The Cleveland Transformation Alliance (CTA), a decade-old organization created to help families pick quality schools, will no longer operate after March.

Local and state leaders created the transformation alliance in 2012 as part of the Cleveland Plan for Transforming Schools. The organization had four main responsibilities: assess the quality of all Cleveland schools, guide families through school choice, monitor the growth of charter schools and hold the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) to the Cleveland Plan.

During a Monday night meeting, CTA’s board of directors voted unanimously to dissolve the public-private partnership. Board members said the organization has accomplished much of what it was created to do. Now, other local education-focused organizations will absorb most of CTA’s current responsibilities, such as organizing information about the quality of schools in Cleveland.

“It’s important that we use this moment to take stock of the great progress that we’ve made, but also evaluate what kind of collaboration is needed to position [CMSD] for the future,” said Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, who chairs CTA’s board. “It’s important that we really, as leaders in this space, continue to vet how we move forward given all these headwinds that we’re seeing at the federal and state level.”

CTA currently employs an executive director and three part-time school choice navigators who help parents pick schools. As of November 2024, the organization had $291,360 in funding, most of which came from Cleveland Foundation and Gund Foundation grants. 

CTA’s board members noted that the dissolution could be reversed. Because the creation of CTA is part of a state law, any mayor of Cleveland could re-launch the organization in the future. In the meantime, Bibb plans to meet with the city’s education leaders twice each year to check up on the progress of the Cleveland Plan, according to a press release.

Cleveland Transformation Alliance led a push for better schools

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) found itself in dire straits in 2012. It faced a budget deficit, poor academic quality, and declining enrollment with only about half of its students graduating. Frank Jackson, the mayor of Cleveland at the time, worked with local nonprofit and education leaders to form the Cleveland Plan, which was passed through the Ohio Legislature and staved off a state takeover of the school district.

The plan gave individual schools in CMSD more autonomy and allowed parents to choose to enroll their children in any school in the district. At the same time, lagging regulations on charter schools had become a topic of scrutiny both in Ohio and across the country. 

That’s where CTA came in. The Cleveland Plan’s architects envisioned the organization as a local watchdog over both charter and CMSD schools. They initially hoped the alliance would have a strong say over which charters could operate in Cleveland, but the state soon took much of that authority for itself. 

In the years since then, Ohio has continued to revise its regulations on charter schools. New state requirements have weeded out some low-performing charters, but debate still remains about how to hold charters accountable. Recently, some lawmakers have pushed to relax standards as the state revises its policies for evaluating charters. 

CTA was also designed to provide families with information about the quality of all the schools in Cleveland, aiming to help parents make informed decisions about where to enroll their children. The state picked up some of that responsibility, too.

Since CTA’s inception, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce has beefed up its annual report card system for grading charter and public schools. CTA itself now uses state report card data to compile a school quality guide both as a webpage and a printed booklet. 

The future of that school quality guide remains uncertain, but CTA’s board members said they want it to continue. In its last few months, CTA is working to identify organizations to host the school quality guide webpage and produce the booklet in the future. This year’s guide is almost finished, and CTA has money set aside to print the booklet.

What’s next for the Cleveland Plan?  

Back in 2012, the Cleveland Plan helped CMSD earn voters’ approval of a tax increase for the first time since 1996. Just last year, CMSD celebrated the passage of its fifth consecutive levy since then.

In recent years, other local education-focused organizations have cropped up to support progress of  the Cleveland Plan. PRE4CLE got going in 2013, aiming to improve access to preschool for Cleveland’s children. The number of high-performing preschools and enrollment in those schools have increased in the years since.
Say Yes Cleveland launched in 2019 to get more high school students in college. Say Yes provides scholarships and mentorship for high school graduates. The organization also deploys social workers in every CMSD school to help families navigate challenges outside the classroom.

K-12 Education and Youth Reporter (he/him)
As a local visual journalist, I see my purpose in building relationships as much as reporting news. I’ve made my most impactful work only after pouring myself into my community.