10+ YEARS OF
IMPACT
10+ YEARS OF
IMPACT
Equity-Driven
Data-Centered
Student-Focused
The Education Trust-Midwest works for the high academic achievement of all Michigan students in pre-kindergarten through college. Our goal is to close the gaps in opportunity and achievement that disproportionately impact students who are the most underserved, with a particular focus on Black and Latino/a students and students from low-income backgrounds.
IMPACT
BY THE NUMBERS
IMPACT
BY THE NUMBERS
10+ YEARS
OF POLICY WINS FOR STUDENTS WHO ARE THE MOST UNDERSERVED, PARTICULARLY BLACK AND LATINO/A STUDENTS AND STUDENTS FROM LOW-INCOME BACKGROUNDS
Working alongside a growing number of committed partners, our organization has played a pivotal role in crucial statewide policy changes and supporting equity-driven practices. Our efforts have opened doors to inspiring conversations with leaders in state government, K-12 education, business, civil rights, philanthropy, non-profit and grassroots spaces. We’ve been honored to help build leaders’ and advocates’ knowledge about effective strategies to close opportunity gaps.
We’ve taken bold action leading to transformational policy changes; formed effective and durable equity-centered coalitions; researched and spearheaded high-leverage strategies from top education states; and led major public engagement campaigns.
We are proud to have served as a leading voice for educational equity in thousands of conversations. Today we serve as a policy, data, communications, and community engagement backbone to organizations across the Great Lakes State. Our collective work touches more than a million students.
We do our work every day with our mission’s north star guiding us. We believe a high-quality public education is essential for a healthy democracy and a globally competitive economy. It is a right that every child deserves. And it is the key to Michigan’s future.
LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES ADVANCED
ETM successfully advanced 76% of our Opportunity Agenda over the past three years to improve public education for hundreds of thousands of students, especially those who are the most underserved
Secured in FY ’24
Additional dollars secured for students from low-income backgrounds who are considered ‘at risk’ – for a total of $950 million+
THE MICHIGAN PARTNERSHIP FOR EQUITY AND OPPORTUNITY REACH
- 28 counties, in addition to statewide reach
- 214 local school districts
- 219 charter schools
- 1 million+ students
COALITION PARTNERS ASSEMBLED AND CONVENED
REPORTS, POLICY BRIEFS, AND PUBLIC TESTIMONIES
Focused on best practices inleading states and advocating for all students, especially those who are underserved, to have equitable access to opportunities for a great public education.
ESTIMATED VIEWS
Based on audience reach and engagement through articles, opinion pieces, interviews
HUNDREDS OF MEETINGS WITH POLICY LEADERS ANNUALLY – 50+ ALONE IN FALL 2023
MENTIONS IN ARTICLES AND MEDIA
YEARS OF IMPACT
With a particular focus on Black and Latino/a students and students from low-income backgrounds.
“Education Trust-Midwest has emerged as a beacon of educational equity in Michigan, utilizing data-driven advocacy and unwavering dedication to bridging opportunity and achievement gaps. Their efforts have championed equitable funding, expanded access to high-quality early childhood education, and fortified teacher training, propelling educational equity across the state.”
Wendy Jackson, Managing Director-Detroit, The Kresge Foundation
OVER A DECADE OF
Advocacy & Opportunity
2011
The Education Trust-Midwest (ETM) launches as a new division of The Education Trust, one of the country’s leading organizations focused on closing gaps in opportunity and achievement for Black and Latino students and children from low-income backgrounds. The organization begins producing groundbreaking analyses and evidence-based policy recommendations.
Letter from the
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Since the inception of The Education Trust-Midwest more than a decade ago, we have stayed steadfast in a belief that addressing systemic issues of opportunity gaps is the key to transforming America’s and Michigan’s education system. For more than 10 years, we have built a movement in Michigan by leading and supporting efforts to ensure that all Michigan students — especially Black and Latina/o students and children from low-income backgrounds — have access to a high-quality public education.
This mission has guided The Education Trust for more than two decades, yet it’s one shared by so many Americans, regardless of background or political party. It’s an idea that had its seeds in my own childhood, when wonderful teachers provided me with great teaching and treated me with respect and kindness, grounded in a belief that I could learn at high levels. When the world around me did not encourage me or see me for what I could become, teachers such as Ms. Bonnie Dutton and Mr. Al Jewel saw great potential in me, supported my interests and encouraged me to soar.
Today Michigan’s public schools are filled with children of tremendous potential and committed educators, just as they were when I was growing up. The conditions in which children and educators are working to succeed have changed, though — and often, not for the better. Our state’s public education system has been underfunded for more than two decades. The children who have borne the brunt of this lack of investment and support are those who live in the state’s lower-income communities and urban and rural communities, research shows — and children who often need additional support such as multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Michigan’s K-12 schools’ learning outcomes have been lagging behind leading states. While every Michigan student deserves to be truly well-prepared and supported in school to succeed in pursuing post-secondary opportunities, we are very far from making this vision a reality.
