KOCO led a 34-day hunger strike in 2015 which drew national attention and showcased community determination, forcing officials to reverse their closure plans.

Widespread media coverage in Chicago and nationally (including a New York Times video short) galvanized others around our actions. KOCO also gained evidence that an affluent North Side school was being expanded while Dyett was to be closed. KOCO confronted city officials with the evidence and stood up for our community.

A groundswell of support poured in and CPS ultimately reversed course. Today, Dyett remains a beacon of education for our students and community.

Read the Dyett Chronology and Other Documents:

• Dyett Chronology
• Coalition Proposal
• Dyett Proposal
• Washington Park Athletic Career Academy RFP
• Little Black Pearl RFP

KOCO has been a leader in engaging low-income and working families in working to shape public policy and calling for the reallocation of resources to sustain community-driven school transformation, the preservation and creation of affordable housing, and investment in youth. Our organization led the fight for community-driven school transformation models locally, and been in the leadership of this same effort nationally. Our organization has trained 50 local school council members who have been active in leading the fight for an elected representative school board campaign. Our organization has engaged parents, youth, and local school council members to present our plan for community-driven sustainable school transformation to the new Chief Executive Officer for the Chicago Public Schools (Barbara Byrd Bennett). Ms. Bennett has since committed to working with our leaders to revisit the decision to phase-out Dyett High School. Our leaders have also provided the leadership behind forming local and national coalitions that have won a municipal referendum measure for an elected representative school board, and a federal hearing on the impact of federal education policy on communities of color, respectively.

KOCO’s youth leaders have been working with their peers and adult allies to bring attention to the civil rights violations taking place at Dyett High School, and ultimately return investment to the school. KOCO’s youth leaders have been able to advocate for the adoption of restorative justice practices to replace the zero tolerance policies; and spearhead the adoption of innovative programming that led to the greatest increase in students attending post-secondary institutions, and the drastic decrease in suspensions and expulsions.

KOCO is one of several organizations in Chicago partnering with the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Public Schools to implement the sustainable community schools model at nearly 2 dozen schools. KOCO is implementing programming at Dyett High School and is collaborating with the Lugenia Burns Hope Center to implement programming at Drake Elementary School.

KOCO created the Mid South Education Association (MSEA) with the help of local school council members, parents, educators, and youth in order to ensure equitable educational opportunities for children in the Mid South area of Chicago. The MSEA facilitates community involvement in schools by providing trainings for local school councils and parent advisory councils, and addresses critical education issues, such as school closings and devolution of community input in the school environment.

Local School Councils (LSCs) in the Mid South area were galvanized in opposition to the “Mid South Plan” and Renaissance 2010, which proposed the closure of 20 of 22 area schools. The organization of the LSCs and concerned residents saved nearly all of the proposed schools from being closed. KOCO was also the convening group for the Chicago Local School Council Task Force, which developed HJR0071, a resolution sponsored by Illinois State Representative Esther Golar to strengthen LSCs and convene subject matter hearings regarding support for LSCs. LSCs are the democratically-elected decision-making body for Illinois public schools.

KOCO leads a multi-ethnic coalition advocating for an elected school board. This has garnered significant public support through precinct-based referendums. As a first step, Chicago will hold Board of Education elections in November 2024.

KOCO is proud to have worked with our communities to help make this happen. In 2017, KOCO played a leadership role in forming Communities Organized for Democracy in Education, or CODE, a citywide, multi-ethnic coalition of 12 parent and community groups fighting for a representative school board.

In the 2010s, Chicagoans in two different non-binding referendums voted to elect school board members, replacing the city’s board made up for mayoral appointments. In the 2017 referendum, KOCO and CODE’s campaign for a representative board won 327 precincts in 35 wards out of 50 total wards across Chicago with an average 86% affirmative vote.

Then KOCO and CODE worked with Illinois’ state legislators to pass a bill calling for an elected representative school board.

Parents have the right to help shape the education that their children receive.

KOCO and CODE also have successfully fought against the privatization and closing of schools in communities of color, and we uncovered the fact that persons connected to the Board of Education paid protestors to counter the demands of the parents and students within communities.

Our fight will never stop.