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What We’re Reading

Filed Under: Dropout Epidemic, Volunteers, What We're Reading by Briana Kerensky — Leave a comment
May 4, 2012
Grace McMillan, left, and her mother, Saundra Walker, both struggled in school, and then dropped out when they became pregnant. Now, decades later, they're attending classes together to try to get their GED diplomas.

Grace McMillan, left, and her mother, Saundra Walker, both dropped out when they became pregnant. Now they're taking classes together to get their GED diplomas. Photo courtesy WAMU.

WAMU: American University’s radio station posted an enlightening reflection piece about two women, a mother and daughter, who never graduated from high school, and how that changed the course of their family’s future. Both generations of women had big dreams and career aspirations, but both ended up dropping out of high school when they became pregnant. They struggled through the years to hold jobs and make ends meet without having a diploma, and both had the experience of watching their child walk down the same path. Parents are always a child’s first and most important teacher. When a parent isn’t able to guide his or her child through school, it’s harder for the young person to figure out a path in life. That’s where organizations like Communities In Schools come in. Our site coordinators provide students with the resources they need to succeed in school, and parents with resources that help them support their children’s education.

Washington Post: Stephanie Hill, president of Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Solutions-Civil division, is considered by her friends and family to be a “people person.” So when she originally decided to pursue a career in engineering, she was met with incredulous stares. While the need for skilled engineers grows in the United States, it is still a career path rarely tread by women. In April, a study by the Congressional Joint Economic Committee revealed that only 27 percent of individuals working in computer science and math positions in the United States are women. Hill believes that promoting STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects to female students both inside and outside the classroom is the best way to make sure that America continues to have a healthy workforce. Communities In Schools of Seattle works closely with the Danna K. Johnston Foundation, which runs a popular program called “Successful Youth.” A group of people—students, mentors and community leaders—meet regularly to participate in confidence-building activities and discuss the role of women in the fields of science and technology.

The Nonprofit Times: We know that the value of volunteers to a community is immeasurable. But in terms of dollars, how much is their time truly worth? According to Independent Sector, a coalition of nonprofits, foundations and corporate giving programs, the value of an hour of a volunteer’s time in 2011 was worth approximately $21.79. This is up about 2 percent from 2010. During the 2010-2011 school year, nearly 50,000 volunteers across the Communities In Schools network donated 1.7 million hours of service – a dollar value of just over $35 million.

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Helping Students by Helping Parents

Filed Under: Families by Tracey Savell Reavis — Leave a comment
May 3, 2012

A parent participates in a reading activity for students with Communities In Schools of Lakewood, Wash.

At Communities In Schools, we talk a lot about removing the barriers that prevent students from reaching success in school. It is a key driver in all the work we do.

But guess what? Parents are often blocked by seemingly insurmountable barriers, too. Our model of integrated student services provides for parent engagement initiatives that support parents, so they can continue being an intricate partner in their child’s education.

Back in 2002, a study on parental involvement in education revealed what many people invested in education reform already knew: greater parent involvement equals greater student success. Stronger parental engagement leads to students themselves being more engaged, which leads to them having better attendance, grades and higher graduation rates. But while the goal of parent engagement initiatives is to get parents to take an active role in their children’s education and to see how important that is to their child’s academic success, it’s become evident that, all too often, parents are faced with barriers and can’t take the necessary steps to becoming engaged.

How is the parent who speaks another language going to be able to help his or her child with homework that’s in English? When can a working parent find time to volunteer at school? And what if the schools themselves never let parents know that there are resources available to help them?

Communities In Schools treats parent engagement as an integral part of its strategy around supporting students with a community of resources. During the 2010-2011 school year, 165 affiliates reported that they provided, facilitated, or coordinated family engagement/strengthening services. And of those, 59 have parent centers operating through one or more of their school sites. Across the country 253,257 parents/guardians were involved with or engaged by Communities In Schools.

Partner schools have welcoming information packets and often organize school tours to help parents become more familiar with their child’s school. Site coordinators arrange meet-and-greet sessions, on and off campus, to encourage parents to get involved in activities to support their children. In some cases, workshops have been specifically created for parents, to cover topics such as employment, financial literacy and parenting skills. Removing barriers frees parents to play the role of first and most important teacher in their child’s life.

It’s an ongoing process and commitment. But Communities In Schools has, for years, been actively trying to engage parents in meaningful ways, so that they not only volunteer, but become partners, and help in the decision-making process of their child’s education. Parent engagement, after all, is critical to the eventual success of our youth and our country.

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Site Coordinator Snapshots: Looking into the Future

Filed Under: Site Coordinator Snapshots, Site Coordinators by Erica Rafferty — 1 Comment
May 1, 2012
Students from Ettrick Elementary and their mentors from Virginia State University

Students from Ettrick Elementary and their mentors from Virginia State University.

Dedicated. Committed. A strong advocate. Those are just a few ways that Jay Swedenborg, executive director at Communities In Schools of Chesterfield, Va., would describe Kimberly Reynolds, a site coordinator at Ettrick Elementary School.

“I view site coordinators as very high-energy people, and she definitely fits the bill,” said Swedenborg. “She is also a person who is very student-centered, so she is going to do whatever is needed to help students be successful. That’s not just a statement – that’s how she lives out her work.”

