Since 2004, Empowerment has grown from its roots as the Autonomy Zone (4 networks, 29 schools), to the first year of Empowerment (14 networks, 332 schools), to its current size (22 networks, 535 schools). 

To address the increased size of the organization, Empowerment reorganized.  We felt that the reorganization was necessary to allow us to continue to know our schools and networks well, and support them better, both educationally and financially.  We reorganized in ways that we believe will:

• deepen our efforts in support of meaningful student achievement, and make clear the distinctive organizing principles and beliefs of the organization. 
• implement Empowerment’s belief that great work can happen through strong professional relationships in smaller groups;
• continue our policy of devolving more funds to the schools and reducing the amount spent on central administration. 

While maintaining Empowerment’s belief structure as the unifying factor, we divided Empowerment into two affiliated, yet autonomous school support organizations (SSOs):

Empowerment Schools Association (ESA) and

Empowerment Schools Organization (ESO)

The beliefs that originally grounded the work of Empowerment continue to guide both ESA and ESO (supporting meaningful student achievement, developing strong professional relationships, and building collaborative learning communities).  Empowerment’s voice is significant, not just due to our numbers (35% of the city’s schools), but because of the thoughtful and creative policy initiatives we have pioneered over the past five years.  By remaining connected by our history and beliefs, there is strength in speaking with one voice as we continue to advocate for our students and schools.

ESA and ESO differ in the same ways networks differ from each other.  These variations emerge from the needs of schools, network team members, and the professional relationships that have developed over time.  We support and encourage this type of differentiation because such customization enables network teams to provide schools with quality support.