The Eddies—annual, advocate-nominated and voted awards—feature strategic advocacy that is driving impactful policy change.
Best Defense highlights campaigns that strategically defended important policy at significant risk and overcame significant odds using innovative tactics; sometimes, the most significant wins are actually holding the line. Nominees in this category provide models for how to deploy sharp strategies to defend policies or efforts that benefit students.
See a complete list of 2024 nominees in all Eddies categories. Staff at PIE Network members and partner organizations, check your inbox for a link to vote in each category or log in and vote here. Questions? Email [email protected].
Best Defense Finalists
EdAllies, Educators for Excellence-Minnesota, Great MN Schools
Network Policy Pillar: High Expectations
SUMMARY
This policy helps families and educators know how schools are doing, and how an individual student is performing against state standards, in a timely manner. This allows them to make informed decisions about school choice, push for needed school improvements, and request necessary academic intervention services for the current school year.
In 2013, a coalition of key education stakeholders, including schools, educators, and authorizers, pushed for the release of the Minnesota state accountability test (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment / MCA) data early in the coming school year so that the results could be actionable for schools and families.
This year, new language was introduced that would delay public reporting of MCA test results from September 1st to December 1st. We defended against this language to keep the data timely and relevant for all stakeholders.
Our policy and advocacy impacted 800,000 students.
WHY THIS WIN MATTERS
While imperfect, the MCAs are the only data available to provide the empirical evidence that too many students in Minnesota are not getting the education they deserve, that we have tremendous educational inequities, and that some schools are doing better than others to address inequities. This data must be released in a timely manner for families and schools to take action using this data. Delaying the MCA reporting would have taken the power of information away from families and communities, reducing MCAs’ value and relevance and ultimately threatening the value of accountability testing in MN.
WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS
The community worked together to present a quick and strong response so that the legislature and Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) better understood the many ways we use the MCA and its importance to our collective work to address educational inequities.
We organized a coalition of schools, authorizers, and community organizations in a four-pronged strategy:
- 24 organizations signed a letter to the Commissioner requesting that he strike the language delaying the MCA data release date
- 14 organizations sent individual letters to conference committee members
- 31 individuals reached out to conference committee members via action alert
- Great MN Schools, Ed Evolving, and Educators for Excellence met with Commissioner Jett and other members of the agency’s executive cabinet to explain the negative consequences of delaying the release of the data
PIE Network provides us with consistent information, learning, and connections that boost our credibility and helps us be strong advocates for students in our state. This past year, members of our leadership team attended the PIE Network conference and frequently accessed the Policy Portal for insights and resources to advance our work.
ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN
Our organization has been working hard to build strong relationships and a strong understanding of key education issues, such as the importance of data transparency, across the community so that when issues like these arise, we can rally community support.
Specifically, for the last 8 years, we have been working with schools and community organizations to create the Minneapolis School Finder, which is reliant on the timely release of MCA data. The Minneapolis School Finder is a resource that many of these organizations use to support their families, so it was easy to translate what otherwise would feel like a minor technical change into an important issue that impacts their daily work.
RESOURCES
- Link to our call to action (No longer active – please do not fill out)
- Bill language
State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), Tennesseans for Student Success, Tennessee Charter School Center, TennesseeCAN
Network Policy Pillar: High Expectations
SUMMARY
This policy helps all Tennessee students and educator to monitor student progress and teacher instructional practice so they can continuously adapt instruction and provide ongoing intervention and support to the students and teachers that need improvement.
In 2007, Tennessee received an “F” rating from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for “Truth in Advertising About Student Proficiency,” due to Tennessee state assessments misleading schools and families about their students’ academic performance. Compared to their peers nationally, this “honesty gap” revealed Tennessee was holding students to low expectations — a detriment to both the state and its students. Tennessee boldly responded with the development of new rigorous academic standards, aligned assessments, and a new teacher evaluation system. This shift marked a commitment to transparently reporting student and teacher performance and giving education leaders the information they needed to both prepare students for success and provide teachers with opportunities to reflect and improve their instructional practice.
