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Accent
on Success founder John Bishop and teacher Toshi Floyd encourage
these 8th graders during the summer transition program at
Roosevelt High School. |
SUCCESS IN SCHOOL
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LOCAL CORPORATIONS
ARE ACTIVELY SUPPORTING THREE PROGRAMS DESIGNED TO HELP CHILDREN
SUCCEED IN THE CLASSROOM: TEACH FOR AMERICA, AIM HIGH, AND ACCENT
ON SUCCESS.
By Peter Downs
Educators are fond of saying that “children are not widgets,” meaning
that two different children may learn in different ways and at different
times. Such variability can make it hard to help all children attain
academic success, particularly in cash-strapped urban school districts,
despite a federal mandate to leave no child behind.
In St. Louis, local corporations are stepping up to fund three distinctive
programs designed to help children succeed in the classroom: Teach
for America, Aim High, and Accent on Success. Two of the programs
are local, while one is an affiliate of a well-known national program.
TEACH FOR AMERICA
The national Teach for America program expanded to St. Louis last
year when it sent 44 teachers into St. Louis Public School classrooms.
The
mission of Teach for America is to close the achievement gap between
African-American and Caucasian students, says Melanie Adams, executive
director of Teach for America St. Louis. Toward that end, Teach
for America has the goal that its members improve the literacy or
math ability of their students by 1.5 grade levels in one year,
or improve one of the two by two grade levels.
“We do diagnostic testing at the start and end of the school year,
and we’ve seen significant gains,” she says. For example, “Tiffany
Gray, a fifth grade teacher who graduated from Alabama A & M, raised
her students’ performances two grade levels in reading based on
the Lexile reading inventory. At the beginning of the year her students’
average score on this inventory was 463, just barely above the “at-risk”
category. Through constant work in reading, including after school
tutorials, Gray raised her students’ average Lexile reading scores
to 918, which is on the high end of the proficient scales. Of her
18 students, 15 scored proficient or better while 11 of her students
scored in the advanced category.”
Teach for America selects schools for placement based on two criteria:
a high proportion of children receiving free or reduced lunches,
and low reading and math scores on state-mandated standardized tests.
Teach for America members are non-education majors recruited from
some of the nation’s top universities. They receive five weeks of
training over the summer before taking up their classroom posting,
and they commit to teach through Teach for America for two years.
Last year, the agency had more than 16,000 applicants for 1,800
slots nationwide. As of the writing of this article, Teach for America
expected to have 80 members teaching in St. Louis Public Schools
in September 2003.
One consequence of the No Child Left Behind Act is that all Teach
for America members must be enrolled in teacher certificate programs.
Those in St. Louis are enrolled at the University of Missouri–St.
Louis.
Local funders include the Danforth Foundation, Anheuser-Busch, Greg
Wendt (a St. Louis native now living in California), St. Louis City,
the William T. Kemper Foundation, Edward Jones, Pershing Charitable
Trust, Southwestern Bell, and the Regional Business Council.
AIM HIGH IN ST. LOUIS
Aim High St. Louis was established 12 years ago as a four-year academic
enrichment program for fifth to eighth grade students. Executive
director Beth Louis says the program targets the middle level student.
“It isn’t a program for gifted children or those really struggling—there
already were such programs. We’re looking for “B” students, students
with demonstrated academic potential, who could fall through the
cracks in middle school or high school. They have to demonstrate
positive behavior, and a willingness to participate in a summer
program.”
Two highly-regarded private schools, John Burroughs and St. Louis
Priory, work with elementary schools to select children for the
program during their fifth grade. They select 75 children a year
from St. Louis, Wellston, and Maplewood. The children can attend
the program for four years, tuition free.
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Teaching
Assistant Charles Thompkins, a volunteer Burroughs
student, works with Raymond Webber for the Aim High
St. Louis program. |
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“They have rigorous academics in mornings, swimming and sports at
lunch, electives in afternoons,” Louis says. “There is a 5:1 student
teacher ratio...so they are really getting strong individual attention.
