“ONE by ONE” in Jacksonville, FL – an Education Initiative

This week’s School Spotlight is featuring Jacksonville’s ‘ONE by ONE’ education campaign that is working to combat the alarming statistics on students (one in three) not graduating high school in four years. This campaign has taken an unusual approach in getting the word out to the community, and it is making people take notice.

Courtesy of Brunet-Garcia Advertising: This is the 'Statement Wall' - part of Ingrid Damiani's "ONE in THREE" exhibit on display at the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, FL

Throughout the United States, communities are continuing to feel the strangling effects of the tightening of purse strings. It seems schools are often  first in line in the plan of attack when cutting away the “fat” of budgetary matters, leaving an emaciated educational system that barely has the resources to survive, much less thrive. This jeopardizes the future of our children, families and cities. One campaign in Jacksonville, Florida, has decided there has been enough inaction and is creating a movement to implement change, ONE by ONE.

According to ONE by ONE’s Website, “high school students from low-income families are six times more likely to drop out than students from higher income families.” And the Alliance for Excellent Education gives some sobering statistics related to the dropout rate. Reducing the dropout rate in Jacksonville by just half is estimated to produce an additional $36 million in spending, and “result in an estimated $13 million in additional earnings each year for those students.” ONE by ONE adds that “this would amount to about 400 new jobs in the community, with an increase in the gross regional product of $65 million.” That’s some trade off. And it would certainly be a great deficit-cutting tool for creating economic improvement and growth.

However, cuts to education continue during a time when our children are in desperate need of an education system that prepares them for serious competition in a ever-widening global economy. Enter the “Jacksonville Public Education Fund.” JPEF’s education initiative, ONE by ONE - specifically funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of the American Graduate Initiative – is looking to educate not just students, but the community, on the impact that will be felt if students continue to struggle in finishing school. They are working toward a goal of starting a meaningful conversation leading to motivate change in schools and the community. They want to increase civic investment in education. (Click here to find out more about the program.)

Courtesy of Damiani: This is "Brooke"- part of Ingrid Damiani's "ONE in THREE" exhibit at the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, FL

On its site, ONE by ONE states: “The vision produced through the process will serve as a road map for the [Jacksonville] community to begin turning their aspirations into reality.” For them, this reality includes becoming a coordinator between the public and public officials, holding all of them to account because, as they say, “We are all responsible for our children’s future.”

In creating an open dialogue for the community, ONE by ONE has made the above statement perfectly clear. They are making it known that everyone has a stake in the education of children, not just those with children in the school system. Even area business leaders are becoming active in voicing a concern. They understand the symbiotic nature of education and economy. According to ONE by ONE, Jacksonville needs to improve its education system in order to thrive economically. When the economy begins to recover, its city must be poised to capture that growth. They understand that it is not only the education system - but the community’s perception of it – that can hold them back if it does not improve.

One way the program is making the community’s dropout epidemic known is through partnering with two of its local resources: Jacksonville’s public radio station, WJCT, and with the help of a local photographer, Ingrid Damiani. Together, they have produced a multimedia experience  explaining just what the campaign is doing. Damiani’s ONE in THREE: Let’s Solve Our Dropout Crisis is photography exhibition designed to work with and spark an interest in the community engagement campaign: ONE by ONE: Transforming Our Future Together.

Courtesy of Damiani: "Mary and Aurora" - Part of Ingrid Damiani's "ONE in THREE" series on exhibit at The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, FL

Damiani tells the stories of 20 current and former Jacksonville students through her captivating ONE in THREE series that is on display at The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens. Regarding Diamani’s exhibit, “The students’ stories demonstrate the power of an engaged community that works hand-in-hand with the school district to improve student success. Many of the students overcame great obstacles to succeed—and they will inspire the community to do the same.” The local public station, WJCT, enhances Damiani’s work with the addition of audio and video. This multimedia platform promotes a better understanding of the stories being explored. To see more of Damiani’s work from her ONE in THREE photography series, click here. Because the exhibits aim is to get viewers involved with the campaign, it will travel around 16 Jacksonville neighborhoods, providing an opportunity for many to learn about these stories, why they are important, and how they relate to the community.

The best way to arm yourself against ignorance and fear is knowledge, and the ONE by ONE Program in Jacksonville, Florida, is doing just that. The community is working together to take control of its future, literally. This campaign is making  it known that educational wellness in Jacksonville impacts everyone, not just families. This is certainly a great step in turning the attitude of education from “Not my job” to “It takes a village.” Having this understanding throughout the community makes the problem three-dimensional, and it becomes easier for all to see and focus on finding a solution.

