Smart Communities

Schools--Could You Do Just One More Thing?

In the August 27th edition of Time magazine an article, "Failing our Geniuses," by John Cloud addresses the issue of how schools are failing our brightest kids. In example after example, Cloud illustrates how the highest achievers are often in "no-man's land" as far as school systems are concerned. We don't seem to have the right systems in place to engage these students or in an alarming statistic keep them in school at all. According to a study cited in the article, 40 percent of the top five percent of high school students drop out--equivalent to the the overall dropout rate.

As we think about ways to engage our most at-risk students we better be thinking about this group of students as well.  According to the Time article, "of the 62 million school-age kids in the U.S., 62,000 have IQs of 145 or higher." As we think about the challenges to our educational system and our competitiveness in the world, we much find better ways to encourage and nurture all of our students to do their best and realize their dreams. Find out about the programs in your community that are geared to gifted children in all areas--arts, academics, technical skills.

Now my question: Can the schools really do all we are asking them to do? Realistically no they can't. Communities have got the think about how to get our children--all our children--educated using all the resources that can be brought to bear. As my friend Larry Cremin, president of Teacher's College-Columbia University, used to say, "we need everybody in a community teaching our kids." We can't afford to lose the talents of one.

List for Urban Planning and Design

As I was browsing Amazon this week I came upon Dominique McAfee's "A Graduate Student's Guide to Urban Planning and Design." This is a great list of books that relate to the built and the civic environment of communities. While Smart Communities was #11 on the list and described as "a really terrific book on how citizens and localities can work together for positive change," I was not swayed by the praise (I promise). It really is a great list of books you may have missed. For those of you who teach, it is a built-in booklist for your students.

Poverty--Good News and Bad News

The new poverty rates from the U. S. Census are out: we have declined slightly over the last year. When I say slightly I really mean it--three-tenths of a percent--from 12.6 percent in 2005 to 12.3 percent in poverty in 2006. While this is certainly a change in the right direction, the story behind the numbers is not so good. One in four children still lives in poverty--12.8 million. The only good news is that Americans over 65 were the only ones that moved out of poverty in any degree this year from 10.1 percent in 2005 to 9.4 percent in 2006. The report also shows an increase in the number of Americans without health insurance--15.8 percent in 2006 versus 15.3 percent in 2005.

While the spin is happening on both sides of the aisle already, the fact of the matter is that we have too many people in poverty and once and for all we need to address it in a comprehensive way. Why? Because first it is morally wrong and second, because it impacts more than just the individual or the family. On this latter point we know that children growing up in poverty are disadvantaged from the get-go in learning, future earning potential, health predictions, you name it. There is indisputable research on those points from the Center on the Developing Child among many others. As we read these numbers we need to be thinking of the long-term implications.

Over the last year we have been working with the Northwest Area Foundation's Horizons program that is addressing poverty in the northwest. I would encourage you to learn more about that work and what they are learning. We know already that the first step in addressing poverty comprehensively is getting the community aware of the problem, knowledgeable about causes, and galvanized around local and national solutions.

The Condition We Are In

The U.S. Department of Education has just released its annual review of education in the United States. With the presidential race heating up, all of us should be mindful of where we are in education and where we need to be. The news is mixed of course. There are some definite upticks with students taking more advanced courses. Our interest at the Pew Partnership and the Learning to Finish campaign is the dropout information. This report tells us some things we definitely need to know. If it raises questions for you and your own community---call your superintendent or school board for clarification or more information.

We Couldn't Have Said It Better

In an op-ed entitled,"High school graduation rates matter" in the August 24th in the Shreveport Times, Paula Hickman, executive director of the Community Foundation of Shreveport-Bossier detailed the importance of the high school graduation to the community. In the last four years alone, the community saw 15,000 students fail to graduate on time. While Hickman lists the costs in human terms--less income, poorer health, and more of a chance of incarceration, it was the community costs that should speak to every citizen. If your high school graduation is low you can expect more crime, a drain on your resources for social services, more illegal drugs, and a less competitive workforce--none of which helps a community thrive.

While lots of very positive things are happening to address the issue in northwest Louisiana, Hickman framed the challenge with this statement, "Imagine," she said, "what it would mean if our community were known for its excellence in education." This is the real question for every community isn't it? We have lived so long with the negatives that I am worried that our imagination is vivid enough to realize what could be.

However if Paula Hickman and her colleagues in Shreveport-Bossier have anything to say about it, the future will look different and so will their graduation rates. As one of the partners in the Learning to Finish campaign, that community knows the work to be done and is uncovering some very creative ways to get there.

