I was in
classrooms last Friday, they just were not Head Start classrooms. I was
invited to tour two high-performing community schools in Cleveland.
One was Kindergarten through 8th grade, the other a 9 through 12 high
school. Sponsored by the Nord Family Foundation and the Elyria/Lorain
YWCAs, the day was an opportunity to focus on the education of low-income and
minority children.
At the schools, we met with senior
leadership, teachers, staff and students. Throughout the day, I felt a sense of
kinship with our hosts. Both schools and all levels of staff had a
deep passion for making sure children learn. I especially appreciated
that they were candid about their challenges and efforts to act on
what experience is teaching them. They were clearly not willing to
settle for less than the best that can be achieved for every student.
At the high school, St. Martin
de Porres, it was clear that EVERY student was being prepared to
attend college. Everywhere I looked and everything I heard fed into
that message. Nowhere was that more evident than at the College Counseling
office. Located at the end of a busy hallway, the entry to the office was
decorated wall-to-wall and ceiling-to-floor. Surrounding the door was the path
of all the steps it takes to be successfully admitted to college.
The counseling entry door stood right in the center of that powerful
oversized instruction guide. As a student, I would feel good about the help
available through that doorway.
At the grade school, a Breakthrough
school, there was an energy that reminded me of our Head Start centers this
year. Teachers there were focused on lessons and responding to student
needs. They even had team teaching for grades K through 3. One first-grade
teacher said she is a big advocate of team teaching and
appreciates how it allows her to work individually with children and share
in managing the classroom.
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| Hamilton 2014 Bridging Ceremony |
Today’s Head Start is about school
readiness. Of the 3,147 children who entered Kindergarten in
Lorain County this year, approximately 375 of them
were center-based Head Start children—slightly more than one in
ten. Another 200 or so were part of a Head Start collaborative with Lorain
City Schools, Elyria City Schools, Horizons or Little Lighthouse Learning
Center.
Throughout the county, we have 44,000
K-12 children enrolled in district and community schools. According to Ohio
Department of Education reports, approximately 19,200 of those children are
economically disadvantaged. That is enough children to nearly fill Quicken
Loans Arena.
Poverty and lower academic
achievement may correlate, but they are not synonymous. The
low-income students attending high-performing district and
community schools prove that. It was so good to see that
first hand. For me, Friday was a big reminder that all children
need an advocate and we at LCCAA must focus on doing our best for the children
our funding allows us to reach. My thanks go
out to two of the day’s organizers:Jeanine Donaldson and Tony Richardson.
Between the Cleveland tour and a trip
to Columbus today, my classroom visits are done for this year. By my
calculations, I made it into all but three of our
center-based classrooms. My intent at the beginning of the year
was to get to know staff, see what their jobs are like first-hand, and shine a
bright light on all the good work being done in Head Start and Early Head
Start.
I also wanted to see the impact of
our decisions – intended to improve quality – on our
center’s day-to-day operations. Like those high performing schools in
Cleveland, we have our challenges. We are acting on what we
learn and are
working to keep getting better. Our amazing, dedicated
staff help make that possible. Working beside them has been a
pleasure, and I am justifiably proud of what
they regularly accomplish on behalf of children and families.
