Parents advocating for better schools get stronger voice with unveiling of Charleston RISE

Charleston County parents who feel passionately about working for better quality schools have a new resource. Charleston RISE, a new parent education advocacy group, was unveiled at an event in North Charleston Tuesday night. At the event, Rep. Robert Brown delivered the keynote address as he congratulated the initial class of 12 parent advocates who started the program in February and who were recognized at the graduation-themed ceremony. The graduation marks the advocates’ transition from the program’s 20-week classroom phase into the program’s ongoing advocacy phase where they will directly work to improve the quality of schools, teachers, administrators and programs in the Charleston County School District.

“Charleston RISE is about creating hope for parents who have been ignored for too long, and they have seen their children forced to pay the price of failing schools with their futures,” said Cheryl Cromwell, parent organizer. “Tonight’s graduates are demanding that their children receive an education that prepares them to succeed, and Charleston RISE is supporting them so their voices will be heard.”

Tuesday evening’s event also featured the results of a project carried out by the 12 graduates. They chose criteria to be used to rank all Charleston County elementary, middle and high schools. While the data was publicly available, it had never been aggregated to rank schools. The graduates released the results of the elementary rankings at the event [link], using third grade proficiency data in English and math as quality measures. The group will release rankings for middle and high schools in the coming weeks.

“The group chose to rank CCSD schools because it’s important that citizens know how many schools in CCSD are failing their students. In order to demand change, we first must show that change is needed. These school rankings demonstrate that the status quo is leaving too many students unprepared for college and career, and African American students are disproportionately affected,” said Cromwell. “This data is heartbreaking.”

Charleston RISE has plans to begin a new classroom session in September. In addition to transitioning to community advocacy, Tuesday’s graduates are expected to remain active as mentors for the fall class—creating a larger network of parent advocates. Community members can learn more about Tuesday’s graduates – and keep up with the program – by visiting the group’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CharlestonRISE/ and selecting “Like” and “Follow.”

 About Charleston RISE

Charleston RISE is a grassroots movement that has one goal: to empower local parents to demand an excellent education for a l l Charleston students. Charleston RISE does this by mobilizing Charleston County parents who have a clear passion for improving our education system. The movement prepares parents for community activism through a two-part program designed to give them the tools needed to work for true, system-wide change.