Graduation Rate Calculator Launched

Curious to know the graduation rate for your school district?  The Pew Partnership for Civic Change, in conjunction with the Knight Foundation’s New Voices Initiative administered by J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism, has developed what we call the Finish Line Calculator.  In three easy steps users can discover the graduation rate for almost every school district in the nation.

This was a pretty big undertaking for us but it meant we learned a great deal about graduation rates and some of the challenges of quantifying the dropout problem.  We decided to place the calculator on the Learning to Finish wiki in order to share what we learned and so that others may add to what we've started.  There's a mountain of statistics about dropout prevention and our hope is that we've made this part of the dropout crisis a little easier to understand.

Check out the calculator when you have a chance, it's a neat tool that should give concerned parents, community members, teachers, public officials, etc. an easy-to-use resource to begin, or continue, the discussion about dropout rates in their community.

More on the Promise of Roanoke

An editorial in the Roanoke Times does a nice job of outlining what's happening with the Promise of Roanoke and carries a great message about the effort from editor Luanne Traud who writes, "It is encouraging that in Roanoke, members of the community recognize that schools can't do it alone."  For those interested in learning more about this community-wide initiative there is a detailed description of the initiative on the Learning to Finish wiki.

Do Neighborhoods Help Achievement?

New reports released last week say no they don't. The two reports posted on the Hoover Institution's journal Education Next web site say that there is "little convincing evidence that neighborhoods play a key role in children's educational success." And how do that know this you ask. Researchers examined the results of randomingly giving or denying vouchers to more than 4,000 families to relocate out of their high poverty neighborhood. Seven years later the researchers found little difference in the achievement of the children whose families moved or stayed. In an article about the reports in the Washington Post on August 14, Jay Mathews cites experts who say that student achievement is linked to factors other than place like parental involvement, income and cultural issues, and teacher quality. Others like Robert Kahlenberg of the Century Foundation says while research shows low-income students perform better in middle-class schools, "in practice, Moving to Opportunity was more like moving to mediocrity."

Interesting the authors had different takes on why things haven't worked better. One group of authors--Lisa Sanbonmatsu, Jeffrey Kling, Greg Duncan, and Jeannie Brook-Dunn--said that some of the families felt uncomfortable in their new surroundings and moved back. In other instances, the new neighborhoods began to decline and problems began again. The author of the other report Stefanie DeLuca said that her research in Baltimore showed that many parents did not believe that better teaching in better schools made much difference. They felt in was up to the children to succeed.

So what do we know now that we didn't know before? First, just getting children out of a negative school environment will not work on its own; second, supports of all kinds need to be in place through the school and the community to create better odds for success; and third, this doesn't tell the whole story.

While I applaud the authors for their work, I am still not convinced that a supportive, safe community that provides access to needed resources shouldn't be our goal for all our children. We just to figure out what else they need to succeed.

Help for Dropouts in Time for a New School Year

Here's a brief look at some of the dropout initiatives in play this month as kids go back to school:

* 175 students chosen at random from high-poverty areas around two high schools near Tucson, AZ will receive $25/wk incentives to remain in high school.  Maintaining a 3.0 GPA and perfect attendance could result in a $100 bonus.  The initiative, estimated to cost close to $1 million, is based on a British program (the Education Maintenance Allowance) that has seen results in reducing the dropout rate in the U.K.  More on the initiative from the Tucson Citizen.

* an article in the New York Times discusses the efforts over the past few years to triage at-risk students into schools that can best handle their development.  Younger students that lag far behind are sent to transfer schools to get them up to speed.  Older students are sent to "young adult borough centers" where they can take classes at night in order to accommodate a day shift work schedule.  The effort is not geared at graduating students "on time", in many cases it is too late for that, the effort is simply aimed at helping them graduate.

* The Graduation Promise Act is proposed federal legislation that will help identify the neediest schools and direct additional federal funding to them.  An effort led by former West Virginia governor Bob Wise and the nonprofit Alliance for Excellent Education is supporting the bill.

Know of a smart idea for reducing the dropout rate in communities across the country?  Leave a comment here or write an article for the Learning to Finish wiki.

Newest Wiki Article: Parental Engagement

The latest article on the Learning to Finish wiki focuses on parental engagement in schools.  This is a great topic and Kathy structured it really well -- the format has lots of room for new material related to informing and educating parents, college and career planning, research, and partnerships.  I see a lot of potential for cross links to the Act Now! section as well as News & Resources and Research.  We look forward to seeing this section grow!

One final note -- our offer of assistance to new posters is valid through the end of this week so drop us a line if you're frustrated by your progress in posting on the wiki.