While the diminished graduation rate might not be as severe in all cities, educational wellness is something that affects us all. This town is working to create a change through what works for its people and children. They are getting to the heart of the problem through educating the public that, first, there is a big problem; and second, gathering community concerns to put together a clearly defined path of attack. This is what is working for them, we want to hear what your community is doing to combat educational concerns. Or, if you have become inspired by their story, we would love to hear that, too.

Today’s School Spotlight is highlighting a great piece from State of the Re:Union’s contributor Mike McGrath with the National Civic League. This post on education elicited such a positive response, SOTRU would like to share it one more time for your ruminating pleasure.

Sacramento Focuses on Grade-Level Reading

I see that State of the Re:Union has been doing some reporting on Sacramento, California, exploring some of the tough challenges facing the community, so I thought I’d mention that Sacramento is joining the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, a national effort to get more low income kids to read at grade level by third grade.

Last month, Mayor Kevin Johnson launched the Sacramento Reads! 3rd Grade Literacy Campaign, one of the largest community-wide reading initiatives in the United States. Currently only about 37 percent of third graders in Sacramento read at grade level. The goal of Sacramento Reads! is for 80 percent of third graders to be reading at grade level by 2020.

Sacramento’s ambitious plan is part of a collaborative effort by dozens of funders and nonprofit partners across the nation known as the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. Other communities that have answered the call include New Britain, Connecticut; Springfield, Massachusetts and Los Angeles, California.

The campaign focuses on three preventable causes of the performance gap between low income readers and other students:
• The readiness gap: The fact that many low income kids who show up for school are already behind because they haven’t had as much access to books or high quality pre-kindergarten programs that help prepare students to learn.
• The attendance gap: I’ve already written a blog post about this problem. Research has found that one in 10 kindergarten and first grade students nationwide misses nearly a month of school each year in excused and unexcused absences.
• The summer slide (summer learning loss): Lots of students lose ground over the summer if they are not reading at home or engaged in enrichment programs.

The National Civic League has also joined this nationwide effort. Our part will be to encourage communities to address the reading gap by focusing the 2012 and 2015 All-America City Awards on grade level reading efforts. Ordinarily, the award programs let communities choose the issue areas they want to present to our jury of civic experts at the annual event. In 2012, we’ll be doing things a little differently.

In 2012, the All-America City Award program will be a little different. NCL is asking communities to develop comprehensive plans that focus on the three critical areas identified by the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. Winners must demonstrate capacity to use data, deploy effective interventions, build strong cross‐sector partnerships, and mobilize public will to improve reading proficiency in the early grades.

Since the late 1990s, NCL has asked All-America City finalist communities to list at least one project that benefitted or engaged young people. Consequently, we’ve had more than a few past winners present reading or literacy projects.

For example: Marietta, Georgia, a winner in 2006, touted “Marietta Reads!” program. Participants selected books from approved lists and are tested on reading comprehension. Students earned points on the basis of the book’s difficulty and test scores. Goals were set for students at each grade level in all the city’s schools, and students earned awards by reaching those goals.

Hollywood, Florida, a winner in 2007, presented its “Born to Read” program, which positioned a fulltime librarian at the Memorial Primary Care Clinic, to interact with each family of young children. New families were given an application for a library card, a resource guide and a first book for the child. Families were given instructions on ways to encourage reading and this is reinforced with every subsequent visit to the clinic.

El Paso, Texas, a winner in 2010 has its annual Día de los Niños/ Día de Los Libros to improve literacy and health awareness in the community. The event involves a free giveaway of books and opportunities for young people to sign up for the Summer Reading Club.
For today

Tupelo, Mississippi, a winner last year, featured two projects from the mayor’s task force on education: “Read Tupelo” which provides a morning of learning for approximately 400 four and five year olds, including art activities, a music demonstration with various instruments, and story time presented by local officials and volunteers. Another initiative provides every baby born at North Mississippi Medical Center’s Women’s Hospital a copy of the book, Goodnight Moon.

Our hope is that more and more communities will do what Sacramento is doing and organize community-based efforts to address the reading gap. (Another difference in 2012 is that the campaign and its partners are offering technical assistance and peer learning opportunities to cities that participate in the award process.) To qualify, communities must submit a letter of intent by October 14.

