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Minta, Powerful Schools’ new Development Specialist, shares her impressions of visiting a Powerful Schools site for the first time this month.

With a few weeks under my belt here at Powerful Schools, I was eager to delve deeper into what we do. How exactly does Powerful Schools inspire minds and create opportunities? I wanted to, needed to, learn more about who we serve so that I could begin to tell our story.

I sat wondering at my desk: What does Powerful Schools look like in action? Who are our students and what are they learning from Powerful Schools?

So, on a recent sunny day Jeannie Collins-Brandon, Education Director, and I took a short walk up the block to John Muir Elementary, one of Powerful Schools’ core schools to see the Learning Intervention and In-Class Learning programs in action. We visited Room 19, Mr. Lorca’s third grade class, as they were in the middle of a Family Stories unit with Arni Adler, Powerful Schools’ Staff Developer.

We walked into a room full of fidgety kids seated on a colorful carpet, raising their little hands and telling their classmates about places that were special to them. Arni and Mr. Lorca pressed for deeper answers, making them think about why these places are special, how do these places make them feel? One boy in the middle of the carpet answered, “My dad’s house.” “And why is that place so special to you?” With a tilted head and a soft smile, he said, “Because we always spend time together when I’m there.”  Clearly, they were getting it.

Powerful Schools developed the Family Stories unit to help kids share their varied personal stories – recognizing and embracing that these children come from diverse backgrounds and cultures.  This lesson was teaching them how to paint a picture with words. They were learning to tell the ‘why’ and communicate the smells, feelings, sights and sounds that made each place so special.

As we observed the rest of the lesson and the kids went on about swimming pools, classrooms, family homes and parks that were meaningful to each of them, I got to thinking about places that were special to me. And honestly, many of them were the same: the home I grew up in, the park across the street from my house and places where I can often find my favorite, most special people.  As I thought about it, I realized that Powerful Schools was becoming a place that was special to me, in part, because of the responsibility it put upon me: to support kids in their early education so that they could, one day, make a difference with their lives.

Powerful Schools has given me that same chance, an opportunity to use my education and skills to make a difference with my life.

Powerful Schools is a bright, cheery place. Walls painted orange and blue, student poems and artwork hanging in the entrance,  gigantic pictures of smiling kids line the walls, color splashed about and friendly ‘hellos’ coming from all sides. As I settle into my role here, I have felt welcomed and valued by each person I meet. It is a place I feel comfortable. It is a place where I can make friends. It is a place where my voice can be heard. It is a place where I am challenged.

This is the kind of learning environment we want to create for kids in Powerful Schools programs. A place where they feel respected, where they can take risks, where they are free to express themselves. And that is just what I saw yesterday as I watched Arni and Mr. Lorca guide the class through their exercise, encouraging everyone to speak up, giving individual time to each student and challenging them to think critically.

This is what I want to build support for.

Empowering kids to feel confident in what they know and who they are is our job as adults and I’m happy to have found my special place that asks that I do just that.

A BIG thank you to everyone that was able to attend.  Together we raised nearly $135,000 to support Powerful Schools’ effort to close the achievement gap.

Powerful Schools held its Annual Luncheon (previously a breakfast) on March 27th, 2013. With over 400 guests, our students produced and “aired” a newscast with the help of Q13 News Morning Anchor, Bill Wixey.  They shared the wide-array of programming happening in and out of the classroom, highlighting the work of some amazingly talented students. They were followed by Executive Director, Tre’ Maxie, who shared the serious side – our outcomes and how Powerful Schools is making an incredible difference. Tre’ was followed by Kelly Aramaki, WA State’s 2012 Principal of the Year, and an incredible partner at Beacon Hill International School (BHIS). Kelly shared how incredibly integrated we are in BHIS’s everyday efforts to educate and inspire its students.

We have received a lot of positive feedback about the event, but some of my favorite came from the parents of students who were included in the program. Rachel Sanchez is both a teacher and a mom of a student benefiting from Powerful Schools’ work at his school:
“I wanted to tell you first that Arturo has enjoyed and grown so much from his participation in the Curiosity Club. At the beginning of the year (after having a very difficult year in third grade last year), he told me that he was chosen for the Curiosity Club by his teacher because she saw leadership qualities in him. This made such an impression on him and changed the way he saw himself. Over the course of this year, after participating in the Curiosity Club, as well as PS after school science class, and Lego Robotics, he has now identified himself as a “science guy” who loves anything to do with science- from electrons to ipads.

Yesterday, I wanted to tell you that he grew so much from having this chance to present at the luncheon. He has always felt comfortable talking to adults, but now as a 10 year old, he is still beginning to see how he fits in the world. In having the chance to prepare a speech with you, and then present, again, his self-image changed in a positive way, he feels very proud of himself, stronger and more confident.

It means so much to me to watch him grow this way, as every mother hopes her son will feel academically inspired and able, as well as confident in front of a crowd. Thanks again for everything. Powerful Schools is a wonderful organization. We are so lucky to have you here at our school.” – Rachel Sanchez

This is why Powerful Schools matters.  We are changing the lives of students every day.  It’s important work and we are incredibly thankful to live and work in such a supportive community. Thank YOU for making it possible!

State Bill 5237 is currently being circulated amongst the Washington State Senate as an answer for “establishing accountability for student performance in third grade”. If enacted, SB 5237 would require that by the 2014-2015 school year individual students who do not meet their third grade reading assessment standards will be mandated to repeat the third grade.

This is a heated argument amongst law-makers in Olympia, and bound to be a bigger one if it makes it out of the Early Learning & K -12 Education Committee.

