One LA - IAF's educational strategy addresses the challenges facing Los Angeles schools through a three-tiered approach to reform: working to transform the culture of member schools by building trust between all adults in the school community; alleviating pressures that affect the classroom such as environmental conditions, housing and safety; and building a powerful constituency to ensure that education policy is crafted with the input of parents and educators.

1. Building Trust in Schools: One LA - IAF member schools work to develop a relational culture, a culture based on interpersonal trust, and a community of learners in order to combat a culture of isolation, fear, punitive incentives and deficit-model thinking that sees all parties (administrators, teachers, parents) as problems to be overcome rather than as resources to be developed. One LA - IAF organizers and leaders work so that parents, teachers and administrators in a school community form relationships of trust and learn to see each other as partners rather than adversaries.

2. Alleviating Pressures on the Classroom: A quality education requires educating the whole child. Children who live in substandard housing, are forced to move because of rising rents, are scared to walk home after school or have difficulty getting the health care they need are children who will have a tougher time achieving academic success in the classroom. One LA - IAF works to build networks within and between school institutions and congregations so that parents and school personnel can work together to address the obstacles inside and outside the school environment that impact what happens inside the classroom.

3. Impacting Education Policy: Schools do not exist as islands - they are affected by the decisions and policies of school boards, state legislators and federal office-holders. In order for education policy to reflect educational reality, educators must be involved in developing the policies they implement. One LA - IAF works to build a constituency that can act on behalf of public education and to develop critical thinking skills in students and citizens at the district, state and federal levels.