Dave Eggers wish is premised on the idea that communities should be involved in their local public schools.  His dream is on a micro-level.  That individuals will choose to impact the lives of students by offering their talent and time.

The Public Education Network just released its Civic Index for Quality Public Education tool which considers this idea on a macro-level.  The tool, to be used by community-based organizations, assesses the strengths and weakness of the community related to public education.  It reflects the conditions outside a school which help create successful students and a successful school system.

The Index identifies 10 categories by which a community can assess their involvement in public education:

• Education leadership of local elected officials
• Commitment to the values of tolerance and inclusiveness
• Active parents
• Strong civic organizations (parent, philanthropic, civic/religious organizations)
• Utilization of school performance data to improve school quality
• Youth involvement
• Partnerships with higher education
• Knowledge of, and voting for, the school board
• An active business community
• Media coverage

“Research and public opinion polling shows that the public believes every person, and every group in a community, is responsible for making sure every child receives a quality public education.  Once individuals and groups in a community know how much they are doing to support public education, along with what they are doing right and what they could do better, they can do the right kind of work that will make a significant and measurable difference in the quality of their public schools.”

Inspiring community involvement in public education is the essence of Once Upon a School. How do we get individuals, who on the surface have no responsibility for the school system, to get involved? Community members must realize that they are already involved (taxes anyone?) and have an additional interest in creating an educated citizenry and workforce. And most importantly, working with students is fun and emotionally satisfying for both adult and child alike.

There is something special about the relationship an outside individual has when working with a student. As 826 puts it:

the average students knows his teacher has to help with his schoolwork, and he knows his parents have to help. But there’s something very new and transformative about meeting a member of the community — a professional journalist, a radio disc jockey, a graduate student, an advertising copywriter, a software developer, a retired lawyer — and have that person give them 2-3 hours of undivided attention. Almost without exception, student achievement and understanding leaps when they are given this concentrated one-on-one attention. Teachers and parents love the help, and the students get to ask a hundred questions until they truly understand a concept.

Joesph Graves, Dean of University Studies and Professor of Biological Studies at North Carolina A&T State University, recently had an editorial on the Greensboro, NC’s news-record.com about how community can enhance local education. His piece details the many ways community can get involved (i.e. tutoring, donations of materials, donations of money). Most importantly, however, is that education should be revered and community members should be pushing to improve education in their district.

The all-state football and basketball players can count on receiving full scholarships to our top state universities, but what about the state chess champions? The state chess champion receives a one-time award from the N.C. Chess Association that isn’t more than $1,000. The University of Texas-Dallas dominates collegiate chess because it gives full scholarships to qualifying chess players. These are students who also major in high-demand mathematics and science areas. Why aren’t we in Guilford County looking to recognize our high achieving academic students in the same way?

Students aspire to be like people who they can see that society rewards. The more alternative careers we expose students to that involve cultivating their intellect, the more we will observe students pursuing those careers.