a state lacks strong leadership from within the government, it's impossible to get anything done. | | | | | A growing movement of state organizations is developing the know-how to cause leaders to focus on education and take it seriously. |
"Political organizing" involves bringing together a large number of people who already know what they want and need. | | | | | Good organizing includes looking to research, evidence, and experience on the ground to identify innovative solutions to intractable problems and to engage ordinary citizens in advocating for those solutions. |
| You can't change political will, especially because those who are fighting change are so well resourced. | | | | | Leading state advocacy organizations are developing effective strategies to advance reforms by shifting the established balance of power. That work needs support. |
