Higher Expectations for Racine County

Our Community Engagement Manager Leanna and Parent Grade Lead Ketti represented us at the WEAC Coalition for Community Schools Conference this week, sharing our Parent Grade Lead model with educators and community leaders from across the state.

They shared how families have grown from event attendees into true leaders, ambassadors, and partners in student success. So proud of Leanna and Ketti for showing up, sharing our story, and representing our community so well!

Today is Federal Advocacy Day at the 2026 Policy Summit and our Executive Director, Elizabeth, is spending the day on Capitol Hill advocating alongside partners from The Wisconsin Partnership.

The work happening at the federal level connects directly back to what we're building here at home — supporting families and young children in our community.

Two of our incredible team members are heading to Madison next week to present at the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) Coalition for Community Schools Conference!

Our Community Engagement Manager, Leanna, and Parent Grade Lead, Ketti, will be sharing our Parent Grade Lead model. If you're attending the conference next week, go show them some love! 🫶🏽

Happy Graduation to the Racine Unified Schools ! 🎓

Congratulations to each and every graduate crossing the stage this weekend. We're so proud of you, and can't wait to see what you accomplish next!

Last week we gathered to celebrate the end of an incredible school year with our Parent Grade Leads! 🎉A huge THANK YOU to Angela, Ketti, Rebecca, and Falanda for your dedication as PGLs. We are so proud of you! 👏

We will be recruiting Parent Grade Leads in the future Learn more and get involved here: https://www.higherexpectationsracinecounty.org/parent-grade-leads

Timehop just took us back a great evening — our 10 Year Anniversary celebration at The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread two years ago today! 🎉

A room full of the people who make this work possible, a look back at a decade of progress, and a vision for future. Our official birthday was May 15th, so consider this our (slightly belated) birthday post! 🎂

This spring, our Community Engagement Manager Leanna completed a national education policy fellowship and has come back with new skills and renewed energy for the work we do together in Racine County. Give her some love and read her story here: https://www.higherexpectationsracinecounty.org/blog/2026/5/20/0yeyre0caq2idbozuizbuie0a7gd6v

Congratulations Leanna! 🎉

Another collaborative day is in the books for The Wisconsin Partnership 📕💫 we spent the day with our statewide coalition partners Achieve Brown County, Building Our Future, and Milwaukee Succeeds to continue shaping our statewide policy priorities. We’re excited to continue this hard work to put more young people on a path to economic mobility here in ! A special thank you to Jen Saenz, Director of State Policy at StriveTogether for guiding us with her expertise and resources this week.

Today we kicked off day one of The Wisconsin Partnership convening at ThiveOn King in Milwaukee! So far, we’ve connected with our StriveTogether partner orgs here in Wisconsin to collaborate on our statewide policy vision and goals.

from National College Attainment Network:

The high school class of 2026 has officially broken the all-time record for hashtag completions - and there's still time left in the 2026–27 FAFSA cycle. 🎉

Read more in their blog here: https://www.ncan.org/Web/News/Class-of-2026-Sets-All-Time-High-FAFSA-Completion-Record.aspx