For more information on the All-America City Grade Level Reading Award, visit the campaign’s website or the All-America City Award blog.

Because (thankfully) we are all different, we’d like to hear what your comments and thoughts are. Do you know of a unique school program that works for your community? If so, please, let us know.

This week’s School Spotlight features a school that was mentioned in our recently released Cleveland, OH: Entrepreneurs at Work episode. The Near West Intergenerational School (NWIS)  is a new charter school that was born of parents’ aspirations to obtain a better community and future for their children. (To hear this podcast segment, click Here.)

Source: The Near Intergenerational School

Modeled after a highly regarded school in Cleveland, NWIS is currently in its first year of operation as a publicly funded charter school, offering children in grades K-4 an opportunity to be involved in a better education right now. While there is availability in public schools around them, those schools didn’t exactly tout high expectations of students’ developmental achievements. And the schools that did have waiting lists that are ridiculously long. Instead of forsaking their neighborhood in search of a better school zone, these parents, and later founders, opted to create a school dedicated to the heart of their community’s future.

A brief explanation of the reinforcing reasons for starting NWIS resides in the Founders’ Statement found on Website. It states that school was “founded by a group of neighborhood parents who desire a school rooted in and reflective of the physical and social fabric of the local community it serves.” Its goal is to  provide quality, free and accessible education to all children. The school intends to serve the children and families of that community, but not exclusively to that area. The founders want it to serve “as a cornerstone for continued community development, economic and neighborhood stability, and a gathering place for lifelong learners.”

According to an article from Cleveland.com, “Many of the parents are young professionals. At a time when Cleveland is emptying out, they are dedicated to urban life and have found a pocket where it thrives with historic houses and clusters of shops and restaurants.” You can read more about the school in the article here.

While opening a school is not the obvious or even right choice for others facing a similar situation, it is a working solution for this community of Cleveland parents. However, as wonderful of an accomplishment as this is, the school will need support to survive the rounds of voting and scrutiny it will encounter from city officials, sponsors and residents since it is publicly funded.

To that point, NWIS and its founders are the very reason that there will be money staying in and promoting growth in this Cleveland neighborhood area. Of course this situation begets controversy. Some wonder if this is an appropriate answer to the educational dilemma. The families whose lives have been positively affected through NWIS would say “yes.”

Is this a feasible solution for your community? Or is there another approach that could offer a better solution? Do you think your family or community would benefit from a program like this, or do you think public schools and the communities they serve would benefit from a different approach? We don’t have a one-size-fits-all answer, so we want to hear from you.

Emerging through Immersion

State of the Re:Union is continuing the School Spotlight segment with a look at a very special school in Sacramento, California. This region will be featured in one of our new episodes which begin releasing today. SOTRU is highlighting the Susan B. Anthony Elementary School that is beginning a new immersion program to assist the largely Hmong-populated community. (If you are dying to find out more about the Hmong people and culture, we can help you with that. You can check out our Twin Cities episode now, and you can learn more on our new Sacramento episode being released this upcoming week!)

Source: Ramsey County MN

Like many states across the nation, California has a very diverse range of  countries, creeds and backgrounds. For the Hmong people, escaping persecution due to hiding and assisting American soldiers in the Vietnam war was one of the driving reasons they sought asylum in the United States. Deracinating ties with family, friends and country, the Hmong community has been planting roots and making America their home.

A large population of Hmong people now call Sacramento, California their home. In an effort to help children and families acclimate more easily,  Susan B. Anthony Elementary of the Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD),  is implementing a new Hmong Immersion Program in an effort to assist the ever-growing Sacramento community.

This program’s goals have been designed to help students become proficient in both English and Hmong languages to increase academic achievement. The school gives a bit more of a breakdown of exactly what dual language immersion is:

•    Uses both English and Hmong instruction
•    Serves English learners and native English speakers
•    Includes high levels of proficiency in new language and home language
•    Increases use of English gradually

According to a press release issued on September 1, 2011, Susan B. Anthony Elementary has implemented this ambitious plan as part of SCUSD’s initiative to “graduate high-achieving, bilingual and bicultural students ready to compete in the future global marketplace.”

As immersion programs go, this is the latest in Sacramento’s ground-breaking list of language immersion programs. Participating kindergarten students in the immersion program are primarily taught in the targeted program language, which in this case is Hmong.

As students progress through school grades, they are taught less in their language and more in English. By the time these students reach fifth grade, they will be learning in all-English. Years of research shows that students in language immersion programs are more successful at school, scoring higher on standardized tests given only in English than their counterparts taught only in English. This will have a profound impact on not just the students, but their families, and in turn, the community, state, and the nation.

