ROC the Future received nearly $75,000 from StriveTogether, a national nonprofit working to bring communities together around data to make decisions and improve results for kids. This award is part of the Cradle to Career Community Challenge grant, which will award up to $7 million in new grants over 3 years to strengthen the systems that shape opportunity for children.  ROC the Future will use its grant award to support the Early Grade Literacy Outcome Team to implement strategies to ensure all students are reading on grade level and developing advanced literacies in reading, writing, critical thinking skills and oral proficiencies.  Continue reading →

A new statewide group working to secure the right of all New York students to a quality P-12 education that prepares them for effective civic participation, announced its launch in February. Continue reading →

The Greater Rochester Summer Learning Association (GRSLA) is a regional nonprofit exclusively focused on closing the achievement gap by increasing access to high-quality summer learning opportunities. If you have summer availability and are looking for part-time work apply to be a Classroom Liaison/Observer today!

During the October 2018 Convener meeting, Conveners unanimously passed a decision to endorse the early childhood developmental services campaign, aimed at improving early intervention and pre-school special education systems in our community. Continue reading →

Collective Engagement for Our Collective Future

It would be no exaggeration to say that 2018 was a stellar year for ROC the Future: we expanded our staffing by hiring Tanishia Johnson as our Manager of Family and Community Engagement, and received 2 significant grants that will help us build our capacity to improve the work of the alliance.  We launched our new Outcomes Framework, by establishing two new Outcome Teams to focus on our prioritized outcomes (Early Grade Literacy and High School Graduation); and partnered with the Rochester City School District to support their Community Schools expansion framework.  Continue reading →

The Children’s Agenda is pleased to welcome Stephanie Townsend, PhD, as the Director of Research and Analytics for ROC the Future. Before joining ROC the Future, Stephanie worked for 12 years as a consultant to community based and educational organizations. Continue reading →

ROC the Future has set out to make reading by 3^rd an ongoing priority and we are excited to participate in StriveTogether’s Leadership Program. The Leadership Program equips diverse teams of community leaders with practical skills and a rigorous, action-oriented process to create real, lasting change for children and families. We will join 9 other partnerships from communities on the West coast, East coast, Midwest and the South in a nine-month series of intensive action-based sessions that bring teams together to accelerate progress on an academic outcome. Continue reading →

On Monday, January 21^st at Eastman Theater, Jackie Campbell will be one of the recipients of the Raymond L. Graves Award bestowed by the Greater Rochester Martin Luther King, Jr.  Commission. The Raymond L. Graves Award is awarded to an individual who has devoted their time and servant leadership in the areas of social justice and community service. Continue reading →

What would educational outcomes look like if every school in our community was a hub and access point for services children and families need? A Community School is just that. It is both a place and strategy for organizing resources around the needs of students and families to provide critical elements that students and families need to thrive. Our district currently has 10 community schools and we are supporting RSCD to standardize and expand more. Continue reading →

Those are the two words that sum up and describe my experience at the Leadership Institute at Harvard Graduate School of Education’s ReDesign Lab. Although the experience for our team of 4 — which in addition to myself included ROC the Future Chair, Ajamu Kitwana, and Conveners Simeon Banister from the Community Foundation, and Jerome Underwood from Action for a Better Community — might be expressed in different ways by each of us, I’m sure we’d agree that these two words appropriately describe what we walked away with. Continue reading →