"What makes a good teacher? It's a person who has a passion for knowledge and the subject that they teach, for the community, and for the kids."
- Public Engagement
- Program Description
Public Engagement Initiative
. . . it takes a community to build education
Our Mission
The San Francisco Education Fund is leading the Public Engagement Initiative to effect changes in policy to ensure San Francisco public school students have quality teachers and supportive learning environments so that they can graduate ready for college, meaningful work, and active participation in society.
Our History
Through research and conversations with key stakeholders, the Ed Fund determined that recruiting and retaining quality teachers was one of the biggest challenges facing San Francisco public schools. Teacher turnover rates are especially high in lower-performing schools, and retention is a serious concern.
With the generous support of private funders, the Ed Fund established the Public Engagement Initiative (PEI) to engage students, educators, parents, policymakers, and the community at large to work towards solutions to support teachers and promote the quality of teaching and learning in our public schools.
Our Approach
The Ed Fund believes that for sound research-based policies and best practices to be implemented and sustained — such as securing quality teachers — the public must be deeply involved in establishing community priorities around policies, resources, and practices.
The PEI is reaching out to diverse and often unheard voices by working with community and neighborhood organizations, hosting community-wide meetings, and partnering with civic and education-related organizations. Our purpose in reaching these constituencies is to solicit opinions, engage voices, and begin to empower the community to make recommendations to improve teaching and learning in our public schools.
Our Accomplishments
The Public Engagement Initiative began in the fall of 2004. Working with students, educators, parents, policymakers, and the community at large, the PEI has:
- Formulated a working definition of "quality teaching" that includes the training, skills and compassion that a teacher brings to the classroom, and also the environment in which a teacher functions and students learn.
- Provided and will continue to provide opportunities for students, educators, parents and the community to voice their opinions on how best to improve the teaching and learning environment in San Francisco public schools. This work included a public hearing on the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) during which participants testified about the Act's impact and made recommendations on how the law could be improved.
- Collected data about recruitment and retention in the San Francisco Unified School District, conducted research to identify best practices from around the nation that could be applied locally, and released a series of reports and recommendations to the community.
- Spearheaded a community engagement effort as part of the San Francisco Unified School District's Student Enrollment, Recruitment and Retention Initiative (SERR). This effort reached more than 900 San Franciscans at 90 community conversations to create a vision for what kinds of schools our community wants. Many of the community's recommendations have been incorporated into the District's plan submitted to the Board of Education.
- Created the annual Thank A Teacher Today campaign to encourage San Franciscans to join a citywide movement of community-based organizations, civic groups, parents, policymakers, students, businesses, and media partners who come together each May to thank San Francisco teachers for their dedication, professionalism and work on behalf of our City's young people.
Our Funders
The Public Engagement Initiative has been generously supported by the following organizations and individuals:
- S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation
- Goldman Sachs Foundation
- Walter and Elise Haas Fund
- The Hellman Family
- Public Education Network
- San Francisco Foundation
- Silver Giving Foundation
- Stuart Foundation