This is the second evaluation of the Donors' Education Collaborative's (DEC) grant making since its founding in 1995. The first evaluation was a cross-case study of three projects that embodied DEC's theory of action: lasting systemic school reform demands sustained funding to build organizational collaboration that simultaneously broadens and deepens constituencies and employs strategies to effect policy change. This second evaluation follows the building of a multi-organization coalition focused on influencing a crosscutting issue--school governance--that has a powerful effect on the school reform work of each of the participating groups. Four DEC grantees, the Alliance for Quality Education (AQE), the Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ), the Community Involvement Project of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform (CIP) and the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) are instrumental in this initiative. Because these groups have been DEC grantees previously, this effort provides an excellent opportunity to explore whether and how DEC's sustained support generates long-term benefits that accumulate over time. This evaluation can contribute further knowledge about DEC's strategy of sustained grant making and its focus on public engagement to foster systemic school reform. (Contains 2 figures and 21 footnotes.).

"A Brookings Institution Press with the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Center for American Progress publication America's fragmented, decentralized, politicized, and bureaucratic system of education governance is a major impediment to school reform. In this important new book, a number of leading education scholars, analysts, and practitioners show that understanding the impact of specific policy changes in areas such as standards, testing, teachers, or school choice requires careful analysis of the broader governing arrangements that influence their content, implementation, and impact. Education Governance for the Twenty-First Century comprehensively assesses the strengths and weaknesses of what remains of the old in education governance, scrutinizes how traditional governance forms are changing, and suggests how governing arrangements might be further altered to produce better educational outcomes for children. Paul Manna, Patrick McGuinn, and their colleagues provide the analysis and alternatives that will inform attempts to adapt nineteenth and twentieth century governance structures to the new demands and opportunities of today. Contents: Education Governance in America: Who Leads When Everyone Is in Charge?, Patrick McGuinn and Paul Manna The Failures of U.S. Education Governance Today, Chester E. Finn Jr. and Michael J. Petrilli How Current Education Governance Distorts Financial Decisionmaking, Marguerite Roza Governance Challenges to Innovators within the System, Michelle R. Davis Governance Challenges to Innovators outside the System, Steven F. Wilson Rethinking District Governance, Frederick M. Hess and Olivia M. Meeks Interstate Governance of Standards and Testing, Kathryn A. McDermott Education Governance in Performance-Based Federalism, Kenneth K. Wong The Rise of Education Executives in the White House, State House, and Mayor's Office, Jeffrey R. Henig English Perspectives on Education Governance and Delivery, Michael Barber Education Governance in Canada and the United States, Sandra Vergari Education Governance in Comparative Perspective, Michael Mintrom and Richard Walley Governance Lessons from the Health Care and Environment Sectors, Barry G. Rabe Toward a Coherent and Fair Funding System, Cynthia G. Brown Picturing a Different Governance Structure for Public Education, Paul T. Hill From Theory to Results in Governance Reform, Kenneth J. Meier The Tall Task of Education Governance Reform, Paul Manna and Patrick McGuinn"

Since 1995, the Donors' Education Collaborative (DEC) has supported a range of groups--advocacy, organizing, research and policy groups--who advocate for, or whose members come from, diverse constituencies concerned about public education in New York City (NYC). DEC has also encouraged collaborations among these types of groups to leverage their influence on education policy at the Department of Education (DoE), city and state levels. The groups, consisting of youth, parents and community leaders, operate in all five NYC boroughs. In December 2007, DEC provided a planning grant to the Alliance for Quality Education (AQE), with the understanding that in collaboration with the Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ), the Community Involvement Project of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform (CIP), and the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), they would design a campaign to ensure that a wide range of parent and community voices were part of any public discussion of the future of mayoral control. Following six months of planning, these initiating groups received a DEC grant to build a broader collaborative that would mobilize parents, youth and community members to participate in the mayoral control debate, with the hope that their voices would help inform the forthcoming mayoral control legislation. The grant period extended from July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009, the date for sunset of the state legislation that initially established mayoral control of NYC schools. This grant provided DEC with an opportunity to take a fresh look at the impact its grant making strategy was having on the broader NYC educational policy environment. DEC invited Research for Action, working in collaboration with Professor Jeffrey Henig of Teachers College, to evaluate the initiative for that purpose. The evaluation has been conducted in two parts. A Year One Report, covering the period May 2008-May 2009, focused on the political environment in which the Campaign emerged, how Campaign members worked jointly to create a platform for making changes to mayoral control, their success in gaining visibility and legitimacy for their positions, and the role of DEC's funding in building the capacity of the Campaign to be a player in the mayoral control debate. The Year Two Report covers May 2009-May 2010 and continues the story of the Campaign and its impacts both on the NYC school governance legislation and on the city's long-term educational and civic environment. Appended are: (1) Fieldwork and Data Analyzed; (2) Campaign Initiating Groups; (3) Campaign for Better Schools Steering Committee; and (4) Final Campaign Platform. (Contains 6 figures and 67 footnotes.).