This is Reynolds’ fourth year as a site coordinator at Ettrick, a pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade school located in a close-knit community in Chesterfield County. Throughout her tenure, she has worked hard at building trusting relationships with the community’s families, teachers and partner organizations.

One major challenge that Reynolds faces is that even though her students are only in elementary school, they already do not see themselves as college-bound.

“When I would talk to kids and ask, ‘What do you want to do?’ they didn’t say they had goals, dreams or aspirations. It’s not that they aren’t capable, it’s attitudinal. I needed to figure out some way to get them seeing beyond to the future,” the site coordinator said.

In the predominantly African-American community where Ettrick Elementary resides, Reynolds wanted to make sure that her male students had positive black male role models to both connect with and learn from. With those goals in mind, the site coordinator partnered with Virginia State University (VSU) to start a mentoring program. Twelve male and female college students mentor children at the elementary school each week.

The VSU students spend time with their mentees every Monday, and it’s not uncommon for them to spend lunch in the cafeteria with them as well. In return, the elementary school students visit their mentors at VSU, and spend the day with them, attending classes and touring the campus.

“These kids cannot wait for Monday. Some of my other students are coming up to me in the hall asking, ‘Can I have a mentor? How do I get into this program?’ They are talking about it a lot,” said Reynolds.

Through this partnership, the site coordinator said her students are beginning to look at themselves differently. They see college is within their reach and want to come to school. As her elementary school students move on to middle and then high school, Reynolds continues to engage them by asking them to help mentor other elementary school students.

“The mentors have been wonderful,” she said. “And the program will only get better as it grows and expands.”

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What We’re Reading

Filed Under: Dropout Epidemic, Programs, What We're Reading by Briana Kerensky — Leave a comment
April 27, 2012
Elaine Wynn with students with violins

Communities In Schools Board Chairman Elaine Wynn with students from Communities In Schools of Jacksonville's"Jump Start Strings" program. "Jump Start Strings" enables students to explore and enjoy music after school.

Education Week: Youth who spend time in juvenile detention centers often find themselves behind in school when they return to the real world, and the fight to catch up pushes many to drop out. Education Week examined what happens to juvenile offenders when they try to become re-acclimated to school life. A lack of state and local regulation often leaves these students to strike out on their own with little support or guidance. They feel stigmatized, struggle to catch up in coursework and often cannot transfer credit from courses they took at a juvenile detention center—forcing them to have to re-take classes. Communities In Schools can help ensure that kids re-entering mainstream life have a true second chance. For instance, Communities In Schools of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., formed a partnership with the County Sheriff’s Department and local schools to provide counseling and resources to juvenile offenders, with the goal of helping them transition successfully back into school or another educational setting.

Associated Press: Graduation season is right around the corner, but for this year’s college grads, the ceremony is bound to be a bittersweet one. An analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press shows bleak career prospects for 2012’s crop of graduates.Young adults with bachelor’s degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs, such as waiter, bartender or retail clerk— and that’s confounding their hopes that a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans. Yet having a college degree is still better than having no degree at all. People with a bachelor’s degree are estimated to earn more than a million dollars more over the course of their lifetimes than people with just a high school education.

Washington Post: Can music and art turn the beat around for America’s low-performing schools? In an effort to transform America’s worst schools, the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, working with the Department of Education, announced an unusual experiment to infuse art, music, dance, theater and other forms of creative expression into eight schools over a two-year period. The arts can help students achieve success in subjects, such as math and science. Yet a recent survey by the Department of Education showed that children in high-poverty schools have less access to artistic programs. More than 1.3 million students in elementary school and 800,000 secondary students receive no music education.

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Volunteerism’s True Reward

Filed Under: Alumni Network, Volunteers by Erica Rafferty — Leave a comment
April 26, 2012

Communities In Schools alumni Marlin Payne and LaToya Harris at the Al Ma’IDAH Organic Community Garden.

Last week, the Communities In Schools network recognized National Volunteer Week, a time to celebrate people doing extraordinary things through service. As an organization that believes strongly in providing the students we serve with an opportunity to give back to their peers and their community, affiliates across the nation honored the week through a variety of volunteer projects. Beyond the Classroom caught up with Marlin Payne and LaToya Harris, two Communities In Schools Alumni Network members, who volunteered at the Al Ma’IDAH Organic Community Garden in Newark, N.J.

BTC: There are so many different volunteer opportunities – what made you choose a community garden project?

Marlin Payne: We learned a lot about the garden and its effect on the community from Hajja Latifah Abdul-Hamid [a resident of the community who oversees the garden]. Newark is a real food desert, which means people don’t have easy access to fresh fruits, vegetables and other nutritious foods. There are lots of convenience stores but not many grocery stores. Even though I don’t live in Newark anymore, my heart is still here, and when I see that someone in the community is trying to combat a real crisis, it makes me want to get involved.

BTC: What does volunteering mean to you?

LaToya Harris: For me, it’s a chance to bless someone else the way I have been blessed. My experiences with Communities In Schools of New Jersey made me who I am today, and gave me the confidence to start my own business.

BTC: How does Communities In Schools motivate you to give back to your community?

Payne: Just like Communities In Schools Founder Bill Milliken says, it’s relationships that matter. It’s the community, with its various stakeholders, that helped me get where I am. If it wasn’t for folks like that, I wouldn’t be here. I feel like it’s my place to give that kind of relationship, care and interest back in the development of other young people.

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