PACE Association

Citizens' group that worked to improve the quality of education and to promote better race relations in the Greater Cleveland, Ohio area school systems. It was founded in 1963 and operated until January, 1974.

The PACE Association (Program for Action by Citizens in Education, f. 1963) was a foundation-sponsored local citizens' group that worked to improve the quality of education and to promote better race relations in the Greater Cleveland, Ohio, area school systems. The organization started when the Greater Cleveland Associated Foundation appointed a "blue-ribbon committee," the PACE Committee (originally, Plan for Action by Citizens in Education), to study Cuyahoga County's public, private, and parochial elementary and secondary schools in order to assess and develop a plan for their deficiencies. The 23 member committee was chaired by attorney Hugh Calkins, and in April 1963, its report concluded that there were inadequate finances and a lack of community support for area schools. Of the 26 recommendations the committee made, one was the creation of a citizen's group to aid the schools. Calkins organized this group--the PACE Association. Robert B. Binswanger, the first executive director, led the group's early efforts to improve vocational and technical education, improve race relations, establish school libraries, and in establishing the Summer Tutor Corps, in which high school students tutored elementary school children. By October 1965, over 20,000 volunteers were involved with PACE. In later years (and under different executive directors), the association was involved with human relations projects, an inter-district summer school, and an Early Reading Assistance program. In the early 1970s, PACE was working primarily with suburban schools due to a lack of cooperation from Cleveland school administrators, and by 1973, foundation funding had stopped and the organization ceased to operate in January 1974.

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