Twinkle, twinkle Little star
How I wonder
What you are...
>> A lot of people have noticed
that when students enter school,
an achievement gap already
exists in between black
students and white students,
Latinos and whites, or
between the rich and the poor.
We need to think very carefully
about the achievement gap
between poor students
and non-poor.
It's been a pretty straight line
between poor and non-poor
students.
It's been very persistent.
It hasn't changed as much
as we hope.
And so we have a long way to go
in terms of addressing the needs
of poor students
in this country.
>> The achievement gap
comes down to, we have a lot
of kids in this country who
can thrive, but they need that
balance of both the academics,
and both the social
and emotional education, so
those two things come together.
I think we're going to continue
to see some huge challenges.
>> If a kid doesn't have
a parent or a father around,
that kid's more likely to
drop out or start doing drugs.
All the statistics apply to me.
I'm that kid.
>> Narrator: Across the state
of Wisconsin, an achievement gap
exists, not only by race
and ethnicity,
but by income as well.
On average, economically
disadvantaged students
lag 20% to 30% behind
in all academic subjects.
Despite these disparities,
two Wisconsin schools
are defying the statistics
and "Bridging the Gap."
>> Howe's demographics
is a changing demographics
all the time, but basically
we're about 430 students.
We teeter between that 89%
of economically disadvantaged
or free and reduced lunch
and 92%, somewhere in there.
Our transiency level
is probably around 60%.
For us, we have students,
a unique situation in the fact
that as we've been trying
to track and follow students
that join us in kindergarten
and follow us through
fifth grade, we probably
only end up with two to three
students out of a class of 75
that will start with us in
kindergarten and end with us
in fifth grade.
Our ethnicity demographics is,
we're pretty much
about 28% Caucasian.
Again that always varies.
Hispanic population's
about 29%.
African American population
for us is growing.
We're about at 24%.
Then we have Southeast Asian,
Native American.
Those kind of come in the
single digit smatterings for us.
>> There's lots of diversity
down there.
There's not one or the other.
I mean, you go down to that
school and you can see.
There's not one or the other.
They all kind of blend in
together.
>> If we look at our data,
we've had some huge growth.
If we look at our third-graders
from two years ago, which
would have been fourth-graders
last year, and looking at that
data, in third grade with the
students who had been with us,
they were about 64% proficient.
They made a jump in literacy
to be about 74% of them
to be proficient.
In math, that same group
of students, if we look,
made a jump from about
I believe it was 68% in math
when they were third-graders,
and in fourth-graders
they made a jump to 80%.
>> The idea of the United
Community Center is to provide
a one-stop shop.
We serve Hispanics
on the near south side.
The short of it is, we try
to improve the quality of life
from three-years-olds
to 93-year-olds.
The Bruce-Guadalupe School
is chartered by the University
of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
The school is a very integral
part of what we do.
It really drives a lot
of what we do, in the sense
that what we're trying to do
as an organization and get
Hispanics to the middle class.
>> We have, 80% of our students
are free or reduced.
We are 97% Latino.
All the kids here, obviously,
when they come to us at
the earlier age, many of them,
I believe 50% to 60%
of our students,
speak nothing but Spanish.
We are a monolingual school.
We speak all our content areas
in English.
We do facilitate their Spanish
speaking by Spanish classes.
And for those students
that need some DLL services,
we do provide that as well.
>> So, not using the language
as an excuse,
as opposed to using it
as a strength,
we bring that into the program.
So we're facilitating their
needs in Spanish,
but also meeting their needs
at the English level, as well.
We're no different
than any public school.
We have to meet the requirements
that any other public school
meets.
Teachers have to be certified.
We have to provide special
education to our students.
We have to provide ELSL
to our students.
We have to meet the needs
of our Title I budget,
meaning 80% of our students
are free and reduced.
>> One of the fears at the
beginning of the charter school
movement in the '90s
was that charter schools were
taking off all the best students
from the traditional
public schools.
They talked about
creaming the best students.
Well, we know that
that's not really the case.
It's more of a cropping,
where charter schools often get
the lower performing children
in their schools.
>> All the students
that came in,
we have to treat everyone equal.
But it's important for us
to interview all our families,
so they understand
not so much that we understand
who the child is,
but that the parent understands
what they're committing to.
And when I say "committing to,"
it's a high expectation
mentality that we have here,
where it involves the role
of the involving of the parents.
So every parent is required
to sign a compact.
In that compact, it clearly
states that if you are going
to be a part of our school,
what you're agreeing to
is to be a part
of your child's education.
>> If the students aren't here,
the students aren't learning.
And if the students aren't
learning and they're not here,
we're not
going to be successful.
So the fact that we have
98% attendance, 97% attendance,
that speaks volumes
to our program.
The fact that we have
a mobility rate of less than 3%,
that speaks volume
to the quality of education
and the parents
who want their child here.
So, regardless if there's issues
at home, we want to be
a part of that family
as much as we expect the family
to be a part of the school.
>> We're very proud of the fact
that for the last several years,
we benchmark against
the State of Wisconsin
in our grades,
our academic grades.
And our eighth graders
typically, every year
in two or three categories
outscore the state averages
in math and science and reading,
in all of the five different
subject matters.
That's something that we take
with a great deal of pride.
How we do that, we start
a year earlier, so we start with
three-year-old kindergarten.
Our school day is extended.
Five weeks of summer school
is mandatory.
Three days of after school
is mandatory.
So we drill down.
We know that education, the way
it was originally constituted
in terms of an 8-3 day
doesn't work for the majority
of people,
that we're living in a new age
of education.
