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"If schools are operating at maximum efficiency, they are responsible for about 40 to 50 percent of what a child learns. The other 50 to 60 percent of learning comes from the family and the community. Without close articulation of and involvement with the family and larger community, schools will ultimately fail.
Ted Sanders
President, Southern Illinois University
Community, cultural, and religious groups, libraries, members of law enforcement and the armed services, and colleges and universities offer a wealth of talent and support for better schools. These community assets can be instrumental in addressing issues facing educators. On the following pages are some ideas of how groups can solve the seven issues most troublesome to our education system.
Make Schools Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free:
A Precondition for Learning
Encourage Parent and Family Involvement
Help America Become a Reading, Literate Society
Reach for New Levels of Excellence:
Achieve High Standards and Real Accountability
Make Technology Available so All Children
Will Succeed in the 21st Century
Prepare Young People for Careers:
A Strong Transition From School to Work
Make College More Accessible:
Keep the Promise of the American Dream
Squash It! Campaign Targets Youth Violence in Kansas City The Squash It! Campaign is focused on decreasing youth violence by promoting a social norm that says "it's cool and smart to walk away" from potentially violent confrontations. Part of a larger national movement, the Kansas City campaign uses a combination of approaches to address this goal: public awareness, youth ownership, and positive alternatives.
Public awareness of this anti-violence campaign develops through visibility: Billboards, newspaper boxes, media, youth-generated public service announcements, presentations, bus signs, and posters are all used to get the message out. Local youth also become familiar with the Squash It! message through their favorite television programs such as Beverly Hills 90210, Family Matters, ER, MTV, and others, where the national campaign focuses its outreach efforts.
To develop youth ownership for Squash It!, local youth tailor the message and deliver it to their peers at a Squash It! dance, a one-week roll-out of the message at schools, and at a citywide anti-violence march. Youth have also gained a voice in the adult community through a citywide music contest, essay contest, and summer celebration.
Squash It! brings to Kansas City a tool that enables youth to become stakeholders in the solutions to youth violence. To be effective, the campaign must work in conjunction with other efforts, for example, creating safe places to go, involving caring adults in the lives of youth, and making employment opportunities more accessible to youth. This is a whole community effort.
Los Cenzontles, a vibrant teen folk chorus in San Pablo, CA was formed in response to the rape and stabbing of a 15-year-old girl who was taking a shortcut home through a schoolyard. The tragedy spurred two community members, Eugene Rodriguez and Alicia Marines, to establish an arts community center and performing group to "give teenagers alternative activities and to create a safe environment in the heart of the community." Los Cenzontles, a group of 12- to 19-year-old musicians have released their first solo CD following on the heels of a 1996 Grammy nomination for a children's music recording the group made with the rock group Los Lobos.
Los Cenzontles chorus is just one of the activities at the arts center, which opened as an after-school program in the San Pablo Civic Center. Operating costs are covered largely by proceeds from benefits, performances and small grants. Some 230 students now take classes in Mexican music, dance, cooking and painting. The community recognizes that in an environment permeated by gangs, you just can't tell a young person, "Don't join a gang." You have to create an attractive alternative.
ENCOURAGE PARENT AND FAMILY INVOLVEMENT
HELP AMERICA BECOME A READING, LITERATE SOCIETY
The Parent Reading Program of the Houston Public Library is a community-based family literacy program which was developed and refined by the Houston Public Library with federal library and Title I grant monies. The program is an eight week course for parents and preschool children. Classes meet twice a week, for one hour at a time. Adults meet in one class with the teachers, while children meet in a story hour with children's librarians. Presently supported by the Houston Area Booksellers Association and the Houston Chronicle, the Parent Reading Program changes families' attitudes about libraries.
Initially, Ft. Hood and the Killeen District piloted a parent involvement program in one school on the military post. The Post Commander considered it a soldier's duty to attend a parent/teacher conference twice every six weeks. In the Commanding General's directive he noted, "Parental involvement does make a difference in a child's education and has lasting effects on his or her future." Parents learn about their child's progress, share concerns with their child's teacher, and hear positive comments about their child during these 20-30 minute conferences.
Data from the 1994 pilot year indicated great gains in student achievement. As a result, the local Chamber of Commerce endorsed the plan to expand the program beyond Army families. Today, the program is districtwide, benefiting both military and non-military families.
REACH FOR NEW LEVELS OF EXCELLENCE: ACHIEVE HIGH STANDARDS AND REAL ACCOUNTABILITY
The Fredericksburg Academic Boosters grew out of a Goals 2000 town meeting where the community discussed ways to improve education. The Boosters, mostly parents and community members, hold monthly meetings to discuss ways to motivate students toward academic excellence. Some members assist in classrooms, and some help with special activities such as a history display, an art show, geography and spelling bees, math contests, writers' contests, citizenship of the month, scholarships and mentoring for students at risk. The Boosters also work with the Chamber of Commerce and other community groups.
Denali Elementary School in Fairbanks, Alaska, is involved in a unique collaboration where the arts and science merge to enhance learning. With support from the Alaska State Council for the Arts, the Fairbanks Arts Association, the Fairbanks School District, and the Parent Teacher Association, Ellen Harney and Vivian Ursula--artists from Visual Enterprises--work with teachers to support Denali's science-oriented curriculum in the third and fifth grades. The artists and school staff design an arts project that enhances the curriculum currently planned for students. One year, when the curriculum was devoted to dinosaurs, the artists helped students create a dinosaur sculpture that the students could test over time for its ability to withstand the effects of harsh weather. Students are now documenting the structure's integrity to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the design.
MAKE TECHNOLOGY AVAILABLE SO ALL CHILDREN WILL SUCCEED IN THE 21st CENTURY
ArtsEdge is the national arts information network. This site (http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org) set up by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the nation's capital with support from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Arts, provides teachers throughout the nation with a broad base of tools and resources that help them ensure that the arts are central to every child's education. ArtsEdge provides primary source materials to students and teachers who otherwise would have limited access to the performing arts. The network provides a communications hub for educators to share information on teaching the arts, as well as ways to use art as an enhancement in presenting other subjects.
PREPARE YOUNG PEOPLE FOR CAREERS: A STRONG TRANSITION FROM SCHOOL TO WORK
To help students graduate from high school, The Community Club, an all-volunteer program housed at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., offers a weekly, one-hour individualized study hall. Students are matched with volunteer tutors who help with homework, remedial education work, and college preparation work. The Community Club sponsors workshops on the college application process, including the financial aid application process. In addition, high school students who maintain a 2.5 grade point average and who attend 80 percent of the study hall sessions, are eligible for the Stay-in-School Scholarship, a small stipend to help with current expenses. The scholarship was established so that students could make their studies a high priority instead of taking part-time jobs after school. When students graduate from the Community Club they receive a small scholarship for each year they attend college.
MAKE COLLEGE MORE ACCESSIBLE: KEEP THE PROMISE OF THE AMERICAN DREAM
Learn and Serve America, a grants program administered by the Corporation for National Service, supports school- and community-based service-learning programs. One grant has gone to Harcum College to train inner-city parents to be volunteer tutors in their children's classrooms. These nontraditional students matriculate into Harcum College's Early Childhood Education Program and receive 12 college credits in exchange for volunteering. The tutors have already provided 480 at-risk children with more than 6,000 hours of individual tutoring, with a primary focus on improving children's reading skills.
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Better Education Is Everybody's Business
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