Melissa Bailey Photo
Michael Robbins, a senior advisor in the U.S. Department of Education (right), talks to parent organizer Parris Lee.
One year after Wexler/Grant hired a new hand to bring in after-school theater and in-school therapists, the White House Thursday held up the school — and the city’s BOOST! program — as a national model.
A visit from a senior official in the U.S. Department of Education was one of two ways New Haven schools got national recognition Thursday.
Michael Robbins, senior advisor for non-profit partnerships in the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), showed up at Wexler/Grant at 10:30 a.m. for a “town hall” meeting to highlight the school district’s BOOST! program, a new effort to connect not-for-profit services with schools. Wexler/Grant, which launched a turnaround effort last fall, is one of five schools in the city piloting BOOST!.
At Wexler, that means a volunteer from the federal AmeriCorps VISTA program works full-time at the school to help coordinate social, emotional and recreational supports for students. In addition to longstanding partnerships with local not-for-profits like LEAP, the VISTA worker has brought in new after-school theater programs, “power lunches” with Yale business students, and drama therapy lessons through the Foundation for Arts and Trauma.
Wexler/Grant Principal Sabrina Breland joined a panel discussion on stage.
In recent years, as the Obama administration has poured $4.35 billion into the Race to the Top initiative to aid failing schools, the White House has sought to complement the effort by encouraging schools to partner with not-for-profits. Robbins said the DOE looked around the country for places where AmeriCorps was already working in schools. He came across New Haven, which was “so closely aligned” to what the DOE was looking for.
AmeriCorps, a federally funded volunteer program, joined New Haven schools last July, when BOOST! was finishing its second year. The school district called on AmeriCorps and other service organizations when it realized it didn’t have enough staff to handle the job of coordinating the influx of not-for-profits to help at city schools, said Laoise King. King is the BOOST! coordinator at United Way, the local not-for-profit tasked with connecting not-for-profits to schools.
Robbins said it’s rare that schools invest in a staff person whose sole job is to handle extra-curricular partnerships: “It’s the exception, not the norm.”
The White House chose New Haven as one of six “demonstration sites” to hold up as a model for the nation. The DOE is using New Haven as an example as it launches an effort to encourage other partnerships, through something called the Together For Tomorrow Challenge—click here to read more about that. There’s no money attached, just a chance for national recognition.
In a question and answer session after the congratulatory remarks, Parris Lee piped up. He’s an official “parent liaison” hired by the school district under the federal Title I grant. He asked panelists what they’re doing to engage parents in BOOST!
Jack Healy, head of United Way in New Haven, said he welcomes more ideas on how to tackle that challenge. Principal Breland ticked off a number of parent nights teachers have put together this year, which will culminate in a parent recognition dinner in upcoming weeks.
Cincinnati Limelight
Also Thursday, three New Haven officials shared their reform efforts with a national audience at the invitation of DOE Secretary Arne Duncan.
School reform czar Garth Harries, teachers union President David Cicarella and school board President Carlos Torre traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio, for a second national conference on collaboration between labor and management in the schools. The conference was titled “Collaborating To Transform the Teaching Profession.” New Haven was among a half-dozen districts chosen to present its work, according to the trio.
Harries said the group talked about the landmark 2009 teachers contract and the work it enabled the district to do, including a teacher evaluation based on student performance and the ability to run turnaround schools with different work rules.
They heard from other districts seeking to emulate their work, including in St. Paul, Minnesota, where the school district used New Haven’s contract as a basis for their own. Other districts asked about the goal-setting procedure in New Haven’s teacher evaluations, and about the use of independent validators to check the work.
The trio made a similar presentation at a Duncan-led conference a year and a half ago. Torre said one person he met this year was impressed to see that the collaboration was still holding together.
Torre said all the attention to New Haven as a “model” should be taken with “a grain of salt.” “We have examples of things we’ve done that could be useful somewhere else,” he said, but you can never just replicate one city’s work in another town.
“Too much limelight,” he added, distracts from the work that needs to be done at home.
“It’s a nice compliment and we’re glad to do it,” Cicarella said, but going on the road is “time-consuming” and a lot of work remains in New Haven.
“I do think New Haven represents an example on the national stage,” agreed Harries, but “I’m impatient to get home.”
Great coverage, I am glad to see that we are getting recognition and could influence reform in other areas. I took some more pictures of the event for United Way (my employer) if anyone wants to check them out at: http://www.uwgnh.org/content/we-will-be-successful-we-will-be-model