LIVE UNITED Y’All!

By Christopher Locke

Wow, it’s that time of the year again! A time when young people of all ages have visions of cartoon-covered backpacks, reams of three-hole, loose leaf paper and bounties of yellow Number 2 pencils dancing in their heads… Which means it’s indeed time for school! With the return to school and visions in mind, I’m reminded of a Henry David Thoreau quote that says “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”

And while most parents and adults in the community are expectedly looking at purchasing items like sports and band uniforms, instruments, or even lab supplies to support their children’s education success in the classroom and school– a lot of well-meaning and caring adults have been spending a lot of time creating a compelling child-centered, community-based vision for young people to be successful outside the classroom and school. These caring adults and young people were callers, conveners and participants in a community effort called the Youth Vision. It was exciting to participate and witness the process of developing a vision that the community can be proud of that will also mobilize us to action.

The community response to an invitation from a group of youth development and education experts convened by Metro United Way to come and share their thoughts on youth success was overwhelming. When all the conversations were complete, 36 community conversations had taken place with residents from 30 of the 32 zip codes in the Louisville Metro area, from 11 other Kentucky zip codes and from 3 Southern Indiana County zip codes. The participant demographics revealed that the conversations had attracted broad and diverse participation from community residents interested in young people.

And as Thoreau said, they looked at some things. In fact, the participants looked at a long list of depressing challenges that often impede many young people’s paths to educational success.

• 1 in 4 freshman entering 9^th grade in JCPS don’t graduate on time and in four years with their peers.
• 65% of JCPS students are on free and reduced lunch.
• Worse still, last year JCPS reports that 10,500 students were classified as homeless.

In all three cases, a disproportionate number of the students are African American and Latino.

But again, like Thoreau wisely recommended, the community residents participating in the youth vision conversations did not get mired in pessimism. No, instead, this spirited group, led by Metro United Way and Metro Government, decided that the callers and the residents see what matters. So the optimists flipped the deficit-based reality that many of our students and families deal with everyday on its head and decided to engage resident voices in the process by asking three strengths or asset-based questions.

• Think about a young person in your life…What are your hopes and wishes for their success?
• What helps a young person be successful?
• If you could waive a magic wand, how would our community look different if ALL youth were succeeding?

After over 500 people had answered, the compelling Youth Vision emerged.

Louisville Youth…

• Have the skills and education to be self reliant, healthy, engaged and economically thriving.
• Have hope and show strength of character to achieve their goals, follow their dreams, respect others and contribute to bettering their community and world.
• Live in a caring community where everyone values, supports, invests in and fights for their success.

It sounds  pretty compelling to me, and we hope you agree! What are some of your ideas for our community’s youth? Would you be willing to act in creative ways to bring this vision to life in the community? How?

Advocacy, Education, General back to school, Children, Community, Education, future, High School Graduation, kindergarten, making a difference, Metro United Way, opportunity, parenting, Southern Indiana, students, success, youth, youth development, Youth Vision

By Natalie Harris

I came across this article,  The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten Teachers, by David Leonhardt, in the New York Times business section this morning, and with all the buzz about our recent Kindergarten Countdown event at Slugger Field, I thought the timing was too good to be ignored.

While the article is a bit of an opinion piece (ultimately treading into some potential education policy minefields), I thought the greater point of the study discussed was clearly worth mentioning:  kindergarten, when done well, has an incredible long-term impact.  As Leonhardt sums up:

Students who had learned much more in kindergarten were more likely to go to college than students with otherwise similar backgrounds. Students who learned more were also less likely to become single parents. As adults, they were more likely to be saving for retirement. Perhaps most striking, they were earning more.

An that “more” is nothing to sneeze at:

A student who went from average to the 60th percentile — a typical jump for a 5-year-old with a good teacher — could expect to make about $1,000 more a year at age 27 than a student who remained at the average.

The study discussed, “How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earings? Evidence From Project STAR”, ultimately concludes that an outstanding kindergarten teacher is worth $320,000 a year.

This could definitely be viewed as depressing news in these days of budget cuts, school closings (i.e. bigger classrooms), and big challenges for even the best teachers — the ultimate toll all this can take on the community is alarming — but it should also be viewed as a call to action.

The work Metro United Way does in support of early childhood education (Success By 6, Gheens Bridges to Tomorrow, Born Learning and more) pushes us towards one goal:  making sure that our children arrive in kindergarten ready to succeed.  This moment of economic crisis makes it even more imperative that we do the work, with our community’s help, to meet this goal.

Education, Events, General early childhood, kindergarten, Kindergarten Countdown, Metro United Way, Success By 6