Tennessee requires students in grades 3-8 to be assessed annually in math, English language arts, science, and social studies, and students in grades 9-12 to be assessed in Algebra I-II and Geometry (or Integrated Math I-III), English I-II, Biology, US History, and Geography. Tennessee’s state assessments are important measures for local and state leaders to understand whether students are being served well to build the knowledge and skills in each subject and grade that will be needed for success in life. The Tennessee House Education Committees considered an amendment to a broader legislative proposal that would have eliminated all but one ELA and one Math assessment in high school and drastically reduced grades 3-8 science and social studies assessments.
Tennessee requires all teachers to receive annual feedback through a formal multi-measure evaluation, which includes a composite weighting of student achievement, student growth, and classroom observation data. This multiple-measure evaluation model aggregates to provide educators with a “level of overall effectiveness” score, which informs professional development and ensures all teachers have relevant feedback on their professional practice. Tennessee’s teacher evaluation system has been a critical lever for improving student outcomes. The Tennessee House Education Committees considered an amendment to a broader legislative proposal that would have removed the annual evaluation for 95% of Tennessee teachers, reducing the frequency to once every 4 years for more than 40% of teachers.
Our policy and advocacy impacts nearly 1 million students.
WHY THIS WIN MATTERS
During the 2024 legislative session, there was a unique need for advocacy to defend foundational policy pillars in Tennessee that have been shown to positively impact student achievement, backed by evidence and ongoing data monitoring. Following the implementation of aligned assessments to hold students to high expectations, student performance improved, the state’s honesty gap closed, and Tennessee was no longer at the bottom of the pack in national comparisons. In 2016, Tennessee’s academic performance on NAEP was recognized as the fastest improving in the nation. Tennessee’s academic recovery and resilience after the COVID-19 pandemic stood out in national research. State assessment results in 2024 show that Tennessee now exceeds prepandemic ELA proficiency levels for students in grades 3-8, and math proficiency for students in grades 3-8 is just shy of a pre-pandemic peak.
As for Tennessee’s teacher evaluation system, a study by Vanderbilt University found that student performance increased at a much faster rate after evaluation reform and after 10 years of Tennessee’s new teacher evaluation system, student achievement growth and teacher growth can be attributed to the state’s evaluation reform. A national study in 2024 also found that Tennessee was one of only two state exemplars where teacher evaluation reform implementation resulted in positive effects on student achievement in math and ELA. Further, the National Council for Teacher Quality highlighted Tennessee as an exemplar for a high-quality teacher evaluation system and the only state that sustained observable outcomes five years after evaluation. Lastly, when surveyed, Tennessee teachers respond positively to questions about their perception about whether the evaluation system improves student achievement and their instructional practice. Most recently, nearly 80% of Tennessee teachers agreed or strongly agreed that the evaluation process has led to improvements in their teaching.
The nominated organizations jointly advocated in defense of assessment and teacher evaluation policies. Together, we elevated the importance of assessment and teacher evaluation with legislative members and as a group, convened weekly to adjust legislative strategy accordingly. The National Council for Teacher Quality research was helpful in advocating for teacher evaluation policy, as Tennessee’s evaluation system has been highlighted in NCTQ’s research for its positive influence on student outcomes and teacher performance. The PIE Network’s guiding principles on assessment and accountability served as strong guides for talking points about the importance of defending these policies.
WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS
Over the last two decades, Tennessee has established a foundation of high expectations and accountability. There is a state-wide, bipartisan coalition to support what works for improving student outcomes, including statewide standards, assessment, accountability, and teacher evaluation. This commitment to expect more, and the policy pillars that followed, have led Tennessee to score at the national average for all grades, subjects, and student groups on NAEP. Thanks to coordination across a coalition of education advocates, we were able to successfully communicate why the proposal to reduce annual assessments and evaluation would be a detriment to Tennessee students. Partners collaborated to actively defend these policies with targeted memos and by publishing news content.
