Strive Education model makes a giant leap into national spotlight

Strive, the public-private collaborative aimed at improving education in Greater Cincinnati, has garnered national attention just three years after launching its innovative mission to drive modern education reforms through community partnerships and sound data.

Strive, based in downtown Cincinnati, will spearhead a new $750,000 education effort funded by  Living Cities, a collaborative of 21 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions. Strive will partner with four universities across the country and serve as a model for similar partnerships that will focus on improving education from birth through college.

The four universities are California State University, East Bay in Hayward, Calif., Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, the University of Houston and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va.

“Living Cities has pooled dollars for last 18 years to drive improvements in the urban core and just recently they’ve gotten into education as a key component of improving urban environments. Strive is one of their first investments,” explained Strive Executive Director Jeff Edmondson.

The Living Cities initiative will allow the Strive model to be tested among diverse populations, Edmondson said.

“The cities are diverse geographically and also their populations are very different, so we’re being asked to provide support to them,” he said,

Edmondson said Living Cities contacted them after finding out about the foundation’s work in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

“They reached out to us, they had heard about what was going on in Cincinnati related to improving both the talent pipeline and urban environment of the UC through the Uptown Consortium. Through (outgoing UC president) Nancy Zimpher they came looking for us. When they found us, they asked if we would be willing to try to replicate this in some other cities,” he said.

Edmondson acknowledged it would be a large undertaking for the fledgling organization, but believes it will pay off for Strive, Greater Cincinnati and the partner cities.

“It’s going to be quite an undertaking but the great news there is that Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky is informing the rest of the country about this immense challenge of knitting together systems around data, and that’s pretty special,” he said.

Two Strive employees will be dedicated full-time to the Living Cities effort. Each site will get $100,000 to fund operational and technical assistance to help strengthen their education and community partnerships. The plan is for these cities, along with Cincinnati, to join in forming the Education Partnership Implementation Network. The network will share best practices and other resources.

“We are essentially building a framework where a partnership will develop … that is tailored to the unique needs of their communities but builds on our framework,” Edmondson said.
Strive was founded in 2003, as a subsidiary of KnowledgeWorks Foundation , an education initiative funder. Strive is focused on developing the urban core through better education from birth through some form of college into a career. It does this in several ways. Among them are bringing together various stakeholders, from educators, to funders to community groups and through data driven research that focuses on weaknesses and strengths across the entire education spectrum.

Strive’s 2009 annual report card was recently released. It measured several indicators including early childhood student preparation, academic support and success, and college enrollment and retention. 34 of 53 indicators identified in the report, including high school graduation rates, showed improvement, according to the report.

 “This is causing more of a shift in the way people are looking at data. I think that is the biggest success of that report,” said Geoff Zimmerman, Strive Research and Analysis manager. “The real success in this isn’t necessarily (in the figures) but that this being used by the districts as a tool to look at the data and look deeper.”

This is the reports second year and looks back at measures over the past 4 to five years. It’s one of the ways Strive can present data across a wide spectrum for more complete picture of education across Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

Zimmerman explained: “You know how the economy is doing because you know what the stock market is doing, and what’s going on with mortgages. There are very clear indicators. In education, you don’t always know that. This is trying to drive that, to be consistent and make sure everyone is looking at the same road map to figure out if they are succeeding or not.”

Strive is in the midst of its own learning period as it carries out the mission of Living Cities in the next year. Edmondson said the support of the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky cities and the Strive executive committee members makes its work possible. They include people from the corporate, education, non-profit and sectors.

“It is fully 100 percent because of the passionate leadership of the partners that have come to the Strive table. It’s not about KnowledgeWorks. What this is truly about is the leadership of the city to commit to this long-term change process,” Edmondson said.