Nonprofit

Alliance for a Better Community

ABC's mission is to advance social, economic, racial equity and justice for the Latino community and the Los Angeles region through power building and policy advocacy.

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3 Submitted Ideas

  • PLAY ·2022 Grants Challenge

    Green Spaces in LA Public Schools

    Climate change is severely and disproportionately affecting communities of color. Green LA Public Schools for Healthier Students would encourage and advance necessary changes to convert school campuses in high-density, low-income neighborhoods into green campuses, which not only work to combat climate change but have shown to improve health factors such as stress and anxiety and improve attention restoration. Having green campuses would also enhance the learning and working environment for everyone involved.

  • LEARN ·2021 Grants Challenge

    Beyond Recovery - Rebuilding for Success

    The Latino community continues to experience deep impacts from COVID-19 and the potential disruption to the prosperity of the Latino community for generations to come is too large to ignore. By prioritizing first-generation college students, broadening access to financial assistance, and maximizing existing infrastructures and programs, the Southeast LA region will create college attainment in a more supportive environment while also facilitating responsive and inclusive recovery plans that meet the short and long-term needs of the community.

  • 2013 Grants Challenge

    Padres Creando Exito: Effective educators in every classroom every school

    The Alliance for a Better Community (ABC) is proposing to elevate the public dialogue regarding equity and access to high quality instruction delivered by highly effective educators to all students in every classroom, every school. By partnering with the parents and families, students, teachers and administrators served by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), ABC will implement an education and awareness campaign, with a particular focus on media, to discuss and define the critical role parents and families must play in identifying, supporting and retaining effective educators. Public education in Los Angeles and California is fundamentally failing our children. For decades it has underserved and tracked students of color into separate academic and vocational programs, thereby perpetuating the inequities of race, gender and socio-economic status in our society. ABC believes that in order for schools to provide the quality education children deserve and need, parents and families must serve as meaningful partners at the school and district levels. To increase student learning, excellent teachers are needed in every classroom. Research has found teachers to be the most important school-related factor in student achievement. According to a report on the LAUSD, the National Center on Teacher Quality found that, “of the 11,000 LAUSD teachers evaluated in the 2009-2010 school year, 79 percent met the standard in all 27 indicators, signaling that they did not need any improvement. Contrast teachers’ apparent extraordinary level of performance with student performance: only 41% of students scored proficient on the state language arts exam and only 39% scored proficient in mathematics.” There are specific educational disparities that inequitably impact Latinos and African Americans in Los Angeles; one of those is the caliber of teachers in their classrooms. In a report by Education Trust-West, it was found that effective teachers are not equally distributed in LAUSD. Teachers in the top 25 percent are less likely to instruct lower-income students of color. These teachers are also more likely to leave the district's highest need schools. This is critically important since a teacher has more impact on student learning than any other factor controlled by school systems, including class size, school size, the quality of after-school programs and even which school a student attends. Because a high percentage of a school’s impact is attributable to teachers, attracting and retaining highly effective educators becomes critical to making substantial achievement gains that are sustained over time. (Met Project, 2011). ABC is working collaboratively with its partners to advocate for policies and practices that identify, support and retain effective educators in high-need schools across LAUSD and integrate parents and families in the discussion and decision-making. Public dialogue around the topic has traditionally been led by District and union leaders and education pundits who are currently shaping how this issue is framed by the mainstream media and understood by those on the sideline watching the debate. ABC is proposing to elevate the voices of those not typically heard, the: PARENTS and FAMILIES who have students in the District; STUDENTS who have been through the public school system and can testify to the impact that effective educators have had on their academic successes, and; TEACHERS in the classroom that understand the importance of the debate because they care about their students and families. ABC will launch a public education and awareness campaign, through the use of media, that elevates the critical role these stakeholders share in including the parents and families in the educator effectiveness dialogue to benefit student educational outcomes. Some of the key activities will include: convening at least 3 focus groups comprised of teachers, parents and students to discuss how parents and families can contribute to the development of policies and public conversations; developing at least 2 videos and 5 online profiles of parents, teachers and students providing testimonials about the importance of family voices in this public dialogue; developing key recommendations for how parents and families can be engaged in this conversation at their local schools and at the District; developing a document that outlines key principles for engaging parents in educator effectiveness that can be distributed amongst parent groups; and coordinating an official kick-off launch with the produced videos, profiles and information tools that will help inform on-going and future discussions about how to best identify, support and retain effective teachers.

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