Executive Director's Report: The Learning First Alliance is a model of collaboration

The Learning First Alliance (LFA) is the best example I know of this kind of effective collaboration. Formed in 1996 by NSBA and 11 other national education organizations, the alliance now has 17 members, representing more than 10 million teachers, policymakers, parents, and administrators.

Our work focuses on student learning, creating safe and nurturing places that promote student achievement, and fostering community and parent engagement.

In March, the LFA took a bold step and convened a national summit focused on public schools for the 21st century. More than 400 state leaders came together in Washington, D.C., over three days to learn, discuss, and act on what our vision might be to create excellent public schools.

Instead of politicians, think tank pundits, researchers, and writers defining how schools should be changed, the people who know public education best stepped forward to collaborate and strategize for the future.

This cross section of leaders -- school boards, teacher unions, parents, state schools chiefs, administrators, and principals -- worked to:

• contribute to a compelling vision for the future;

• identify areas for collaboration among national organizations;

• promote state-level collaboration; and

• foster a better national conversation.

The speakers at this landmark event included corporate and education leaders who addressed such topics as teaching 21st century skills, using data to improve student learning, innovation in education, ensuring poor and minority student access to the most effective teachers, and the importance of tolerance.

One of the most compelling sessions featured Hillel Levine, a professor of sociology and religion at Boston University and president of the Interracial Institute of Mediation and Historical Conciliation, and his friend, Ambassador Akbar S. Ahmed, who holds the Khaldeen Chair of Islamic Studies at American University and was the former high commissioner of Pakistan to Great Britain. Both of them spoke movingly about the importance of religious tolerance and stressed the need to learn about our Muslim neighbors and teach our children to be global citizens.

What did we accomplish at this summit? Even with the many diverse opinions of 400 passionate educational leaders, we achieved a great deal of consensus around the importance of creating school systems that foster 21st century skills and experiences for children.

We agreed to focus on the whole child. Putting excellent teachers with low-achieving students can make a big difference. The LFA members understand that early childhood education is a must if we want to close the achievement gap and that we must change the No Child Left Behind Act before it drives down the whole system.

Everyone agreed on the need to speak the truth with one voice on the value of public education -- and to herald our success stories, which are too often overlooked.

Going into the summit, education groups in seven states had already created their own Learning First Alliances. These state-level LFAs -- in Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Washington -- are leading the way as models of collaboration.

It is not easy, but it can be very powerful. John Koepke, the executive director of the Kansas Association of School Boards, told me the summit offered a great opportunity for LFA state leaders to get together with LFA leaders on the national level to tackle a similar set of critical issues, such as raising student achievement.

Coming out of the summit, education leaders in 10 more states expressed interest in forming a state alliance. In Florida, seven organizations already met for their first conversation and are planning a follow-up meeting in September.

My proudest moment during this year as the LFA chair was seeing the extraordinary leadership that NSBA and our state school boards associations demonstrated in every aspect of the summit.

But our work has just begun. Following the summit, the LFA board met to consider our next steps. When 17 diverse educational organizations -- with often differing or even opposing views -- all come together and agree on a common agenda, we have more power than we’ve ever had before. Our plan is to harness that power for the good of the children in our public schools.