FOCUS DC News Wire 8/28/13

 

 

 

Six groups have won grants from the D.C. government to help create “community schools” offering students and families supports that extend beyond the classroom, including social services, parent engagement and mental and physical health care.

 

Each of the six groups, which are partnerships among schools and community-based organizations, will receive $166,667 to use during the 2013-14 school year, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) announced Tuesday.

 

The Office of the State Superintendent of Education awarded the grants through the District of Columbia Community Schools Incentive Act of 2012. That law required the city to establish at least five “community schools” that would serve as neighborhood hubs, providing a network of services to support children and their families.

 

“This initiative will help us learn how to efficiently coordinate community services to have a positive impact on students and families in critical-need areas,” Kevin Clinton, chairman of an advisory committee that helped OSSE choose the grant-winners from a pool of 17 applicants, said in a statement.

 

D.C. education activists have spent years pushing for the city to adopt the community schools model, which has gained traction in other cities such as Cincinnati. They argue that particularly in the District’s high-poverty neighborhoods, improving public education will take more than great teachers — it will also require a commitment and a plan to meet children’s wide range of non-academic needs.

 

“It took a long time to get to this point, so it’s really exciting,” said Cathy Reilly, executive director of the Senior High Alliance of Parents, Principals and Educators, who wrote a letter of support for one of the successful grant applications, a partnership between Roosevelt High and the Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative.

 

Reilly said the one-year grants are a start, but won’t make a long-term difference for schools unless the city makes a longer commitment. “$200,000 for one year isn’t going to do it, unless it continues. It’ll just be a shot in the dark,” she said.

 

OSSE officials said they will work towards continuing the funds after this school year.

 

The grantees plan to use the money for a wide range of purposes, from truancy prevention to dental care and financial literacy courses, according to a summary of plans provided by OSSE.

 

Many of the grantees also plan to bolster mental health services, a key need in many schools.

 

“The kids have so many issues in their lives,” said Lori Kaplan, president of the Latin American Youth Center, a grantee that runs three charter schools for youth ages 16 to 24, many of whom have returned to school after dropping out once.

 

Many of the students in LAYC’s schools — YouthBuild, The Next Step and LAYC Career Academy — are young parents, homeless or have a history with the juvenile justice system, Kaplan said.

 

The nonprofit plans to hire a mental health clinician and offer health and nutrition classes to help students learn how to take care of their bodies, she said.

 

It’s not clear whether there will be future community-schools grant opportunities for applicants who were not successful in winning money this year.

 

“If there happens to be an opportunity to expand the initiative, we will release another RFP to solicit more applications for potential expansion,” OSSE spokeswoman Ayan Islam wrote in an e-mail. “Right now, we’re interested in supporting the current grantees and making sure that they’re set up for potential expansion/replication.”

 

Here is a link to OSSE’s summary of each group’s plans. A quick rundown:

 

•Stanton Elementary School (Ward 8) will collaborate with City Year, People Animals Love and the Flamboyan Foundation;

 

•Edgewood/Brookland Family Support Collaborative will partner with two Ward 6 schools, Jefferson Academy and Amidon-Bowen Elementary, as well as the DC Children’s Trust Fund, Family Preservation Services and DreamsWork, Inc.;

 

•Three Latin American Youth Center charter schools (The Next Step, Youth Build and LAYC Career Academy, all in Ward 1) will partner with Mary’s Center;

 

•Briya Public Charter School (Ward 1) will partner with Bancroft Elementary, Mary’s Center, and the Flamboyan Foundation;

 

•E.L. Haynes’s middle and high schools (Ward 4) will partner with Mary’s Center;

 

•Roosevelt High School and the Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative are workign together with the support of a number of community groups.

 

 

Favorite: Friendship Collegiate (8-3)

 

Around the league: Friendship Collegiate, fresh off an 8-3 finish and a DCSAA title in 2012, has the potential to be better in 2013 despite facing a nationally competitive schedule. The Knights will be led by blue-chip recruit Jalen Tabor at defensive back, and the secondary will be bolstered by heavily recruited prospects in senior Dae Juan Funderburk and junior corner Ashton White. Arizona-bound running back Jonathan Haden, who rushed for 1,110 yards last season, returns to lead the offense. . . . Perry Street Prep excelled offensively during last season’s 7-5 finish, averaging 28.2 points per game in those contests. The Pride return key players from that squad, including senior quarterback Jihad Khabir (830 total yards, six touchdowns in 2012), junior wide receiver Aaron Gray, running back Morris Ray Jr. and senior corner Sean Fields. . . . KIPP must replace senior running back Devante Hall (nine touchdowns in 2012), but has 20 or so players back from last year’s young team, which finished 8-3 and advanced to the DCSAA semifinals. . . . After successfully completing a junior varsity schedule last year, Richard Wright will field a varsity team for the first time in 2013 under Coach Torrain Kelly, opening with road games at Kipp, Eastern and Maret.

 

 

With all the commotion over the design of the D.C. Public Charter School Board's Early Childhood Performance Management Framework a key question has not been answered. Do these programs lead to future academic achievement for the students who attend them?

 

According to the Cato Institute's Andrew Coulson the clear answer is no. The greatest experience this country has had with early childhood education is the Head Start Program, which began in 1965. Mr. Coulson points to a recent study by the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency that runs Head Start, that has shown no difference in the academic achievement of students by the end of the third grade between those that participated and those that did not.

 

If there is indeed no lasting academic benefit to kids who have attended early childhood programs then this would support the view that measuring math and reading skills of three and four year olds is not very important. Indeed while pre-school can be extremely valuable for providing a safe and structured place for these kids to go, and a location where they can receive a nutritious meal which they may not receive at home, the academic side may not be as crucial.

 

It is possible, however, that the quality of existing pre-school programs has not been high enough to lead to later academic success. This idea would support the notion that we desperately need some method for accessing their effectiveness, especially considering the extremely large public financial investment.

 

Let the debate continue.