We asked one of our newest Board Member’s, Joanne McEarhen, President of The Learner First, for her thoughts on the issue …  

Washington State has an opportunity to become the State in that stands head and shoulders above others in achievement outcomes for its learners.

Dramatic acceleration and sustained educational success can be a reality, including exciting results for minority and indigenous learners and those with special education needs.

But not by holding children back at the end of third grade if they fail to pass the MSP test in reading.  This attributes the blame of failure to learn onto the students. This is a system-wide issue.

We know how school systems can make a significant improvement in educational achievement. We know that our system needs to give greater attention to ‘how’ the improvement will be achieved.

In the traditional approach to lifting achievement, schools and districts have tended to focus improvement efforts on improving teacher effectiveness and subject matter competence. Students have been given supplementary programs when extra help is needed. They have been given more of the same in the hope that is will raise achievement. Yet progress is incredibly slow- too slow.

The root causes of the why children are not achieving their potential problem show up at every level in the system and with every stakeholder of the school community:

• Children don’t see themselves – their identities, languages, and cultures – reflected in what they learn, how they learn, or who they learn with.
• Parents’ and families’ expertise and support are not leveraged.
• Teachers don’t know how to effectively teach particular learner groups.
• Schools aren’t able to see clearly what they most need to change first and fast.
• Leaders buy solutions instead of leading systemic change that delivers equitable outcomes for all learners.

So instead of holding children back at the end of third grade and giving them more of the same to catch up, we need to change the system so they don’t get to the end of the third grade and fail.

We need to know by the end of the first few months at school if students are struggling to read and support them then with extra and different reading programs. We need to have a curriculum where the children can relate to it and can see relevance in it. We need to provide professional development to our teachers so they can teach children who are not like themselves, who have a multitude of levels of achievement within one class and assess for learning as they go.

To develop system wide capability we do not recommend specific programs are pre-mandated for every school to use. Districts and schools should prioritize what is required for the groups of students who need specialized teaching and learning by evaluating their students’ needs and then determining what professional development programs for teachers are required to support students and on-going assessments tools are required to raise and accelerate achievement.

Programs such as Powerful Schools, which have proven effectiveness for students, would be one that would be used when schools need 1:1 reading support for young K-2 students who are struggling to read.

The Bill ‘band-aids’ the problem yet again by trying to address the severe problem of children failing to learn to read by the end of the third grade by buying solutions and “fixing” children after the prime learning time for literacy in the early years is over. We must start earlier by prioritizing how we are teaching our children from the early childhood years before they get into the third grade and put our efforts there.

This year Powerful Schools is bringing Integrated Arts programming to five of its partner schools in the Seattle School District.  During the school day, through multi-week residencies, Powerful Schools Teaching Artists will be working with students and classroom teachers to integrate arts learning with other subject areas.  Here are some highlights!

At South Shore K-8, 3^rd graders are putting Math in Motion.  In this residency with teaching artist Lin Lucas, students are empowered to think about their learning in new and creative ways- choreographing their own dances based on mathematical division concepts.

In The History Mystery Project, Hawthorne students in Mr.Meraki’s 1^st/2^nd grade class are exploring portraiture with visual artist Jeanne Dodds.  Emphasizing subject, setting, and artifact, they are learning how to represent themselves and historical figures both literally and symbolically.

Third grade students at John Muir are about to Speak Up and Speak Out!  With teaching artist Toyia Taylor, they are learning the art of communication through public speaking skills and performing art.  Creating personal and dramatic narratives based on their interpretation of stories in their Greek Mythology unit- they are diving into the art of storytelling, exploring their voices, and developing stage presence and communication skills.

One of the things that makes Powerful Schools so AWESOME (If I do say so myself) is our incredibly dedicated staff! 

Need proof?

Below, Powerful Schools’ Education Director, Jeannie Collins-Brandon, shares what many of our Reading Tutors are doing with their free time these days:

Books are important to Powerful Schools’ staff. 
We teach kids how to read them, write them, and love them—and we’re big readers ourselves.  So it’s not surprising that books come up at meetings.  And when not one but two tutors, Bev DeCook and Amy Gray, mentioned Paul Tough’s new book, How Children Succeed, at our all-tutor meeting this fall, a bunch of us decided we had to read it.  Powerful Schools offered to purchase the book for anyone interested in reading it — and to host discussion groups — and our first book club was born!

Twenty-two of our 29 tutors read the book — so many that we had to offer two discussion groups to accommodate them all — and we held our first meetings in late November.  They were terrific.  The conversations were rich and so relevant to the work we do.  We examined and redefined, for ourselves, student “success,” and how failure is key to success — yet students are trained to avoid it and we, as adults, often abet that avoidance.  We talked about risk taking, grit, and perseverance — and how we can better support the development of these in our students.   We discussed poverty and language barriers, testing and dropout rates, college readiness and vocational training.  And through all this, despite the fact that many of us have been working alongside each other for several years, we got to know each other much better.  And what strikes me most is a deep sense of gratitude for the tutors who work with our students each day. Most of our team has been with us for several years — several of them over ten years, and one fifteen!  And while some might expect passion to wane over the years, nothing could be further from the truth for our tutors.  Each one is an advocate for children, passionate about education and issues of equity, and committed to doing what it takes to support our students — including reading books and talking about books, on their own time, that offer new tools and broader understandings.  I feel so lucky to be part of this group!  Can’t wait for the next book and conversation … titles are being “voted” upon as I write this.

-Jeannie Collins-Brandon, Education Director