The legislative proposal to remove assessments and roll back teacher evaluation policies was introduced as part of an amendment to an education savings account bill. Tennessee partners who were concerned about the removal of foundational policy pillars strategically focused our advocacy and political resources opposing those specific provisions related to assessment and teacher evaluation policies in public schools. Our coalition’s plans to engage to defend foundational policies were communicated with state leadership and any partners who were supportive of the broader bill. This was effective because we were able to clearly articulate our reasoning and our engagement strategy for those priority policies.
ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN
Tennessee partners effectively leveraged student outcome data, teacher performance data, and historical trends in state performance to show the impact that assessment and teacher evaluation policies have had on education reform statewide. It was effective to connect with legislative leadership, education committee members, and partners to provide information about the positive impacts these policies have had toward the shared goal to increase academic outcomes and teacher effectiveness.
RESOURCES
- SCORE memo
- Three competing plans to allow students to attend private school with public dollars come with vastly different testing requirements – The Tennessee Firefly
- Questions remain after Education Freedom Scholarship Act passes two key committees – The Tennessee Firefly
- House Education Chair supports accountability, opposes “pop-up schools” benefiting from private school scholarship plan – The Tennessee Firefly
Parents Amplifying Voices in Education (PAVE)
Network Policy Pillar: High Expectations, Innovative Options, Responsive Systems
SUMMARY
This policy helps families, educators, and policymakers understand which schools and school models effectively support students after graduation by measuring life outcomes. This information allows them to expand what works and improve areas where there are gaps.
DC’s Education through Employment (ETE) Database will track career and life outcomes for students after they graduate. This database aims to help provide stakeholders with the information they need to evaluate how effective programs are at leading students to ‘family-sustaining careers and economic mobility”. The database was launched in 2024 by the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) through the Office of Education through Employment Pathways. The program began with $688,000 in funding via the Mayor’s proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget to create the database and share the information with the public in the following year. However, during the early stages of the budget process, that funding was cut by the DC Council. The progressive-leaning Council was seeking areas to trim amid District-wide budget cuts in response to federal COVID relief funding going away so they could fund shorter-term initiatives and current programs rather than something new that was a longer-term investment.
Our policy and advocacy impacts 101,000 students.
WHY THIS WIN MATTERS
Parents want their children to have access to the types of school models that fit their child’s needs, interests, and passions. That’s why they chose specialized school programs (i.e. dual language, Montessori, art integration, STEM, etc.) as one of their top policy priorities in 2023. They worked together with school and community partners to learn all about the different programs and what it would take to ensure every model – regardless of type, grade level, or Ward in the District, was high-quality. They wrote their own Statement of Beliefs and a set of policy solutions on what they wanted to be true, and a core aspect of their ask was more data showing how well schools were serving students – both now and in the future.
In particular, parents are looking to see which schools and school types have led to college enrollment and completion, securing jobs in high-demand and well-paying fields, and what life outcomes look like for students once they graduate. Sharing this data transparently can help parents decide what schools will best serve their children. Importantly, it also allows school leaders to make informed decisions about their practices, investments, and strategic plans. While some local school districts have started to track students’ outcomes after they graduate, that work is currently siloed, doesn’t capture the depth and breadth of school/program offerings in the District, and isn’t shared publicly for families to access. The ETE database would rectify that and provide data across all schools for all stakeholder groups to use.
PAVE Parent Leaders and our partners consistently advocated for the protection of this funding through testimonies, meetings with elected officials and policymakers, and on social media. We were able to dispel the Council Chairman’s assumption that parents wouldn’t use the data and show that there was strong demand from parents and other stakeholders abound. There were proof points that the data from the initiative was worth the return on investment, sharing examples from other local LEAs and jurisdictions for how it could transform decision-making around education. In the end, DC’s final FY25 budget restored $638,000 for the database, which included $150,000 for a study on CTE programs specifically to identify gaps in services and inform future data evaluation needs and planning, offering a runway to make the case for additional funding in the future.
WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS
Especially in a tight fiscal year, there are always many competing budget priorities. Investment in long-term data systems benefits multiple audiences:
- Our local research organizations that share transparent and robust data sets,
- Families as they make decisions about where to send their children to school,
- School leaders to make data-informed decisions about what is working and what isn’t, and
- The workforce community as they seek to expand initiatives for college and career pathways for the next generation.
PAVE worked intentionally with each stakeholder group to advocate for the protection of the funding for the ETE database and make the case for why this investment would pay off for years to come.
PAVE relied on research, examples from other states, and counsel from other PIE network leaders throughout the campaign to build out our policy materials, sharpen our advocacy messaging, and get advice on how to demonstrate return on investment for long-term research during a tight fiscal climate.
FINANCIAL INVESTMENT
Our advocacy contributed to a $638,000 investment in 101,000 students – and even more, if you include their families, school leaders, and the workforce community.
ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN
Uniting a diverse coalition of stakeholders who would be immediately impacted by the results of this advocacy gave PAVE a well-rounded perspective on this issue and also helped bolster buy-in from initially opposing policymakers and their staff. PAVE played a critical convening role in this advocacy effort, as both the DME staff and other invested advocacy organizations reached out to PAVE to bring in parents and other key stakeholders because PAVE had those relationships and done the work to build up their policy and advocacy expertise. Making the case for smart, efficient investments like longitudinal research that support the broadly-held goal of ensuring every child has a pathway to college and career can be challenging, but is possible when you bring in the voices from all aspects of the system.
RESOURCES
ExcelinEd, Foundation for Florida’s Future
Network Policy Pillar: High Expectations
SUMMARY
The 2024 Florida legislative session saw several longstanding school accountability measures come under threat from Senate leaders. This required the Foundation for Florida’s Future (FFF) to develop and deploy a robust campaign to ensure that the state would continue holding itself, schools and its students to high expectations, a value shared with PIE Network and its members. This harmful legislation (SB 7004, HB 7025) threatened numerous fundamental education policies, including third grade promotion policy, a core component of Florida’s comprehensive approach to early literacy, and rigorous high school end-of-course assessments.
We were defending Florida’s third-grade promotion policy, which has been in place since 2002. We were also defending the Algebra and English Language Arts end-of-course assessments, which have existed since 2011 and 2012 respectively.
Repeal of the third-grade promotion policy, which has been in place since 2002 and was at the heart of a decade-long turnaround in student achievement in Florida, would have lowered standards for more than 670,000 current pre-kindergarten through second grade students, as well as tens of thousands of students entering the public education system. Replacing the Algebra and English Language Arts end-of-course assessments, which have existed since 2011 and 2012, respectively, would have weakened high school diploma standards for more than 2 million students. The bills also included anti-charter school provisions that would have repealed the cap on Title I sharing, impacting 191,000 students as well as facilities funding equity for the state’s more than 700 charter schools.
WHY THIS WIN MATTERS
Had these bills passed, the harmful impacts would have extended far beyond the Sunshine State. Florida has long been the standard-bearer in education policy. The public proposals alone provided legislators in several other states with talking points to challenge school accountability measures. FFF’s work to protect these vital provisions signaled the importance of high standards and expectations for states across the country.
WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS
Our organization led the advocacy efforts to defeat the Senate’s anti-accountability and anti-charter school proposals. In addition to our behind-the-scenes policy influencing with legislative staff, FFF executed a muscular campaign that included media interviews with Executive Director Patricia Levesque and Legislative Director Nathan Hoffman, as well as a high-profile op-ed from former Florida Governor and FFF Chairman Governor Jeb Bush.
Beyond these media pieces, FFF testified in opposition to the proposals in each committee stop, joined stakeholder feedback calls with the House committee chairs and led external stakeholder calls to provide information updates and garner diverse support. We also lobbied key leadership members, the Department of Education and the Executive Office of the Governor to prevent any backsliding in a school accountability system that has long proven to be the backbone of rising student achievement in Florida.
Our organization has learned a great deal from other successful PIE Network member defensive campaigns.
ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN
Fellow Network members can learn from our robust and comprehensive defense, which included lobbying, media interviews, op-eds, testimony and coordination between various education stakeholders and leaders.
RESOURCES
NewMexicoKidsCAN, Public Charter Schools of New Mexico, Teach Plus New Mexico
Network Policy Pillar: High Expectations, Responsive Systems
SUMMARY
This policy helps New Mexico students and families to access charter schools and a stable education system so they can achieve their wildest dreams!
We were defending the New Mexico Public Education Act by working to stop Senate Joint Resolution 9. In 2003, New Mexico voters approved Amendment 1, also known as the Public Education Act. This constitutional amendment established the Public Education Commission, an elected body that serves as the statewide charter school authorizer, and introduced a governor-appointed Secretary of Education. During the 2024 New Mexico Legislative Session, Senate Joint Resolution 9 was introduced. This resolution sought to implement a statewide school board while eliminating the role of the Secretary of Education and the Public Education Commission, threatening to dramatically change New Mexico’s education governance structure and endangering state-authorized public charter schools.
Our policy and advocacy impacted the 309,000 students in New Mexico’s public education system and the 30,000 students enrolled in public charter schools.
WHY THIS WIN MATTERS
Defeating Senate Joint Resolution 9 was absolutely critical to 1) ensuring New Mexico’s state charter school authorizer remained supportive of charter schools and continued to be isolated from the dramatic political theater that threatens most statewide elections and 2) ensured strong leadership at the state agency with a secretary of education, appointed by the Governor, rather than diffusing the power across a 15 member board in which voters would only have influence in 1 of the 10 elected members, and 0 of the five Governor appointees.
Had SJR9 passed and gone on to the voters, we would have risked losing the strong charter supportive environment we have worked for years to establish among 9 of the 10 current Public Education Commissioners. SJR9 would have dissolved the Public Education Commission leaving major questions about the future of charter school authorizing in New Mexico and potentially allowing for the divisive politics of today to drive the state’s authorizing decisions moving forward. This could have single-handedly ruined the charter school movement in New Mexico.
Additionally, as indicated by our title ‘ Yesterday’s Failed Answers Are Not Today’s Solutions’ – the reversion to a state elected school board from the current Secretary of Education is a step backwards. Just 20 years ago New Mexico voters to replace the elected school board with a Governor appointed Secretary of Education. Voters voted to move away from our previous state board of education because they were frustrated by a lack of progress resulting from constant political fights and theater on the board. School boards are more volatile and divisive than ever, and returning to a failed model, would slow any possible progress for New Mexico’s public schools.
WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS
The politics of this one were challenging in that even our Democratic members of the legislature are so frustrated with the revolving door of leadership at the New Mexico Public Education Department that they were unwilling to “save” Governor Lujan Grisham (D) from a potentially embarrassing moment if the department was taken away from her control.
In some ways we avoided the politics, but reminding everyone that despite our shared frustrations with the current administration and current system, a change in governance wouldn’t solve the problem.
We also, together with our coalition, played politics. We reminded the Republicans that this would be detrimental to charter schools and showed them voter data to remind them, they’d likely have little to no representation on a statewide board of education. We worked with Democrats to remind them, that though they were frustrated with this Governor, the next is likely to be a Democrat and that they’d want that Governor to have the ability to impart quick change. We also mobilized supporters for former Governor Bill Richardson (D) to ask Democratic legislators to not undermine the legacy of Governor Richardson.
One of the other tactics we used to compare and contrast the performance of education systems with the type of governance structures in states. The PIE team was pivotal in helping us map governance structures by state, and putting us in contact with advocates in states with elected state boards. That insight from members about what worked about their system and where their systems struggled was extremely helpful in conversations with legislators.
ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN
This is an example of when testimony really made a difference. The bill was moving with rapid pace through the Roundhouse with no signs of stopping. We finally got our moment, when in front of the House Education committee we turned out a ton of strong testimony from a diverse group of heavy hitters. After our initial conversations with members, the testimony created enough doubt to cause legislators to pause. That pause gave the Speaker of the House the cover he needed to never schedule the legislation for a floor vote.
