Monthly Archives: August 2011

Today’s post comes from the National Office of Communities In Schools.

When a youth is in need of help, Communities In Schools builds a team of compassionate professionals in order to surround him or her with a community of support. Site coordinators, mentors, tutors, healthcare providers, social workers, and other people are on-hand 24/7 to give them everything they need to succeed in school and achieve in life.

But there’s one group considered to be the keystone in a child’s community of support: family.

A student can receive countless resources from Communities In Schools, but the uphill climb towards graduation becomes a lot steeper without a parent or guardian to provide unconditional love and positive reinforcement. Which is why we were so excited to learn about the new data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent Survey of Income and Program Participation, which shows that more low-income parents than ever are becoming invested in their children’s academic success.

Sheila Smith, the early-childhood director for the New York City-based National Center for Children in Poverty, said in an Education Week article that the new data are an optimistic surprise.

“We might almost expect the opposite trend because of the economic pressures,” she said. “When parents are under greater economic pressure, they may have less time and be under more stress and risk of depression.”

The data, which come from interviews with a nationally representative sample of more than 42,000 households in 2009, revealed that children are spending more time with their parents than they did in 1998. This includes important social and academic development activities such as reading together, eating dinner together, and play time.

In addition, the Census Bureau found that more parents are not only wanting, but expecting, their sons and daughters to graduate from high school and college. While fewer than half of low-income parents in 1998 expected their children to attain an Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree, in 2009, 54 percent expected to see their children academically succeed.

Echoing the Census Bureau’s hopeful data, last yea r more than 200,000 parents, families and guardians of the students served participated in their children’s education through opportunities provided by Communities In Schools. That includes everything from group counseling to participating in after-school activities and bonding events. We work with families as much and as often as possible to make sure that the children we support are getting all the TLC they require, both in the classroom and in the home.

The resources and support Communities In Schools provides to students are extremely important, but the love of a parent or guardian is always priceless.

Today’s post, by Tracey Savell Reavis, is from the CIS National Office Blog.

Last week I tuned in to NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” and their special series, Dropping Out, A Life-Changing Decision. They opened with an alarming statistic – of the nearly 4 million kids who start ninth grade every year, 1 in 4 will not graduate. There was talk about programs that provide course work and career counseling specifically for dropouts. And about how to involve parents in helping students go back to school. And as I listened and shook my head at the information, I remembered the original thought I’m embarrassed to say I’d had when I first joined Communities In Schools: How relevant of an issue is the dropout crisis today?

It’s not as if I’d been living under a rock (or without an Internet connection). It’s just that in an economy where people with Master’s degrees are taking no-and low-paying internships, and retired executives are working at fast-food restaurants, I somehow felt surely, by now, everyone knew you couldn’t get anywhere without a high school diploma. But without that high school diploma, there’s not likely to be a college degree or an executive title. In the NPR series, we met four young people for whom the dropout issue is something they are dealing with now.

I’m not sure which of the dropouts profiled had it worse: The young woman who was a teen mom, now raising two children and determined to break the dropout cycle within her own family. Or the 19-year-old who, instead of having a high school diploma, already has a criminal record and limited employment prospects. Or the 44-year-old man who can’t even apply for better paying jobs, and admits that dropping out of school was the biggest mistake he’d ever made. As the dropout data suggests, the decision to leave school can have an impact that lasts for years.

NPR also declared that of all the problems with the American education system, the dropout crisis was the most urgent. Here’s another stat – 97 percent of students helped by Communities In Schools stay in school. Unlike dropout rescue programs, designed to help students after they’ve hit rock bottom, Communities In Schools surrounds students with a community of support to ensure they stay in school. Our model of integrated services addresses the academic and human service needs of students. And a five-year, independent evaluation concluded that Communities In Schools is the only organization proven to both increase graduation rates and lower dropout rates.

With the start of the new school year just weeks away, we are reminded that thousands of young people still need our help. I’m certain there’s a good reason NPR brought attention to this crisis. And I’m convinced the work we do at Communities In Schools to help students achieve their full potential and graduate is more relevant today than ever.