Alliance Schools:

    A Profound Set of Choices for Public Education

It would appear that there are three main choices for public education in Texas:

    Leave it as it is and hope it gets better.

    Give parents vouchers and let them choose among some schools. (Give parents a menu of choices.)

    But the most exciting one is: Let the parents, neighborhoods, teachers, principals, and community leaders work together to restructure their own local public schools. (Let parents, teachers, principals, and all those who are willing to invest in the children's success write their own recipe for success.)
 
 

What are Alliance Schools?

The Alliance Schools are schools which have formed a partnership with an organization affiliated with the I.A.F. Network, such as Austin Interfaith, the parents, the faculty, the principal, the school district, and the Texas Education Agency.

Austin Interfaith will commit to such a partnership only if it is evident that the administrators and teachers in a school are serious about re-structuring the school for success, working seriously with parents.  Although the Texas Education Agency will provide some funds for learning how to do things differently, the main point is not the extra grant.  The main point MUST be the serious effort to make sure that everyone in the school is interested in and invested in the success of all the students.

How do they operate differently?

These schools operate differently in several ways:

    Parents become an integral part of the planning for educational success.

   Principals see themselves as instructional leaders, not as enforcers of central administration's policies.

For more information about Alliance Schools in Austin, please contact Austin Interfaith at (512) 916-0100.