RESOURCES
Best Defense Honorable Mentions
Arkansas Learns
Network Policy Pillar: High Expectations, Great Educators, Innovative Options, Responsive Systems
SUMMARY
Our defense of the LEARNS Act, the most sweeping student-focused education reform legislation in Arkansas history and a model for the nation, against a proposed constitutional amendment, ensured that Education Freedom Accounts remain on track to be available to all students in 2026, with providers unencumbered by central government control. Further, it kept education spending in the hands of elected representatives, rather than embedding a blank check into Arkansas’s constitution for an adult-focused wish list unaccountable for student academic outcomes.
Act 237 (commonly known at the LEARNS Act) was signed by the Governor on March 8, 2023. The LEARNS Act directly impacts Arkansas’s 535,000+ PreK-12 students.
WHY THIS WIN MATTERS
Because of the LEARNS Act, Education Freedom Accounts were first made available to a limited number of Arkansas students in 2023-24. Eligibility expands in 2024-25, and eligibility for all Arkansas students arrives in 2025-26. If the proposed Orwellian-named ‘Educational Rights Amendment of 2024,’ which actually removed hard won education rights, had reached the ballot and been approved by voters, all providers receiving EFA funds would have been subject to the same government regulation and standards, rendering all choices the same. Further, it would have imbedded a blank check into the Arkansas constitution, requiring that the Legislature fully implement and fund the adult-focused wish list without regard to student academic outcomes. Because it mandated unnamed ‘assistance’ to all students within 200% of the federal poverty level, it would have also potentially created the largest public assistance program in Arkansas history, with no plan to pay for it.
WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS
Arkansans for Students and Educators was a ballot question committee collaboration of Arkansas Learns, The Reform Alliance, Opportunity Arkansas, and Americans for Prosperity (Arkansas). Our successful ‘Decline To Sign’ campaign generated 50,000 paid calls, 500,000 pieces of mail, 2.2 million texts, and 7 million digital ad impressions to target audiences over the three months. AFP generated an additional 16,000 paid door hangers, 40,000 volunteer calls, 2 million digital ad impressions, and 315,000 pieces of mail. The result was that amendment proponents, led by the Arkansas Education Association (AEA) (affiliate of the National Education Association) only claimed to garner 69,968 signatures, over 20,000 short of the requirement. We say ‘claimed,’ because they didn’t even turn in their signatures.
PIE’s example of collaboration across groups for a common goal, holding each other accountable, and sharing credit for success, is a winning formula.
FINANCIAL INVESTMENT
Our successful defense of the LEARNS Act ensures that Arkansas’s over $2.52B in annual state PreK-12 education spending (over $7B from all sources last year) remains student-focused and accountable through our elected representatives.
ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN
When individuals and groups are willing to take on the challenge of defending historic education legislation initiated by the Governor and overwhelmingly supported by the Legislature, it not only protects great legislation but positions those individuals and groups well for future wins. Further, it provides a stark contrast to those unwilling to step up in defense, in our case the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators (AAEA) and Arkansas School Boards Association (ASBA), system-focused groups which have long been preferred and protected by many in state government and which are generally on the opposite side of our student-focused policy initiatives.
RESOURCES
Arkansans for Students and Educators:
- Arkansas LEARNS Act
- SB294 Bill Information – Arkansas State Legislature
- Decline to Sign
- Opportunity Arkansas
- OPINION | GARY NEWTON: Signer beware | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
- Why Arkansas needs the LEARNS Act
Opposition:
The Education Trust-Midwest
Network Policy Pillar: Responsive Systems
SUMMARY
This policy helps students from low-income backgrounds and English Learners to have far greater funding and resources so they can reach their full academic potential and recover from the COVID-19 learning losses, which had the greatest impact on students who are most underserved.
