OWL's Position: Ed Policy

Owner: Director of Orgazational Strategy & Learning (DOSL) – with input from all Directors Audience: All OWL staff, partners, and stakeholders

Purpose

This position statement clarifies OWL’s organizational stance on education policy engagement. It is intended for internal and external stakeholders, including employees, contractors, partners, and clients, to ensure consistent understanding of OWL's role, boundaries, and philosophy in relation to education policy work.

Core Stance

OWL is not a policy advocacy or lobbying organization. It is not part of our core mission to initiate or campaign for changes to local, state, or national education policy. Instead, our mission is centered on catalyzing sustainable, learner-centered innovation in schools through open, crowdsourced approaches that build local capacity and foster collective teacher efficacy.

Understanding Policy to Maximize Freedom

While we do not advocate for policy changes directly, OWL deeply values and prioritizes understanding the policies that impact our clients. Many education systems operate under layers of restrictions that are not rooted in actual policy but are the result of tradition, misinterpretation, or fear of noncompliance. In line with Rick Hess's Cage-Busting Leadership philosophy, OWL seeks to "bust" these self-imposed cages by helping educators:

• Accurately interpret existing education policy,

• Identify their maximum degrees of freedom within policy constraints,

• Challenge institutional assumptions that unnecessarily limit innovation,

• Implement transformative practices with confidence and clarity.

Policy Awareness, Not Policy Advocacy

We believe that understanding policy is critical to achieving meaningful change. We maintain a pragmatic, research-informed stance on policy interpretation to support clients in making informed decisions. However, we do not:

• Engage in lobbying activities,

• Write or campaign for specific legislation,

• Promote partisan positions or electoral activity,

• Enter into formal partnerships with government agencies in ways that may politicize or compromise our independent stance.

Our Role in the Ecosystem

OWL contributes to systemic change by creating compelling proof points and public narratives that demonstrate what’s possible in learner-centered education. Our model, aligned with Education Reimagined's Theory of Change, focuses on:

• Proof Points: Supporting local innovations that serve as credible models,

• Public Will: Amplifying stories that build community demand for change,

• Policy Change: Leaving formal policy reform to advocacy organizations better suited to that role.

We welcome collaborations with partners, especially other nonprofits, who can use OWL’s work and artifacts to influence policy. Our contribution to such collaborations is supplying open-source insights, stories, tools, and data that make the case for change.

Implications for OWL Work

• All project design must account for relevant education policies and help clients identify flexibility within them.

• OWL facilitators and staff must avoid framing work as political or policy advocacy.

• When policy implications emerge, OWL’s role is to surface them in a way that is pragmatic toward the goals of the applicable contract and consistent with our mission and values - i.e. not as a call to action, but as a deeper understanding of how eliminating barriers can quicken the pace of the diffusion of innovation.

• Communications about policy must be clear, nonpartisan, and solution-focused, ideally highlighting the voice of local stakeholders in a clear and compelling way.

Summary

OWL is committed to policy awareness and policy literacy, but not to direct policy advocacy. We believe in empowering educators and communities to drive change from within, by creating powerful stories of what works and inspiring organic, community-driven momentum. Through this approach, we help cultivate the conditions for others to advocate for the systemic changes they seek, but without OWL losing sight of its core mission or strengths.

For questions or clarification on this stance, please contact OWL's Director of Strategy & Innovation.