Yet we also know that change is possible…
-Amber Arellano, MPP
What We Do
Founded in 2011, The Education Trust-Midwest is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and data- driven policy, research, advocacy, and technical assistance organization, grounded in civil rights. Our team works alongside many partners at the state and local levels to close the gaps in opportunity and achievement for all students in Michigan schools. Ed Trust-Midwest has expertise in data analysis and strong partnerships with cross-sector organizations, legislators, educators, and diverse, bipartisan leaders across the state. We bring a combination of high-level practitioner expertise: analytic capacity: expertise on research-based human capital strategies; expertise of our national office, The Education Trust, and our partnerships with leading practitioners and nonprofits from around the country.
Policy Development
The Education Trust-Midwest is known for its strong research, data analytic and policy capabilities and expertise, leveraging lessons and strategies from leading education states. The team develops policy recommendations to strengthen Michigan’s education system and ensure that students who are the most underserved have the resources and supports they need to thrive. We dig deep into the history and background of the issue, researching current advancements and what works in leading education states through broad environmental scans and data analyses – both quantitative and qualitative when available – to develop specific policy recommendations centered, always, on equity for students who have long been underserved. Our work has included campaigns on how to make Michigan a top ten education state; school workforce issues at both the local and state levels; college- and career-readiness including new standards implementation; educator attraction, retention and diversity; third-grade reading improvement and success; teacher leadership and principal support; school accountability and public reporting; post-secondary access and success; and equitable and adequate school funding, among many others.
Research, Reports, Data Analysis & Technical Expertise
We publish in-depth reports and briefs on issues most central to Michigan’s educational recovery and evidence-based strategies from leading education states. Each year, The Education Trust-Midwest has published an annual State of Michigan Education report. This detailed analysis provides important data on student achievement in Michigan and across the country and highlights many of the ways that we can transform Michigan into the education leader that our children deserve, and our state’s future depends on.
Nonpartisan Center for Data and Research-Driven Information
We are committed to informing policy change through nonpartisan data and research-driven information from an equity lens. We highlight best practices from leading education states and leading schools and districts inside Michigan because there is so much to learn from educators and leaders on the ground who are making great progress for students who are underserved.
Technical Assistance and Thought Partnership
We provide non-partisan, research-based technical assistance and thought partnership to state and local leaders and major organizations to help advance evidence-based information, data and expertise about public education.
Convening Coalitions and Partners
The Education Trust-Midwest has long served as a convener and backbone organization on a variety of subjects. All have been focused on how to increase equity in education, especially for Michigan’s students who have been the most underserved. Our backbone roles include serving as a source of non-partisan data and research expertise; communications and public engagement support; policy development; and consensus-building and partnership-building. Most recently Ed Trust-Midwest has served as the backbone for the Michigan Partnership for Equity and Opportunity (MPEO), a diverse, bipartisan table that includes individual members as well as organizations who have signed on to be allies for equity. The MPEO has been lauded for its work to convene equity allies by Bellwether Education Partners, a highly regarded, national education nonprofit that works with education leaders and organizations to transform education, particularly for children who are systemically marginalized.
Knowledge Building, Movement Building & Advocacy
We regularly convene thought leaders and organizations from around the state and country who are working on some of our nation’s most pressing challenges with the goal of reaching an equitable educational outcome for all students. Lasting and powerful movements for systems change require knowledgeable, empowered leaders and organizations that can work well together to mobilize and empower others and press for an equity-centered public education system. Our work is focused on convening, building and supporting those organizations and leaders around the state regardless of geographic area, professional sector and political background and give them voices in decisions that impact them and their communities.
We also publish regular reports, policy briefs, newsletters and blogs, providing additional opportunities for educators, policymakers, and advocates who are committed to equity in education to stay up to date with research and findings and learn new ways to leverage their voice to work toward opportunity for all students.
Through our work, The Education Trust-Midwest shines a spotlight on data, research and best practices on key education issues. We advocate for state policies and legislative proposals to ensure Michigan provides opportunity and access to a great education for all Michigan students.
Our Partners
The Jandernoa Foundation
“ETM has been a strong advocate. The things that we believe are important in our school system, they’ve been a string voice… They produce lots of good information. They’re very talented in all they do, so they should continue with dissemination information, holding folks accountable and challenging where they should be challenged.”
Alice Thompson, CEO, BFDI Educational Services, Inc., Chair of the Detroit NAACP’s Education Committee
