The West Virginia Education Fund, now The Education Alliance, becomes the first statewide education nonprofit in the country.

Launches Project ACCESS, the first last-dollar scholarship program to assist college-bound students.

Creates Mentoring for Academic Achievement and College Success to link college students with high school students interested in a college education.

Starts the first library improvement program, which later becomes Library Power, a national program supported by PEN and the DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund.

Develops the public policy framework for North Carolina’s school accountability initiatives, and issues Thinking for a Living: A Blueprint for Educational Growth, a report that is instrumental in getting the 1989 School Improvement and Accountability Act passed.

Implements Understanding Nature and Yourself Through Experience, a program to build self-confidence and teach leadership skills to high school students by exploring nature and the environment.

Launches Berkeley School Volunteers, recruiting more than 50,000 hours of volunteer time and talent since its inception.

Introduces Communities in Schools, a program providing resources to help young people learn, stay in school, and prepare for life.

Opens a Leadership Academy, a two-year program to hone the leadership abilities of administrators and educators.

Initiates a Teacher Business Card program to emphasize the professional status of teachers, and help them communicate more effectively with students, parents, and the business community.

Together with the Oakland Unified School District and Oakland Technical High School, creates the Oakland Technology Exchange to recycle and place computers in Oakland schools and homes. Computers considered obsolete by corporate standards are diverted from landfill and refurbished by 200+ volunteers. Students and parents receive training in English, Spanish, Chinese, or Vietnamese. OTX-West delivered more than 4,000 computers in the last two years.

Launches Technology Links, an AmeriCorps Project FIRST community outreach program that encourages parental involvement in schools by providing them with computers and computer training.

Evaluation of ADF mini-grants totaling $1.2 million to more than 2,000 teachers, confirms improved learning environments, increased instructional effectiveness, better student motivation and faculty morale, and more interaction between the community and the public
schools. East Baton Rouge Parish student test scores equal or exceed the average in all five areas of the state graduation exam.

Creates Achievement First, a whole-school reform model that places coaches and staff developers in elementary schools to help principals and teachers master strategies that result in improved student
achievement.

Launches the Ohio College Access Network, a consortium of programs to help low-income students attend college.

Launches a school-business partnership initiative at the county’s first educational funding summit.

Helps initiate passage of a $75 million bond referendum by recruiting volunteers to distribute literature and posters at voting precincts and operate a phone bank.

Creates an e-mentoring program, linking more than 1,000 students from Minneapolis Public Schools with mentors from local businesses and community organizations.

Coordinates public demonstrations against voucher proposals in Washington, DC.

The El Dorado Education Foundation (EDEF), led by Lila Phillips, advocated against school district mergers in the state of Arkansas that would maintain white majorities. To save costs, the state had instructed small districts to consolidate. In response, predominantly white districts tried to merge with other white districts, even if they did not share geographical borders. EDEF fought this all the way to the state school board armed with enrollment data, flipcharts, and influential endorsements. This victory was hard won and represents a major coup for anti-segregation forces in Arkansas.