Academic Distinction Fund

Academic Distinction Fund

8550 United Plaza Blvd.

Suite 301

Baton Rouge, LA  70809

 

225.922.4560  phone

225.922.4562  fax

 

info@adfbr.org

www.adfbr.org

Background

Recently, a group of Baton Rouge concerned citizens participated in several community wide education meetings that resulted in an Education Covenant signed by the EBR Black Elected Officials, 100 Black Men, NAACP, the Baton Rouge Christian Ministerial Alliance, the Working Interfaith Network (WIN) and others. State and national partners who assisted the groups included the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation and the Annenberg Institute. The Covenant marks a new beginning of commitment to all children by providing a quality education for every child in the system. 

 

Concurrently, the Academic Distinction Fund (ADF) began investigating the feasibility of initiating a major grassroots campaign across the East Baton Rouge Parish School System to find out exactly what members of the Baton Rouge community want and expect from their schools.  

 

Representatives of the different groups journeyed to Mobile, Alabama together to observe and discover more about “Yes We Can!” - a hugely successful public engagement initiative that has literally rewritten the public story about education in Mobile County.              

Building Strong Public Schools

CONNECTING OUR COMMUNITY

In fact, the work in Mobile has resulted in a  co-owned strategic plan between the community and the school district, and one look at the student achievement results proves that it has worked!  In four years, the district’s 100 schools have gone from 27 to 83 schools meeting No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) – with no schools in state takeover (corrective action). 

 

Upon their return, the two groups decided that Baton Rouge was more than ready to bring the community back into public education and immediately began making plans to join forces and launch “Yes, We Can! BR” (YWC! BR). 

 

In an effort to advance student achievement, YWC! BR pledges to organize community involvement through deep and authentic public engagement. This engagement will become a catalyst for aggressive, innovative and effective public education reform.  YWC! BR is a growing coalition of Baton Rouge citizens working together to ensure that every student in our public schools is given the opportunity, the resources and the support needed to achieve a world class education.