Over the past three decades, philanthropy has been catalytic in funding scalable innovations that demonstrate all students can achieve academically. But we have also learned that the supply of these innovations cannot reach their full potential without “actionable demand” that removes the political and policy barriers preventing innovations from being embraced broadly by school systems.

We deliberately use the term “actionable demand” because there is widespread “latent demand” for great schools in all communities, regardless of socioeconomic makeup. All communities care equally about the education and future of their children. But caring is not the same as power. Most families in underserved communities do not have the economic power to move to better school systems, nor do they realize they have political power to influence change in the local school systems failing them.

Truly transforming education systems requires parents who are (1) informed and (2) organized so that they can (3) exercise their power. Empowered parents, with the support of nonprofit allies, can then deploy a broad set of strategies to set the agenda for education change, achieve that change, and then sustain that change for their children, their schools, and ultimately their school systems.

The good news is that there is a growing sector of social entrepreneurs who offer a diverse range of models for how to be allies to empowered local communities.

Read the full article about actionable demand from parents by Alex Cortez and Yordanos Eyoel at The 74.