The Education Trust-Midwest and coalition partners throughout the past year engaged in a campaign to protect, defend and build upon the historic school funding transformation that was passed in Michigan in 2023, in large part thanks to our sustained advocacy through our multi-year fair funding campaign – Opportunity for All. That campaign, the seeds of which began more than 7 years ago, yielded historic policy wins and systemic change in 2023, including the creation of a new Opportunity Index school funding formula that for the first time in Michigan’s history include an index to account for concentrated poverty in school districts.
The creation of an Opportunity Index marked the greatest shift in school funding in Michigan in two decades. Ed Trust-Midwest and coalition partners were the leading champions to establish and implement the Opportunity Index. When fully implemented, the Opportunity Index will bring nearly $3 billion to Michigan’s students from low-income backgrounds. Advocates also scored historic funding formula wins for English Learners in 2023.
Yet immediately upon passage of the Opportunity Index, we recognized that more needed to be done because the Index was not fully funded by the legislature. Advocates united to defend and build upon their wins, securing significant and historic increases again in FY 25 for students who are the most underserved, during a contracted budget period in which policymakers did not increase schools’ base per pupil funding for this first time in about a decade and the overall budget decreased by 3.8%. Thanks to their efforts, the FY 25 school aid budget includes a 26% increase in funding for English Learners, for a total of $50.1 million. This marks the second straight budget to make historic increases in funding for these students – resulting in a 90% – or $24 million – increase in English Learner funding since FY 2023. The budget also invests an additional $83 million – an 8.7% increase – in the Opportunity Index, bringing the total investment for students from low-income backgrounds to over $1 billion dollars this year.
WHY THIS WIN MATTERS
The creation of an Opportunity Index in 2023 marked the greatest shift in school funding in Michigan in two decades, helping secure additional necessary funding for students from low-income backgrounds so they have the resources and supports to address their learning needs. The Index ensured for the first time in Michigan’s history that districts with high rates of poverty will receive increased funding – totaling nearly $950 million in FY 24 – allowing them to invest in and provide the necessary services to meet students’ needs.
Ed Trust-Midwest and our partners celebrated this historic win but immediately shifted into a defense posture to protect, defend and build upon the Index for FY 2025 and beyond, especially as Michigan did not fully fund the weighted school funding levels as written in state law. Additionally, we recognized that Michigan has a long way to go to reach the additional funding levels that leading states invest in their students with the greatest needs.
Our efforts sought to secure additional funding for students from low-income backgrounds in a lean state budget sought and to continue the momentum to support the needs of students from low-income backgrounds and fully fun the Opportunity Index. Securing additional funding wins is all the more important given the educational inequities that were exacerbated during COVID-19.
WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS
Ed Trust-Midwest engaged in a multi-pronged “defend, protect and build upon” campaign, called Opportunity for All, that included building a much broader statewide table of support through dozens of legislative meetings, new champions in the Michigan House and Senate, extensive communications and social media campaigns, increased regional and sector diversity of advocates, multiple convenings, two research reports on equitable funding, multiple opinion pieces, and a groundbreaking website that included new statewide analyses by Ed Trust-Midwest’s policy team and a national school funding expert comparing the funding of every Michigan’s school district’s funding to a truly equitable funding model like that in leading state Massachusetts.
Our communications strategy leveraged many of our coalition members. We amplified their voices in the media through interviews and opinion pieces, through social media, and through their own networks. Part of our strategy involved the creation, where needed, of individual region- or school district-specific collateral pieces to help coalition members demonstrate to policymakers how the new funding benefited their individual communities. Efforts also included research and data showcasing how the Opportunity Index benefits all regions of the state – urban, suburban and rural – effectively making that connection for policymakers.
Importantly, Ed Trust-Midwest and our coalition members successfully focused on expanding the number of legislative champions in the Michigan House, both through induvial knowledge-building sessions and through a successful Advocacy Day in Lansing, where coalition partners met with 30+ legislative members and staff across both sides of the aisle. These new champions included the Speaker of the House, the Majority Floor Leader, and the chair of the school aid budget. The knowledge-building campaign laid the groundwork for advocacy to protect the Opportunity Index and secure significantly more funding for students who are underserved. Through sustained advocacy, we secured $83 million more in FY 2025, building upon more than $200 million in FY 2024 – bringing the total for students from low-income backgrounds to over $1 billion for the first time in Michigan’s history.
