The Refreshed Cleveland Plan
In 2012, the Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools set out to ensure every child in Cleveland attends a high-quality school and every neighborhood has a multitude of great schools from which families can choose. Nearly a decade later, the Cleveland Plan has helped drive improvements in student achievement, increased financial support, and catalyzed policy change in support of these goals.
Today, Cleveland is well positioned to continue this upward trend, and the urgency to keep improving education for our city’s children continues.
Now is the time to revisit and refresh the Cleveland Plan to zreflect a challenging present, a brighter future, and a continued commitment to change. It is also critical to name and consciously address the systemic inequities that negatively affect many children and families in our city. That is why this refreshed Cleveland Plan addresses our city’s urgent educational needs with equity in mind.
Toward Educational Equity
The box at left outlines a definition of educational equity that underpins this Plan. It is up to our entire community to hold ourselves and each other accountable to the spirit and the letter of our collective definition of educational equity.
With equity at the core, the Cleveland Plan is further guided by a North Star—a declaration of intent for the future:
- All Cleveland public education students will have a high-quality, equitable education in schools that inspire joy in learning.
- All Cleveland students will have access to individualized opportunities that prepare them to participate in society and forge a meaningful path for themselves when they graduate.
- Families will actively participate in continuously improving and evolving their schools to fit their community’s needs.
The refresh of the Cleveland Plan was shepherded by the Cleveland Transformation Alliance (the Alliance), a public-private partnership conceived under HB 525, the 2012 state legislation implementing the original Cleveland Plan. The Alliance is guided by a Board of Directors made up of parents, educators, and business, philanthropic, and civic leaders from throughout Cleveland and across the state who contributed to the refresh of the Cleveland Plan.
The Alliance also worked with community partners such as the Neighborhood Leadership Institute to get feedback from community members, families, and educators in public schools across the city. While the Alliance drove the refresh process, it is critical to emphasize that the Alliance is the convening stakeholder, not the authority, for the Cleveland Plan.