Introducing PIE Network’s Newest Members & Partners

PIE Network is now 100 state and local members and 28 national partners strong.

Members and partners of the PIE Network are united by our belief that education can—and should—be transformative, and that change is needed now, perhaps more urgently than ever before, to build an education system in which every student, in every community, has the educational opportunities and experiences necessary to achieve a future without limits.

We’re humbled to welcome 16 new Network members, each of whom puts students at the center of everything they do, and works to shift power and change policy so that every student has an excellent and equitable education.These organizations root their work in the Network’s core beliefs and policy pillars.

Each team brings years of experience and expertise in authentically engaging and building partnerships with families, communities, educators, business, and civic leaders to advance advocacy and policymaking. New Network members and partners include seven organizations focused primarily on local-level advocacy, nine single-state organizations, two state charter associations, and four national partners. We’re also excited to add Maryland back to the Network map.

Interested in real-time updates from Network members and partners? Follow this Twitter list for a feed of Network activity.

A for Arizona (renewal)

Emily Anne Gullickson, CEO (@GullyoftheSun)

A for Arizona aspires to a system where all students have access to a high-quality school and classroom proximate to them—including great virtual learning environments. In its newest chapter, A for Arizona will continue to shine a light on what works and ways to scale great ideas. In creating quality neighborhood opportunities for every child, A for Arizona will educate community leaders on policies that prioritize student success—especially low-income students, focusing intentionally on access, and not unnecessarily restricting school leaders from being entrepreneurial, innovative, or from designing school cultures that create the greatest value for Arizona students.

ACE Scholarships

Norton Rainey, President & CEO (@Norton_Rainey)

Every child deserves a great education. ACE Scholarships is committed to helping low-income parents provide that opportunity to their children. Their mission is to provide children of low-income families with scholarships to private schools in grades K-12, and to advocate for expanded school choice. Since 2000, they have awarded over 42,000 scholarships worth over $102 million.

Association of American Educators

Colin Sharkey, Executive Director (@ColinAAE)

The Association of American Educators (AAE) is the largest national, non-union, professional educators’ organization, advancing the profession by offering a modern approach to teacher representation and educational advocacy, as well as promoting professionalism, collaboration and excellence without a partisan agenda. AAE’s mission is to foster the transformation of the teaching profession by empowering and supporting our community of professionals for the benefit of students and the nation.

Edunomics Lab

Marguerite Roza, Director (@MargueriteRoza)

Edunomics Lab is a Georgetown University research center exclusively dedicated to exploring and modeling complex education finance decisions to inform education policy and practice. The end goal is the betterment of education, writ large. Established in 2012, the center is nationally recognized as a leader in the field of education finance.

GO Public Schools Oakland

Jessica Stewart, Executive Director (@JessicaStewart)

GO Public Schools Oakland is working to bring people together to realize the most effective solutions to ensure educational excellence and equity for Oakland students. Their network is driven by the urgent needs of children and families for an excellent education—especially those most at risk of missing out. GO informs, organizes, and supports leaders at every level of our education system—grassroots (students, parents, educators) to grasstops (elected leaders, education leaders, community leaders). They help leaders to understand, develop, and advocate for system-level changes (policy, practice and culture shifts) that promote excellence and equity for students and families.

GO Public Schools Fresno

Mike Espinoza, Executive Director

GO Public Schools Fresno builds and supports a local coalition of families, educators, and community allies to expand access to quality education in Fresno’s most historically underserved communities. They inform, align, organize, and support leaders at every level, from grassroots (students, families, educators) to grasstops (elected leaders, education leaders, community leaders). GO Fresno knows these leaders are advocates for changes in school governance, policy, practice, and culture that promote excellence and equity for our students and families. Mobilizing leaders at all levels to advocate for excellent and equitable systems creates the conditions for improved student opportunity, learning, and achievement—cradle to career.

GO Public Schools West Contra Costa

Natalie Tovani-Walchuk, Executive Director (@NatalieTovani)

GO Public Schools West Contra Costa (GO WCC) supports a coalition of students, families, educators, and community allies united around generating solutions to ensure that every West Contra Costa student thrives. GO WCC believes local education leadership must be guided by policy expertise and community engagement in order to build lasting change. Their student-focused, solutions-oriented network enters the conversation to shape and support policies that expand educational opportunity for our highest need children.

Great Minnesota Schools

Jen Stern, CEO (@Jennifer_Stern)

Great Minnesota Schools believes growing the number of great schools is the best way to rewrite the future for students, families, and our community. Every student deserves grade-appropriate curriculum and strong instruction, provided by teachers who are engaged, prepared, and supported. They deserve a learning experience that meets their academic, social emotions, and cultural needs. Great Minnesota schools is creating a critical mass of schools that work for underserved communities. They are supporting parent demand for more schools that work, and they are engaging the Minneapolis community around K-12 problems and solutions.