Susan B. Anthony Elementary is leading the way for other schools in the Sacramento area. More schools are joining this effort helping children and families in their community through similar acclimation and immersion programs. Of course, being in America pretty much obligates us to having conflicting viewpoints on this program. People throughout the nation differ in opinion about the immersion program and just how necessary and/or helpful it is. On one side of the coin, I’ve heard some say that, well, “we’re in America, so English needs to be spoken in our schools.” However, as we at SOTRU have seen, it is not always that simple. To quote from the American Graduate initiative, “There is no ‘One Size Fits All’ solution” when contemplating a solution in the never-ending educational battles.

What other places around the country are using similar programs? Do your neighborhood schools offer similar programs? Has there been a noticeable change benefiting the community? Of course, we would love to hear what they are and in what ways they’ve helped or hindered your community.

This week, State of the Re:Union would like to entertain our School Spotlight series with a recently required concept in preschool. The subject matter, preschool, is a notion that has actually been around and in use for quite some time. However, it is the mandate of incorporating it into the public school system that is making an old hat seem like a new accessory to education.

Thanks to the award-winning documentary “Early Lessons” by Emily Hanford, the River Breeze Elementary school was brought to our attention. However, a little bit of background information will need to be laid out before getting to why we chose them for this week’s School Spotlight.

Hanford’s documentary explores one of the most noted education experiments of the last 50 years, the Perry Preschool Project. One particular question asked in the 1962 study was: “Can preschool boost the IQ scores of poor African-American children and prevent them from failing in school?” According to Hanford, “the surprising results are now challenging widely-held notions about what helps people succeed – in school, and in life.”

A brief background of the study: In the late 1950s, a Michigan school system administrator, David Weikart, realized how badly these children were doing and decided to do something about it. In lieu of holding them back a year, he decided to head off the situation and start a preschool dedicated to helping 3- and 4-year-olds become smarter. After successfully proving Weikart’s case, the notion of cognitive development in the form of hands-on preschool was born. (To read more on the Perry Preschool results, click here.)

Forward to our School Spotlight today – a preschool classroom at River Breeze Elementary in Palatka, Florida. Here, school administrators and preschool teachers embrace the practices that were founded by Weikart. They believe that through interacting with children in the same hands-on learning manner as Perry Preschool, they will achieve similar, if not the same, results. Like the Perry children, these kids are being targeted for special education coming into the River Breeze preschool program who are from poor families. Some of these little ones have lived at homes with absolutely no books, and don’t say much when starting the program. However, these preschoolers soon get over their lack of artful conversation. One mother was surprised when her “quiet” child began singing the ABCs all the time. She even asked her child’s preschool teacher what she did to help her learn to find and use her voice.

All members of the River Breeze preschool program are very interactive. There are seven different areas that the classroom is divided into, and these areas contain just a few children at a time. The teachers not only watch the children learn through “getting dirty” with the hands-on learning, but they get to partake in the fun, too. Through doing this, the teachers can learn how the children are learning and customize an educational experience that will specifically target each child. This interaction also instills a positive school experience for the children, helping develop both their cognitive and non-cognitive skills.

River Breeze preschool is modeled after the same approach used by the Perry Preschool.  Children involved in the hands-on approach not only learn the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, but important life coping and social skills, including motivation and the ability to work with others. These are the skills that are critical in helping people do well at school, at work, and most importantly, in life.

The families, children and teachers at River Breeze Elementary are happily taking a few pages out of the Perry Preschool Project study. They truly believe that, for them, this hands-on approach is what works for their children deserving a chance in successfully obtaining an education. They are also encouraged by the results yielded by the Perry Preschool Project: The participants in the study who went to preschool were more likely to be employed, making money, staying out of legal trouble, owning homes and cars, having families and being involved with them. All of this success allowed little time for these men and women to get mixed up in crime. Ere go, preschool helped cut the crime rate in half.

So, I guess all of the posters touting that everything we need to know is learned in kindergarten might need to have an alternate version printed with Pre-K, instead. With all of the controversy on broken policy shrouding our educational school systems, maybe more people should follow suit after River Breeze Elementary preschool teachers and administrators. With any luck, history will repeat itself for these families as they look to the past to get to their future.

