People’s Platform for Educational Change

In 2020 a coalition of students, parents and teachers formed the Baltimore City chapter of the Alliance to Reclaim our Schools (AROS). Our first project was to push decision-makers and candidates running for office to understand the concerns of those most affected by education policy decisions. We conducted 11 listening sessions with over 300 students, educators and families. People shared their thoughts about what is most needed to improve Baltimore City Schools. The outcomes from those conversations were organized into a draft platform of 14 items. Then 1194 stakeholders voted on these items at  our mobile voting station pop ups at schools and community venues. Of the 1194 participants, 747 were students, 123 were staff, 223 were parents, and 100 were community members. As a result of this voting process, we were able to pare down the issues to the five highest priorities. The following report describes our research and the results.