Nasia Norris, a student in the Urban Education Policy (UEP) program, is currently interning with Parents Leading for Educational Equity (PLEE). Under the leadership of recent UEP alum Ramona Santos Torres, PLEE is a parent-led, grassroots advocacy organization fighting to improve public education for students of color. 

Nasia, who joined Teach for America in 2021 with the intent of closing the achievement gap, shares she “quickly realized that numerous political barriers made achieving that mission incredibly challenging”. After three years at a Title 1 school in Texas, she wanted the ability to influence decision-making and design policies that empower students of color. 

Nasia was drawn to the UEP program because of the program’s “focus on equity and the professors’ diverse expertise in education policy.” PLEE allows Nasia the opportunity to further her goals of advocating for Black and Brown students and closing the achievement group through PLEE’s mission of uniting parents in advocating for their children’s education. Norris explains  “PLEE not only holds Providence accountable for providing quality education to students of color but also empowers parents and caregivers with the tools they need to effectively advocate for their children.” 

As a Lead Data Analyst and Focus Group Facilitator at PLEE, Nasia has contributed to a project focused on parents’ perceptions of character schools. Her contributions include gathering data on Providence charter and public schools and comparing metrics such as suspension rates, attendance rates, family engagement and scores. In the spring, she will conduct focus groups with parents to garner a better understanding of the decision making process. 

A struggle Nasia has faced is gathering useful data, as providing accurate information to the parents involved with PLEE can sometimes be challenging. Nasia explains that she has been able to lean “on the professors in the UEP program, especially Dr. de Galbert. Ramona and I have set up meetings with him to help us navigate and interpret the data we're working with.” 

“The most valuable thing I’ve learned so far is the importance of accessible information for parents to make informed decisions about where to enroll their children,” Nasia says. “Although the information is technically public, it is not easily accessible.” She also highlights the value in working with Torres. Nasia admires that Torres took action to drive change within the Providence school system, building PLEE in order to uplift students of color through education policies. 

Through working for PLEE, Nasia has come to realize how critical it is to include parents as policy decision-makers. She hopes to work on the institutional side of policy, and has learned that “many decision-makers are so far removed from the realities of the schools they’re shaping policies for, which often leads to ineffective outcomes”. The connection with PLEE and Torres allows Nasia to amplify parent perspectives, and to think about how continue to do this in her future endeavors.