Welcome

Welcome to the online home of the Community Organizing and School Reform project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. We are a collaborative of faculty and doctoral students who, over the past five years, have engaged in an in-depth national study of how community organizing works to transform public education. Based on six case studies from across the country, this collaborative effort has produced new understandings of the processes through which organizing groups build relationships and power among parents, students, educators, and other community members to create change in schools and communities.

Buy the Book

In low-income communities across the country, parents, young people and educators are finding new ways to work together to improve quality and address equity in public education. They are joining community organizing groups in building a new movement committed to transforming public education and working for social justice. Rather than being passive victims of an unjust system, through community organizing parents and young people are becoming active change agents in their schools and communities.

Receive updates on book events, and related information by following us:

Or email us at info@matchondrygrass.org

This site offers an overview of the project designed to study this new movement, as well as the groups involved and the framework that we have built from our research. For the full story, you’ll need to check out our book, A Match on Dry Grass: Community Organizing for Education Reform, as well as some other publications that emerged from the study.