It’s been ten years since Empower Schools began its journey towards empowering educators and transforming education. As we reflect on our first decade of education innovation, we’re proud of our progress and impact on students, educators, and communities across the United States.

Empower Schools was born from a crucial realization: isolated efforts in educational innovation, though necessary, could not sufficiently address the broader, systemic challenges inherent to our education system. This insight spurred thoughtful dialogues with community leaders and education innovation pioneers, leading to a consensus on the need for a unified strategy. This strategy would integrate effectively within the existing educational framework to better serve a broader range of students.

—Chris Gabrieli, Co-Founder

Empower Schools was established on the belief that systemic change was imperative to enhance education outcomes for all students. Recognizing the limitations of isolated efforts, we embraced a collaborative approach. Our Massachusetts, Colorado, and Texas stakeholders championed context-specific strategies that promised to serve all students effectively.

One of our initial and most impactful collaborations was with the Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership (SEZP) in Springfield, MA. Starting in 2014, SEZP initially encompassed nine middle schools and expanded to include 16 schools. Each school implements a unique model, informed by data and designed in part by a Teacher Leadership Team. Due in part to the acceleration of outcomes in the SEZP schools, the district has seen its graduation rate soar from 62% to 85%.

Ten Years of Empowerment

Our proudest achievements stem from the deep, authentic community partnerships we’ve forged. These collaborations with dedicated community champions—committed as fiercely to student outcomes as we are—have been instrumental. These partnerships have been particularly geared towards honoring the needs and perspectives of stakeholders traditionally underserved by public school systems. At Empower Schools, 80% of the students we serve identify as Black, Hispanic, or are experiencing poverty.

From Policy to Practice

Throughout our history, we’ve adopted two distinct yet interconnected approaches to enhance educational outcomes at the district and state levels:

• • • Empowered Partnerships are sustainable partnerships that enable transformative district schools where educators have the flexibility and accountability to make decisions that are right for their students, community, and staff. By working with community champions to strategize, incubate, and launch formal agreements, we create enabling conditions that allow educators to customize their schools to meet student needs, unlocking transformational outcomes through fundamentally different structures. We work with the community to analyze the needs and create innovations that will bring the best results. 
  • • Policy and Thought Leadership is how we affect systemic change. We champion state-level policy change, host professional convenings, and provide support and advice to education leaders. We partner with education leaders and local champions to propose, interpret, leverage, and change education policy to catalyze structural shifts.

Empower Schools supports educators at the district and state levels with enabling conditions to customize their schools to meet student needs, unlocking transformational outcomes through fundamentally different structures. Empowered Partnerships and Policy and Thought Leadership are complementary and powerful strategies for empowering change:

• • • Students and communities thrive when great educators are empowered to make decisions based on their schools’ unique needs and populations.
    • Continuous improvement requires empowered schools to be supported and held accountable for their results.
    • Educational policies should be people-driven and designed with the community to meet their specific context.
    • We elevate the voices of champions and spotlight great schools across the country to amplify lessons learned and catalyze change.
    • There can be several different paths to success—not one-size-fits-all—and educator voice is a critical driver of school improvement and innovation.

Throughout 10 Years of collective action and policy change, we have served over  1.5 million students throughout the United States. 

What Now?

Today, Empower School’s commitment to education innovation is stronger than ever. With a dedicated and growing team, including four partners and a visionary second-generation CEO, we are poised to expand our impact across nine additional states. We are ready to build on the lessons we’ve learned and foster new community-led solutions that address local educational challenges at scale.

With strong enabling conditions and forward-thinking policy, educators and system leaders have shown that they can rise to the challenge, reorienting our public education systems so that all students can choose pathways that lead to economic mobility and choice-filled lives. Our team at Empower is honored to support these leaders to show what’s possible, inspire policy change, and ultimately impact the lives of millions more students.

As we celebrate 10 Years of Empowerment, we are rooted in our foundational belief in systemic solutions that empower communities to innovate and improve education on their terms. We invite you to join us as we continue this journey of transformation and empowerment through Innovation Schools, Rural Innovation, and Early College and Career Pathways.