Communities for Public Education Reform (CPER) is a partnership of donors who support grassroots organizing and advocacy efforts to achieve equitable opportunities and outcomes for low-income students, particularly in communities of color. CPER is grounded in the belief that community engagement is a critical lever in successful school reform. Please visit www.communitiesforpubliceducationreform.org for more information.
Background on CPER
Launched in 2007, CPER has so far raised $26 million from 75 national and local donors, and has committed over $20 million in grants and fieldbuilding supports to 124 organizations. Through a leveraged, dollar-for-dollar match, CPER offers up to $500,000 in national match funds to local dollars raised.
CPER supports local, state, and regional education organizing groups, research and advocacy allies, and national coalitions working to build community power and to advance policy and practice reforms on the school, district, state, and national level. By providing multi-year support to engage, amplify, and strengthen parent and student voice in a cross section of U.S. school districts, CPER addresses the political and cultural dimensions of school reform, builds strong local leadership, and challenges the policy, practice and power relations that have institutionalized inequitable and inferior opportunities and outcomes for low-income students in communities of color.
Reach and Issue Areas
In the current grant period, CPER provides program and operational support to 90 organizations. Fifty-eight community-based partners are supported by local donor tables in six regions across the country (California, Chicago, Colorado, Mississippi, New Jersey and Southeastern Pennsylvania). In addition, CPER supports national, youth-led and intergenerational coalitions whose member groups operate in an additional 13 states. CPER also shares knowledge resources and learning opportunities with education organizing partners in three affiliate sites (Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C.) and related funding consortia (such as the Just and Fair Schools Fund and the Elev8 Middle School Initiative).
CPER is a multi-issue fund. Our partners pursue education reform strategies that include teaching quality, school climate and discipline, education financing, and expanded learning time. Across all regions and policy campaigns, CPER aims to grow and strengthen community engagement for school reform, helping to build a national network of organizers, donors, researchers, and policy advocates capable of advancing equitable opportunities and outcomes for all students.
Fund Activities
Beyond direct grantmaking, CPER sponsors activities to build the education organizing field’s knowledge base, infrastructure, critical allies, and material resources.
Capacity Building.
Through CPER’s national Capacity Building Initiative, CPER partners gain access to capacity supports designed to deepen education organizing practice and enhance strategic savvy and effectiveness. Services are tailored to meet the specific needs of community groups or regions. Activities include topically-focused learning communities that deepen grantees’ education knowledge and foster strategic relationships across the network; site-specific trainings that address grantees’ common needs (e.g., strategic communications, grassroots fundraising, organizational infrastructure); customized resources for individual organizations (leadership development, organizing skill training); and peer-to-peer “rapid response” connections to seize real-time opportunities for advancing campaigns. CPER staff work closely with grantees to ascertain capacity needs, identify appropriate training opportunities and TA providers, and facilitate learning forums.
Annual Convening.
Each year, CPER brings together several hundred grantees and donors to learn, network, strategize, re-energize and refuel. Workshops, trainings, and plenaries facilitate dialogue between grassroots activists and prominent policymakers and education researchers, providing a place for diverse members of the CPER community to grapple with challenges and showcase best practices. The dynamic annual convening builds on and extends learning supports offered in local, sustained contexts throughout the year.
Scholars Board.
CPER’s work is endorsed by leading academics who recognize community engagement as a key lever for successful school reform. Their research illuminates critical issues in educational equity; the importance of school-community connections to foster student success; and the transformative power of youth leadership. CPER Scholars Board members include Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford University; Joe Kahne, Mills College; Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Harvard University; Charles Payne, University of Chicago; Pedro Noguera, New York University; Mark Warren, Harvard University, and others.
Donor Education.
CPER’s robust funding collaborative includes national and local donors whose varied portfolios include education, community engagement, and youth leadership. CPER brings funders together to align and leverage foundation-specific reform agendas and to exchange ideas that will enhance philanthropic impact. Donor briefings aim to increase philanthropic support for education organizing and deepen awareness of the role parents and students can and must play in achieving equity-oriented school reform.
For more information about the Fund and its work, visit the CPER website or contact Melinda Fine, Ed.D., CPER Director, at mfine@publicinterestprojects.org.
