Parent Organization: Office of Student Activities & Involvement
Our mission is to mobilize the next generation of leaders on college campuses to close the achievement gap and ensure an excellent education for all children. We’re creating
a national student movement, and you can help, whether you're a current student, alum, teacher, parent, or supporter.
Our advocacy work and chapter activities are guided by a statement of principles that articulates — from a student perspective — the system-level reforms we believe are necessary to achieve
educational equity in the United States. Our principles include:
1. High expectations.
We believe that all students, regardless of race or background, are capable of achieving at a high level. While we recognize the challenges of poverty, we believe that a great education is the first step for a student to succeed — a school must not
abandon its primary mission of providing an excellent education for its students.
2. Quality school options and community engagement.
We believe that parents and students should be able to select excellent schools that enable students to become active, informed citizens. Parents and students deserve access to meaningful information about the quality of their local schools, and school
systems must provide parents and community members with avenues to participate in their children’s education.
3. Great teachers and leaders.
We believe that great teachers and leaders are central to a thriving school, and as students, we value our teachers enormously. We believe that great teachers deserve to be respected and recognized, and that teaching our nation’s children is a privilege,
not a right. We believe that schools and school systems must have the ability to attract, support, and retain the best teachers possible.
4. Rigorous standards and meaningful assessments.
We believe that students deserve clear, high standards and rigorous, meaningful assessment to accompany a culture of high expectations. We believe that transparent and effective use of data can give teachers vital information about how to meet individual
student needs.
5. Fiscal transparency and accountability. We believe that students deserve school systems
that spend public dollars on improving instruction and effective practices that raise student achievement. We believe that systems should display more transparency in where and why dollars are spe
