About Wingspan Partnerships

What We Do

Wingspan Partnerships narrows the education gap by developing and supporting partnerships between public and private schools.

Our innovative approach appreciates the history of diverse communities, different schools, and disparate outcomes. We’re in touch with schools and communities on both sides of the gap, ready to connect.

By thoughtfully pairing public and private schools, Wingspan Partnerships guides the dialogue in schools and communities open to creating change and helping more students learn more. . . . and it's already happening.

The Facts

The Harvard Civil Rights Project, which has been tracking desegregation issues and public education in the United States since it was created in 1996, frames the issues clearly:

"Socioeconomic segregation is a stubborn, multidimensional and deeply important cause of educational inequality. Levels of segregation for black and Latino students have been steadily increasing since the l980s. The great majority of nonwhite students attend schools which now show substantial segregation. U.S. schools are now 41 percent nonwhite. Achievement scores are strongly linked to school racial composition and so is the presence of highly qualified and experienced teachers. The high level of poverty among children, together with many housing policies and practices which excludes poor people from most communities, mean that students in inner city schools face isolation not only from the white community but also from middle class schools."

From Community Service to Public Purpose

Now is the time to change the facts and re-write the story. Wingspan Partnerships moves a tradition of giving into the 21stCentury.

"Given the considerable resources they command and the powerful network of influential people they attract, independent schools have the opportunity -- and I believe, the obligation -- to do more than educate 1.5 per cent of our nation's children exceptionally well."

Dr. Al Adams, Head of School, Lick-Wilmerding High School, San Francisco, CA

Building on an American Ideal

Many of this nation’s most respected private schools were founded with a philosophy of contributing to the public good. That spirit thrives. Many schools involve students in community service.

Wingspan Partnerships believes that educators have a role to play in education for all. We believe that public purpose should be a central value in all schools, public as well as private, and that we all have a particular responsibility for the education of the underserved.

“At last! Wingspan Partnerships puts wings on an idea that has been floating around for decades. Now independent schools across the country can genuinely partner with public schools, and everyone benefits.”

Dr. Pearl Kane, Director, Klingenstein Institute, Teachers College, Columbia University