End of Year Recap- Support our Work for Next School Year | 6.13.14
With another school year coming to a close, we are thankful for YOU—our supporters and volunteers who have helped us accomplish so much this year. But our work is far from done!
Today we are asking for your continued support by making a donation to our end-of-the-school-year fundraising campaign—to help strengthen our movement and begin the next school year stronger than ever. Our goal is to raise $20,000. Consider signing up for a tax-deductible monthly donation of $15 or a one-time gift of whatever works for you. During the 2013-14 school year alone, RYH has:
Compiled actionable data that highlights resource disparities in neighborhood schools
Launched “Per Pupil Funding Campaign” that brought parents from over 20 schools to address the Board of Education
Surveyed 170 schools and found that only 35% had two hours of weekly arts instruction
Presented data on 11,000 empty seats in charter schools with Apples to Apples project
Advocated successfully on behalf of students and parents at the local and state levels
Fought changes to class-size limits for special education, which would have negatively impacted both special education and general education rooms
Argued for common sense revisions to CPS new policy on fingerprinting volunteers
Protected student privacy by working with More than a Score to keep CPS students’ personal data off privately controlled computer servers (inBloom).
Worked with CPS and CTU to amend the school calendar and move Spring Break a week earlier
Provided a strong, public parent voice on importance of a quality education for all
Raised the visibility of education issues in multiple media outlets, including Crain’s, Catalyst, Chicago Tonight, WBEZ and others
Organized parent network circles in eight neighborhoods, connecting parents from different schools
Held public forums, parent advocacy trainings, and small group meetings with parents across the city
Promoted ideas and actions to strengthen neighborhood schools
Sponsored presentation on quality education by Finnish policy expert Pasi Sahlberg
Assisted BooksFirst in donating over 6,000 books to CPS schools without libraries and with many homeless students.
We have accomplished so much together this year. Please help us continue our good work, and enable us to extend our reach by making a tax-deductible monetary gift today!
Sincerely,
Wendy Katten and the Raise Your Hand Board
P.S. – If you haven’t already, please sign up for our email newsletter (www.ilraiseyourhand.org), and follow us on Twitter (@ilraiseyourhand)!