Coalition for Cohesive Policy in Addressing Barriers to Development & Learning

Background Statement

At the 1997 national summit on addressing barriers to student learning (focused on Closing Gaps in School/Community Policy and Practice), fundamental concerns were underscored regarding the critical need to fill policy gaps and enhance policy cohesion. This led to a proposal for creation of a policy-oriented coalition of organizations who have a stake in addressing barriers to development, learning, and teaching. The notion was that such a coalition could generate mechanisms to prepare and implement a strategic plan to foster policy integration and close policy gaps.

To help establish the coalition, the School Mental Health Project/Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA offered to play a catalytic role and provide technical support (e.g., bringing leaders together, facilitating creation of a steering group, providing support for planning). Organizations were identified and contacted; volunteers were solicited for a steering committee. In early March 1998, a strategic planning meeting was held in DC with those members of the steering committee who could attend. A working draft of the group's report was prepared and circulated for feedback and revision to all steering committee members in late March, and the report was revised and circulated in May. A statement of the coalition's purpose and vision, an exploration of guiding principles, and a set of first step recommendations were outlined in the report (see Appendix A). The recommendations were pursued from May 1998 through March 1999. Progress on first steps is reviewed in this document.

As planned, the steering committee was convened again in April 1999 to plan next steps. With a view to facilitating participation, meetings were held in two sections of the country (in D.C. on April 5th and in Los Angeles on April 12th). The agenda for the meeting reflected feedback over the year that indicated strong interest in the coalition identifying a specific area of focus for the immediate future that reflected an overlapping area of concern among coalition participants. Several possibilities were suggested (e.g., enhancing the priorities of local boards of education related to addressing barriers to student learning, focusing on the ESEA reauthorization, zeroing in on early education and the 21st Century Learning Centers initiatives). As was done previously, once the schedule for the meeting was finalized, all coalition participants were informed so that any who may wished to attend could do so. In addition to those on the current Coalition list, a few other key folks who have a stake in the matters under discussion were invited to provide the Steering group with some invaluable input. The occasion was also used to inform others about the coalition and invite them to join.