The Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation has recently partnered with ALL In Education through a multi-year, $200,000 investment that will provide the organization with the capacity needed to continue developing and expanding the reach of its three signature leadership programs, including the Adelante Fellowship. The Adelante Fellowship, which is currently serving the first cohort of 23 participants, focuses on exposing emerging leaders to what it means to be an advocate, how policies are formed and how the education system works. Adelante is rooted in the development of the participants beyond leadership skills. Our participants have been exposed to understanding their why behind education advocacy work, and will work on community action projects focused on proposing solutions to the most pressing issues impacting education.
Adelante is also set to celebrate the graduation of 
its first cohort of leaders in the education sector on May 14th in downtown Phoenix. The inspirational graduation will not only honor each of the fellows for their commitment to the ten month program, it will also feature pitches on four action projects worked on throughout the duration of the program.
The four action projects are focused on the most pressing issues impacting the Arizona education system. Those four issues are:
These pitches will offer research-based and data-driven solutions, along with recommendations and implementation strategies offered by each team. The purpose of the pitch event is to ignite conversation amongst community stakeholders, and inspire partnerships, fresh ideas that organizations and systems can implement immediately with the help of the Adelante Fellows.
ALL In Education is excited to expand and continue to develop our three signature leadership programs that help address the gaps in our education system while helping increase outcomes for Latino, low-income and students of color. We see these programs as impacting and influencing transformational change from the grassroots to the grasstops levels. “With the help of our funders, we will be able to expand our footprint and impact at a much larger scale. Our organization is committed to ensuring that our programs are both effective and solutions oriented which is why we will evaluate the impact of each program,” said Stephanie Parra, Executive Director of ALL In Education.
Apart from supporting the efforts of the Adelante Fellowship, the investment from the Parsons Foundation will also help expand and evolve the efforts of our Parent Educator Academy (PEA), which is now in its third cohort and increased its participant size from 27 to 112 parents in caregivers during the spring 2022 cohort. PEA offers an introductory leadership development program for caregivers that want to strengthen their skills to better support their students in navigating the virtual and classroom learning environment.
The academy is paving the way to meaningful family engagement and involvement, the development of social capital, intellectual capital, and community transformation. Further than that, participants will leave the program having a deeper understanding of the school system, and have agency over decisions that affect their families and communities. Since the first cohort of the program which launched in the Spring of 2021, we have served over 230 participants.The spring cohort of PEA will be celebrating their graduation on May 18 via a virtual ceremony. To further our efforts and impact, we will be opening up our participant capacity to 120 parents and caregivers in Fall 2022 from over 25 public district and charter schools across Maricopa, Pima, Pinal and Yuma counties. We view PEA as our grassroots program.
Lastly, LISTO is developing current and interested school board members, and current school administrators and cabinet members to be leaders that lead through data-driven governance. The program graduated its first cohort of 12 participants in December 2021. LISTO works to take deep dives into specific themes and topics that impact leadership within school systems. The LISTO program is our grasstops program.
Creating these leadership programs will be what helps ALL In Education ensure that students have access to opportunity and justice in and out of the classroom. At 45%, Latino students make up nearly half of Arizona’s K-12 system population, yet only 16% of the teaching workforce and administration, and 14% of state education-board members are Latino. This gap greatly affects student outcomes and success. The lack of lived experience has led to decisions being made that are not representative of what the communities we are serving need.
From an economic standpoint, if we do not create solutions for this population of students to gain access to living and high-wage careers – the future of our economy of Arizona is at stake. The longer we wait to address the needs of these students, the more we put our economy in jeopardy. The three programs are responsible for developing and upskilling our state’s current and future education leaders and advocates.
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