Su ’99 Researches Grassroots Organizations and Education Reform in the Bronx

Celina Su ’99 is the author of Streetwise for Book Smarts: Grassroots Organizing and Education and Reform in the Bronx (Cornell University Press, 2009) in which she explores the efforts of parents and students who sought to improve the quality of education in their local schools by working with grassroots organizations.

In these organizations, everyday citizens pursued not only education reform but also democratic accountability and community empowerment. These groups had similar resources and operated in the same political context, yet their strategies and tactics were very different: while some focused on increasing state and city aid to their schools, others tried to change the way the schools themselves operated.

Su closely observed four activist groups in the Bronx, including Mothers on the Move and Sistas and Brothas United, in order to better understand strategies that may lead to better and safer schools everywhere.