Our goal is to keep them engaged academically, which helps avoid
the temptations of drugs, alcohol, gangs, teen pregnancy, etc. The
stronger their commitment to school, the better is the chance they
will stay in school and graduate.”
The graduates have gone onto four-year college, junior college,
the military, or technical schools. One graduate is in medical school,
others have gone into nursing or graduate school.
“The whole premise of the program was that intervention in middle
school is more effective than intervention in high school, because
by high school, a lot of negative choices have been made,” Louis
says.
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In
action, Avis Kelly (left) and Ratasha Gladney
(right) in the Aim High Program at John Burroughs.
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Joey Murphy from St. Louis County, a graduate of Princeton University,
is a Teach for America member who also taught in the Aim High program
in 2003. He taught fourth grade at Sherman School in St. Louis,
which school also sent 10 children into the Aim High program.
One thing the students get out of Aim High, he says, “is they are
surrounded by other students who are not behaviorally challenged
and are more academically inclined. It is an enriched environment
with more attention to actual learning instead of maintenance of
learning.” That attention, he says, is not just to academics, but
to a “well rounded education” that includes sports, electives, and
character education. “There is a lot of emphasis on what goes on
outside the classroom,” he explains.
The park-like campus of The Priory is a huge, and beautiful change
for Sherman students, he adds. “It is a nice place to be, unlike
Sherman, which had two parking lots that served as playgrounds and
few resources.”
This year, Aim High St. Louis added a three-year high school component
in cooperation with Fontbonne University, called Aim Higher.
RCGA member companies supporting the program include Anheuser-Busch,
Enterprise-Rent-A-Car, Mallinckrodt, Boeing, and Commerce Bank.
ACCENT ON SUCCESS
Nationally, middle school is where student performance drops, Louis
says. Another program aiming to help those students is the Accent
on Success Goal Setting for Students Program, founded by former
sales trainer John Bishop.
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A
tool for the Accent on Success program. |
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The genesis for Goal Setting for Students came when Bishop’s granddaughter
came to live with him and his wife at their house in Lafayette Square.
She was in sixth grade and they enrolled her in Carr Lane Middle
School, a magnet school for the visual and performing arts.
“There was a lot of good there, and a lot of bad,” Bishop says.
“There were many good, smart people, but they had no clue of how
to get from point A to point B.”
For Bishop, who had owned two sales companies and provided sales
training throughout the United States and in Europe and Japan, the
experience showed him that “‘We are dumping society’s ills on schools
and not giving them enough money to function. Basically, we’re saying
to schools, “you can’t succeed and we’ll blame you when you don’t.”’
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Teacher
Toshi Floyd guides these 8th grade students through
the Accent on Success program. |
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One day, sitting at a parent-teacher conference, he looked up at
a student essay on the wall. He recalls the essay read something
like: “I’m not scared of the night. I’m not even scared of the bullets.
When the shooting starts, I grab my little brother, and we go into
the bathroom and lie down in the tub.”
Bishop says he read that and “it just pissed me off. I figured if
no one else will help these kids get from A to B, we ought to at
least give them a road map on how to do it themselves.”
The result is a unique eight-week curriculum that teaches the nuts
and bolts of what a goal is, how to set one, and how to work for
it. The aim is to teach middle school students to take ownership
of their own education.
Pilot versions of the program were used in three inner city religious
schools last year: Concordia Middle School, Loyola Academy, and
Marian Middle School. It was also used in two classes at Laclede
Elementary School.
“Parents would come back and say they would read some of it after
their kids went to bed,” Bishop says.
The program emphasizes two things, Bishop says, “teachers are there
to help you make the effort, and school and life is all about setting
and achieving goals.”
Bishops adds that while teaching goal-setting to middle school students
is significant, “One program for eight weeks will not change kids’
lives. We must continually remind them throughout the school year.”
He also has ideas for high school freshmen and seniors that will
reinforce the message.
Accent on Success is in the process of getting corporate sponsors
to pay for putting the program into schools. “We already have Edward
Jones, Pulaski Bank, Belden, and KSDK,” he says.
Peter Downs is a St. Louis-based freelance writer. |
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