Is this a possible solution that is feasible for the whole country? Some people are of the mind that children need a childhood and that school is too stressful. Others believe that there can never be enough school, and it is never too early to begin. What wheelhouse do you belong in? Is there such a thing as too early or too much? Or do you think that might be part of the prescription that our nation needs to inoculate itself against F-Cats, falling educational scores, and the excessive dropout rate? We at SOTRU love stories that help us understand others’ points of view. If you have one, we’d love to hear it.

For this week’s School Spotlight, we at State of the Re:Union are saluting an organizational initiative being implemented into public education. The Citizen Schools is a network that began providing programs dedicated to assisting public middle school students in the Massachusetts area, but has since expanded its initiative’s reach.

Erik Schwarz created this organization after realizing that American students spend 80 percent of their waking hours outside school walls and yet only two percent of public funding supports out-of-school programs. Citizen Schools was founded to transform after-school programs from an afterthought into a powerful element of authentic, large-scale education reform. The organization’s program for low-income middle school students includes hands-on learning, discovery, teamwork and fun — in school buildings, led by professional educators and staffed by volunteer Citizen Teachers. Citizen Schools is a recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, recognizing “the most innovative and sustainable approaches to resolving the world’s most urgent social issues.”

When searching for more on this program, visiting the programs site provides and excellent description of what the call to action is: Citizen Schools was founded “to transform after-school programs from an afterthought into a powerful element of authentic, large-scale education reform. The organization’s program for low-income middle school students includes hands-on learning, discovery, teamwork and fun — in school buildings, led by professional educators and staffed by volunteer Citizen Teachers.”

This apprenticeship program gives children a chance to partake in hands-on projects that show students the relevance of school in everyday lives. They learn the math in used in cooking, the discipline it takes to rehearse a dance routine, and the science involved in recycling.

Source: The Bostonian Longhorn

Through the support of program sponsors, Citizen Teachers instruct 10-week apprenticeships. During this time, students work side-by-side with these experts and explore new professions, gain new and innovative skills, and create something for their community. When this 10-week period is up, the students participate in a “WOW!” event (an event aptly named after the verbal reactions from all who witness the incredible job performed by students). During the “WOW!” event, students are given the opportunity to turn the tables and put their apprenticeship into practice through teaching adults on the subjects they have learned.

The Citizen Teachers are going a step further in their apprenticeship efforts and are continuing to volunteer into the school year. These volunteers want to help create classroom learning that can actually be applied to real life scenarios. As an example, some attorneys from a local firm will teach a course on the business side of sports called “Buying the Celtics.” Another topic will teach students about developing online marketing campaigns for a real corporation, and yet another course will allow students to learn JavaScript programming with Google engineers. Needless to say, doing this will help reinforce relevance in the school day, bolster new interests, and strengthen motivation for students.

This fledgling program has already gained notoriety in communities it serves, evidenced by a laundry list of accomplishments. The following bullet points addresses some of the achievements found on the Website. This information reflects successful effectuation of the program by 2010′s end:

• Citizen Schools’ network has grown from a one pilot site serving 63 students to a seven-state network with 37 sites serving 4,500 students.
• In 2009, external evaluation results conducted by Policy Studies Associates demonstrate that Citizen Schools is effective in engaging at-risk middle-school students and building a bridge to high school. For the cohort of Citizen Schools students whose graduation status is available, 75% graduated from high school in 4 years, compared to 58% for the district overall.
• In 2009, Citizen Schools played a large role in encouraging Congress to pass the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. In addition, Citizen Schools worked closely with the office of the late Senator Kennedy on legislation introduced this past summer to expand the learning day and involve community partners in that effort.

The Citizen School network is creating a vested interest in the communities who are fortunate enough to have this program. Through getting professionals involved with students, a symbiotic relationship is formed. When community leaders and members volunteer to teach their skills, they receive a bird’s eye view of exactly what our youth are experiencing in education and supplementing areas that are vitally important to the success of these students. The children are able to conceptualize and truly understand (something that is not really done until most people are in their late teens) why continuing education is important.

There are so many efforts and initiatives across the country that are striving to achieve these results. While this prototype might not be ideal for all students, it certainly proves that there are solutions out there. We just need to keep trying until we find what works. Everyday, people are becoming more involved in finding what works for their community. Would this work for yours? If so, is there anything that might need to be amended in the program’s setup? Do you know what, if any, initiatives are being implemented in your area schools to assist students and teachers? There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but it gives me a sense of hope to know that this important issue is making its way to the forefront of some great minds in America. Does this include you?