Ed Trust-Midwest has leveraged PIE Network resources through the years on equitable funding messaging and hearing from experts on strategies from across the nation.
FINANCIAL INVESTMENT
Our advocacy contributed to more than $1 billion investment in students from low-income backgrounds for FY 25 – $83 million more than FY 24, as well as $50.1 million in FY 25 for English Learners – or $10.4 million more than last year’s budget.
ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN
Fellow Network members can learn how to build and broaden a coalition, leverage and amply diverse voices, make connections across the aisle, and create a multi-pronged advocacy strategy.
RESOURCES
The Education Trust
Network Policy Pillar: High Expectations
SUMMARY
This policy helps all students, particularly students of color and LGBTQ+ students, to see themselves reflected in their schoolwork so they can be better supported to succeed academically.
This campaign and research defended more inclusive curriculum and books in school nationally. Efforts to diversify curriculum have existed for decades; the most recent efforts began in the last 10 or so years, and gained momentum in response to the murder of George Floyd and a national conversation about race relations in the United States. State laws and policies limiting the teaching of diverse curriculum were first enacted in spring 2021. It is now a nation-wide movement; 44 states have introduced bills or taken other steps to restrict curriculum, and 17 states are imposing bans and restrictions through legislation or other approaches.
Our policy and advocacy impacted millions of students across the country.
WHY THIS WIN MATTERS
Students reap clear benefits from a diverse curriculum that allows them to see themselves and others fully. They are more engaged in their work, leading to improved academic outcomes, from higher standardized test scores to increased graduation rates. It also helps boost self-esteem and can instill empathy and a greater appreciation for cultural differences.
We have reaped clear wins in advocacy for, and awareness of, the need for rigorous and representative curriculum. Our larger campaign includes several prongs:
- EdTrust’s study of 300 children’s books, “The Search for More Racial and Ethnic Representation in Grade School Books,” found large disparities in who is included and how – when people of color are included in curricula, it is often in limited ways. Books often portrayed people of color negatively, used stereotypes, and sanitized historical or social topics. This counters the prevailing narrative that there is too much diversity in today’s classrooms. It has received 6,117 page views from 3,749 users and featured in this EdWeek article.
- A toolkit with actionable resources for teachers, parents, and community advocates freely available on our website. The toolkit highlights banned books, uplifts social media engagement about honest history and diversity, links to a video of the event, and connects users with additional resources from EdTrust on this topic. As of June 6, the toolkit has received 1,311 page views, and the event page has received 13,562 views.
- An ongoing social media campaign that has garnered us over 1,000,000 impressions across all social media channels including X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok. A landing page about the event, with a call to action to support Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s Books Save Lives Act, has received 2,405 page views from 1,658 users.
- A #CantBeErased panel event, including remarks from Rep. Pressley, had 150 attendees in person and more than 1,200 views of the video recording of the event.
WORKING ACROSS LINES OF DIFFERENCE & COALITIONS
Bans on teaching a diverse curriculum are, in fact, not supported by the majority of parents. We have found success in promoting this message, and in working to promote the value of this work with all communities affected by these bans (communities of color, racial minorities, and the LGBTQ+ community) and stakeholder groups (parents, the civil rights community, educators, and students.)
PIE Network members, including the Center for American Progress and New America, helped inform research that backs the campaign. We have worked with EdTrust state offices to amplify the message and support their efforts to ensure a more diverse curriculum at the state level.
ADVOCACY STRATEGIES & TACTICS USED TO BUILD & EXECUTE A WINNING CAMPAIGN
It is vital to understand, and widely share, the basic truth of an issue: in this case, that the majority of parents do not support broad limits on curriculum for their children’s schools, that there is, in fact, little portrayal of people of color in curriculum, and what little that does exist is extremely limited in its representation. This was essential to contradict the idea that a silent majority of parents was waiting in the wings to protect their children’s schools from a vast diversity overreach.