Public Education Network Adopts Operating Standards and a
'College and Career Ready' Compact

In 2011, a Public Education Network-established National Commission on Civic Investment in Public Education, co-chaired by former education Secretary Richard Riley, and Linda Darling-Hammond, issued a report, An Appeal to All Americans. The report made the strongest possible case for increased civic investment in public education, and recommended a set of governance, operating, and ethical standards for nonprofit education support organizations, including Local Education Funds (LEFs). 

In November 2011, Public Education Network (PEN) members voted to adopt a set of standards, even more stringent than those recommended by the Commission, by which they will operate. This is a critical step in the development of LEFs as a field. LEFs will be able to use these standards with their boards and staff to guide their work, and will be able to hold these standards up with their funders and partners to demonstrate their focus, accountability, and collective impact. Nationally, PEN will integrate the standards into all aspects of its work, including its membership criteria and the awarding of grants. In addition, PEN adopted a Compact which promises that: "In the communities they serve, LEFs working with their partners, will increase by 100,000 the number of high school students who graduate, or are on track to graduate, college and career ready, by 2013."

Public Education Network is a national network comprised of 77 Local Education Funds across 34 states, 1 million individuals, and a National Office working to advance public school reform in low-income communities across the country. LEFs are unique education reform organizations with deep on-the-ground relationships with both public schools/districts and community stakeholders. PEN reaches 8 million students and LEFs have collectively raised over $4.5 billion in private grants and leveraged $200 billion in public funding to reform public schools.

Learn more about PEN.