21 St Century School Fund Inc

The 21st Century School Fund (21CSF) mission is to build the public will and capacity to improve urban public school facilities to support high quality education and community vitality. This mission is guided by a vision for our country where every child
learns in an educationally appropriate, healthy and safe school that serves as a community anchor and is built and maintained in an environmentally and fiscally responsible manner.

21CSF was founded in 1994 by public school parents in the District of Columbia who were concerned about losing neighborhood schools and disinvestment by the city in its public school buildings and grounds. In 1998 the Senior High Alliance of Parents, Principals and Educators started holding monthly meetings that rotate throughout the city to
each DCPS public high school and provide a forum for civil discussion of issues facing public high school parents and schools. In 2002, SHAPPE became a fiscally sponsored entity of 21st Century School Fund.

In 2001, with support from the Ford Foundation, 21CSF formed the Building Educational Success Together (BEST) collaborative—a national learning community of other non-profits working to improve public schools, including their facilities, in other cities. BEST has done national research on capital investment in public school buildings, developed model
policies, and identified good practice for school facility planning and management, as well as supported local research and advocacy for public school infrastructure in New Jersey, California, Washington, DC, and Chicago.

Major accomplishments of 21CSF in DC include: long range educational master planning that is a policy requirement;
the first new public school in a generation Oyster Bilingual Elementary School (2001) with the planning, design and financing managed by 21CSF through a public private development partnership; ongoing capital investment, with over $2 billion of capital investment since 1998 and a public that feels entitled to high quality school buildings; and working with SHAPPE, the prioritization of high schools in the capital improvement program.

To accomplish our mission we work to keep the public informed, engaged and demanding.  At the same time we
do research, policy development and create process innovations to assist the public sector to put in place the policy, practice and processes that will enable
them to deliver high quality school buildings and grounds equitably, efficiently and effectively.

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