Maryland Alliance of Public Charter Schools

McKenzie Allen, Executive Director (@McKenzie_MDEdu)

The Maryland Alliance of Public Charter Schools supports quality public charter school education on behalf of students and families. The Alliance evolved from the unification of The Coalition for Baltimore City Charter Schools and the Maryland Charter School Network, creating the leading state-wide proponent and advocate for Maryland charter schools. They are a non-partisan group that serves as a voice for charter school communities so they can advocate for equitable and transparent conditions for public charter schools, offer support to new and existing public charter schools, and drive the discussion around innovative educational practices that lead to positive outcomes for students.

Memphis Lift

Sarah Carpenter, Executive Director (@LadyTenn)

The Memphis Lift is a movement by and for parents (and grandparents) whose children attend or are zoned for chronically low-performing schools. Founded in July 2015, The Memphis Lift network has grown to become a passionate group of over 1,000 volunteer parents, grandparents and concerned family members and community members who feel their children have been underserved in failing schools and their voices and concerns have not been heard. The Memphis Lift is committed to building widespread demand for high quality schools and radical changes in public education to disrupt systemic educational inequities through choice and healthy competition.

myFutureNC

Cecilia Holden, President and CEO

myFutureNC’s mission is to prepare North Carolina for the future by empowering individuals, strengthening communities, and ensuring our economic viability in a global economy. myFutureNC is working across sectors and in communities throughout the state to close gaps in postsecondary attainment, promote alignment between educational programming and business/industry needs, and ultimately improve the quality of educational opportunities for all North Carolinians.

National Parents Union

Keri Rodrigues, Co-founder and Founding President (@RadioKeri)

The National Parents Union is a network of highly effective parent organizations and grassroots activists across the country that is united behind a set of common goals and principles to channel the power of parents. Their family advocates improve the quality of life for children across the United States and define the education conversation. NPU unites parents of color, low-income parents, special needs parents, single mothers and fathers, grandparents, formerly incarcerated parents and parents in recovery with traditionally represented parent voices to join a vibrant coalition that disrupts the traditional role of parent voice in policy space. It develops a new narrative that is inclusive of families from a wide variety of perspectives.

P.S. 305

Mina Hosseini, Executive Director

P.S.305 envisions a Miami where children grow up to be leaders that use the skills and competencies honed by the education system—and the collective experiences of our people—to create a better future. They inform, organize, and empower leaders that fight for a rigorous system of quality, choice, and accountability across all of Miami’s schools. P.S. 305 is charting the path to a future where students are at the center of all education decisions; families are empowered to craft educational journeys that respect and maximize the agency, identity and potential of their students; schools set an exceptionally high bar for excellence, providing rigorous and relevant educational experiences to students to ensure that they will thrive and lead in our diverse communities, economies and the world; and every teacher and school leader is celebrated and supported with the tools and flexibility to effectively guide their schools and classrooms to excellence.

Teach Plus Texas

Kevin Malonson, Executive Director (@KDMalonson)

Teach Plus Texas trains teachers in understanding education policy as a lever for student success, community organizing and outreach, promoting teacher voice through writing op-eds and speaking to the media, providing public testimony, and more. They work to create and connect teachers to opportunities to lead in real ways at the policy level. Teach Plus Texas works with key stakeholders and policymakers in the state to inform the conversation and influence outcomes.

Texas Public Charter Schools Association

Starlee Coleman, CEO (@StarleeColeman)

The Texas Public Charter Schools Association (TPCSA) is committed to making sure every child in Texas has access to a high-quality public school that will set them on the path to future success. Working as complements to ISDs, public charter schools in Texas are preparing the workforce of the future—more students to and through colleges, universities, and technical training programs. TPCSA’s mission is to support and advocate for public charter schools to ensure every family has the ability to choose a high-quality public school. They are committed to informing the public and policymakers about the value of charter schools and advancing policies that will enable public charter schools to serve students well.

Transform Education Now

Ariel Taylor Smith & Nicholas Martinez (@NMartinez_CO), Co-founders & Executive Directors

Transform Education Now recognizes that access to high-quality education is a fundamental right of all people. Education systems that currently exist have been unequal and oppressive to certain sections of Denver for too long. TEN exists to change that system by partnering with parents, students, community leaders, charter providers, local school districts and elected officials. They are committed to building power with communities to demand innovation, improvement and high-quality public schools in all neighborhoods.

You can find a complete list of members (here) and partners (here). Interested in joining PIE Network in the future? Reach out to [email protected].