In February 2012, Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson unveiled “Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools,” developed by a broad group of stakeholders, including the Cleveland and George Gund Foundations, and strongly endorsed by Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) CEO Eric Gordon. The plan builds on the success of an initiative launched by the two foundations in 2006 to create a portfolio of excellent schools in Cleveland.

Growing to 20 strong, these charter and CMSD schools—granted operational autonomy in exchange for high levels of accountability—have consistently outperformed their traditional counterparts. “The Cleveland Plan” laid out a blueprint for tripling the number of Cleveland students enrolled in high-performing portfolio schools and eliminating failing CMSD schools within six years.

The plan calls for central administrators to focus on governance and support and relinquish top-down control of individual schools; mandates a performance-based evaluation and compensation system for teachers and principals; eliminates length of service as the primary criterion in layoffs; empowers a panel of business, community and school leaders called the Cleveland Transformation Alliance to ensure the accountability of all the city’s schools; and permits CMSD to intervene quickly to restructure failing schools and share local tax revenues with partnering charter schools. It is, in sum, the most groundbreaking reform strategy in the district’s recent history. In recognition of their contributions and commitment to the plan’s creation, the Cleveland and Gund Foundations received the 2013 Ohio Philanthropy Innovation Award from Philanthropy Ohio, a statewide association of private funders.

After extended negotiations in which the two foundations helpfully participated, the Transformation Plan gained the support of the Cleveland Teachers Union and, ultimately, the approval of the Ohio General Assembly. The foundation played a prominent role in winning passage of the enabling legislation, which was signed by Ohio governor John Kasich in June 2012. It also helped to finance the campaign promoting passage of Issue 107, CMSD’s first operating levy in 16 years and the largest to come before northeastern Ohio voters in recent memory. Referring to the enabling provisions of House Bill 525 as a prerequisite, Mayor Jackson noted that the passage in November 2012 of the 15-mill levy moved the school district another step closer to success.

The third step is implementation. Having declared its highest objective to be achieving the educational excellence necessary to develop a knowledgeable and skilled workforce and ensuring that every child in Cleveland has the opportunity to realize his or her full potential in an imaginative and effective school, the Cleveland Foundation committed more than $4 million to help make the Transformation Plan a reality. “Without major public school reform … our city will be left behind, and our children will face a bleak future—a tragic prospect wholly unnecessary,” foundation president and CEO Ronald B. Richard has stated. “We must seize this chance to create a stronger, more globally competitive Cleveland, and a more just society for our community and the nation.”