Parental Options and Information Conference

This week I’m in Washington D.C. for the Parental Options and Information Conference hosted by the Office of Innovation and Improvement of the USDE.  They’ve pulled together Program Directors for our grant (CSP) and other federal grants for either school choice programs or comprehensive school improvement programs.

This morning’s plenary was on parent and community engagement.  A couple of specific/programmatic take aways for me were:

• Texting!  We need to update our Intent to Enroll and eventual Enrollment forms to include permission to text families with updates/announcements.
• “Taste of _____ (school neighborhood” where we invite local restaurants and vendors to host a fair at our school for our families.

A longer, more substantial conversation about outreach to lower-income families echoed concerns voiced at our last school project group meeting.  Minutes from the meeting are forthcoming, but we need to move into the action phase.  We are getting an excellent response from HeadStart outreach, but it’s not yet overwhelming.  Phase II will be churches and radio programming.  Jade, the producer of Sunday Morning Live, e-mailed me and is interested in learning more about our schools.  Woohoo!  Send us your positive vibes.  More from the conference tomorrow.

Salut o Hola: Week of Nov. 10

Thursday, November 14th, 5pm-6pm Urban League HeadStart, Martin Luther King branch

Note: SLU Modern and Classical Languages meeting re-scheduled

This is going to catch like wildfire!

Yesterday I had the great fortune of meeting with Dr. Seretha Curry, the director of HeadStart for the Urban League. She and her Assistant Director were very enthusiastic about our school model and scheduled information presentations at all of their parent meetings for the month of November. As we talked more about SLLIS Dr. Curry said “You’re not going to have enough spaces for the demand!” What joy! She is the first person that I’ve met in the past two years who was so immediately convinced that parents in all demographics would flock to our schools. Ms. Denise asked if she could put her three year old on the intent to enroll list now. The more we talked about our parent engagement model Dr. Curry said “I love it!” and noted that because her families are customed to a high level of parent involvement and voice in their HeadStart experience, they would be particularly excited to be founding families whose voices were respected and solicited by the school.
“This is going to catch like wildfire.” – Seretha Curry, Ed.D

Thanks Dr. Curry!

Rhonda: From Headstart to Harvard*

Like too many of our nation’s youth I grew up in a tightly-knit, low-income Black community in Lafayette, LA, with low-performing all-Black public schools. From an early age I was keenly aware of the academic benefits that I received which distinguished me from my peers. This awareness was coupled with a strong sense of social justice “Why doesn’t everyone have access to these programs, teachers and learning freedoms?” “How can we expose more of my peers to these opportunities?” I see our school model, the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme in particular, as a vehicle to move more students from Head Start to Harvard. We could spend time blaming social deficiencies for the failures of our low-income students or we can place them on a path rich in social capital, positive culture, and high expectations for all.

Below is my list of how I went from Head Start to Here. For the most part I’ve omitted personal influences and muses because I want to emphasize the world of educational opportunities that are changing lives daily.

Think about it. What are the institutional benefits that have sculpted who you are today?

1. Head Start at Paul Breaux Elementary
2. Ms. Babin. My kindergarten teacher at Vermillion Elementary created an in-home summer enrichment camp for me and a few other students during the summer between First and Second Grades. We read a lot, learned our multiplication tables, prepared meals and went on field trips to the zoo.
3. Gifted and Talented programs
4. Summer school at UL
5. Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts
6. Summerbridge/Breakthrough: New Orleans, Kansas City and San Francisco National
7. Washington University in St. Louis
8. Campus Y
9. School for International Training, Cameroon
10. Where I’ve taught:
a. McCluer High School, Florissant, MO
b. Options for Youth Charter School, Long Beach, CA
c. Conard High School, West Hartford, CT
d. Benjamin Banneker Academy for Community Development, Brooklyn, NY
e. Baccalaureate School for Global Education, Queens, NY
11. Institute of French Studies at New York University
12. Université de juillet/ Université des Antilles-Guyane
13. International Baccalaureate Organization
14. National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
15. La Crèche

*SLLIS does not claim that all of our students will go to Harvard. We are most concerned with strategically repositioning children for increased academic and professional success.