To ensure that every child gets quality education, the alliance’s education committee continues to work on multi-issues and organizes the community to push reforms in the complex systems to achieve racial and cultural equity. Formed in the beginning of this millennium, the education committee takes significant step to break down the isolation of Somali parents who want to demand the schools radically improve and builds faith that change is possible.
The alliance has engaged thousands of Somali parents and community leaders to lead the reform that might bring high-quality schooling and individualized coaching. Next to family, a teacher is the most important person when educating a child and can mitigate even the worst disadvantages. Efforts to ensure that teachers are paid, rewarded, evaluated and treated professionally are important. Performance, merit-based pay and rewards to teachers based on their performance in the classroom, not just on seniority, which is currently the norm is necessary. True merit pay is not a system of bonuses, but rather a method of linking educators’ pay directly to student performance. These policies are designed to increase individual accountability by linking compensation and job security directly to operational and academic outcomes.
Civicark continues its base building and leadership development in our own community, with our work in Minneapolis aligned to the above strategy. We also include St. Paul, St. Cloud and suburban districts. We continue school level work focused on transforming culture, policy and practice, primarily having significant impact into some decisions surrounding ELL leadership. SAA expands its concept of strategic partnership with districts, schools, classrooms and communities to build culture, conditions, and competencies for excellence and equity. The alliance connects hundreds more Somali community members to leadership trainings, youth conferences, support for district-based leadership groups, action and negotiation in Minnesota and community leadership meetings around self-governed schools.
The organization engages series conversations, parent engagement trainings and building relationships in three other Somali populated cities, Columbus-Ohio, Seattle-Washington and Lewiston-Main. Education Equity Organizing Collaborative Civicark ’s Education Fund is working with more than 70 partner organizations of color communities and the Department of Education to develop an aligned strategy for reaching our stakeholders in this project. We participate in and help joint strategy to develop training formats for community leaders so that they can engage effectively in this process. Through this process, we work with partners, allies and Department of Education to help identify stakeholders and to develop formats for incorporating feedback into the core framework