And that the rural calendar that
we've worked with, 180 days,
doesn't work
for the majority of people.
>> When you measure
what students learn during
the school year, versus
what they learn in the summer,
there is almost a faucet effect.
Meaning that when school
is in session the faucet
is turned on for everyone
and everyone benefits.
But at the end of the year,
when school stops
the faucet turns off.
That's when these inequalities
start to increase in terms of
high socioeconomic parents
are able to provide
other opportunities.
They're able to provide
not just general opportunities,
but academic opportunities
for their children,
that they continue to develop
during the year, whereas lower
socioeconomic or lower income
families don't have those
kinds of resources to be able
to provide for their children.
So that has been looked at
as increasing the gap.
>> We wanted to offer a free,
completely free summer program
for elementary students
to try and stop some of that
summer learning loss,
and even give them some learning
that they could take back
to school.
So we started a program,
every year we've expanded.
We started with four weeks.
Last year it was five weeks.
This year, we're
trying to do six weeks.
>> We live in a world where
sometimes the way that we look
and the way that we do things,
some people tease us about that.
>> School climate is again,
a broad category to figure out
what that is
in being culturally responsive.
I do think sometimes you have to
figure out--
People will say, "Well,
if there's not a teacher
who looks like them, there's not
someone to connect to,
they have a very hard time."
We do work very hard
at trying to make sure
everyone feels very welcome.
>> I think sometimes you need
to give kids a glimpse
of their own possibilities.
When you see someone
who looks like you,
when you see someone
who looks like you,
you catch a glimpse
of your own possibilities.
When I was in school,
the only thing I ever learned
about black people in a book
was in one paragraph
in my history class,
that black people were slaves.
That's it.
My history.
Like, the best of my history
were people who were slaves.
>> As far as the cultures,
Kymaree will find her way
to something.
She'll go to the library,
knows what she's looking for.
I don't know,
if it's not available,
if a kid doesn't know
what he's looking for,
that if he can go in there
and find it or not.
>> Students need to see
themselves in their classroom.
They need to see themselves.
They need to see teachers
of their culture, background
and race.
They need to see in their
textbooks, kids like them.
It's basically, if you put
a mirror up to the child
that shows the child,
you belong in this mirror.
>> Let them meet real-life
people who are like them.
In a lot of inner cities,
there are kids who don't believe
people like me exist.
They don't think
college-educated black men
who are happily married,
who have stuck around with
their kids and family exist.
>> We still have
disproportionate representation
for African-American children.
Right here, in some
school districts in Wisconsin,
we'll have a 7% population
of African-American children,
yet almost 24% of the suspension
rates are attributed
to African-American children.
Now, one good thing I can say
about the state of Wisconsin is,
the state of Wisconsin leads
the nation in the percentage
of children that they identify
as gifted and talented.
And they, pretty much across
the state, seem to be on par
with the percentage.
They have from 7% to 10% of the
African-American population
that qualifies for a gifted
and talented in Wisconsin.
That would make sense, in that
10.5% of your population
of children in the state of
Wisconsin are African-American.
So we're on par with identifying
gifted and talented
in Wisconsin.
But across this nation,
there's an under-representation.
>> When Gwendolyn
came to work with us at Howe,
we did some observations
within the school and met
with the teachers after,
and we really dialogued
back and forth.
I think what
we really gained from that
happened to be
how are we approaching the kids?
Are we understanding culturally
where they're coming from?
>> I know that the momentum
is in place in Green Bay.
The momentum is in place.
I think that the test will be
the persistence
that's necessary, the challenge
for what's necessary.
>> A lot of people ask us
why do we incorporate our
cultural roots into the musical
program that we have.
There are many reasons for that.
I'll touch on a couple of them.
One of them, in fact, is
the fact that we are immigrants,
and we are learning about
all the wonderful things
about the country where we live.
But we know that in this country
there are many great cultures.
Children need to see themselves
and the cultures of their
parents being expressed,
and being accepted,
and being understood.
>> We have seen that
the children that have become
involved with the program,
that are consistent
with their work, that do
everything that we are teaching
them to do in music,
are also testing higher in their
mathematics and reading
standardized testing.
When we started seeing that,
well, some of the educators
thought it was maybe
a coincidence, or that
we were picking the kids
that were smarter in the school
to be part of the program.
But as a matter of fact,
the program chooses
their children by lottery.
>> I'm sad to say that there are
many schools where teachers,
even well-meaning teachers,
come to a low-income
neighborhood and they say,
"Ah, well, they're doing okay.
It's okay.
I mean, look at
where they're coming from."
I think that's just insulting.
Every child has talents.
Every child has possibility.
What is the achievement gap?
Is the achievement gap
based on academics?
Well, then we are doing that,
right?
Not only is our school
bridging it, but the children
in our program are setting
high standards for themselves
and achieving them.
They're being role models
for the other children.
So other children
aspire to be like them.
>> Hi, how are you doing today?
>> Good.
>> You can have a seat
right here.
I'm just going to clean
your teeth today, okay?
>> All right.
>> Oral health,
trying to be a focus and
working with the achievement gap
has been a big deal for us.
We've picked up
the tooth brushing program.
Through our resource center,
we have the Oral Health
Partnership.
They provide some of
the dental care to our families.
Right now, we're a pilot.
We're piloting it.
And 16 of our classrooms
brush their teeth in the
classroom on a daily basis.
Those kids are just smiling
and brushing.
Teachers said they can feel
a difference in the self esteem
of the students.
The kids love it.
They think it's great
to sit and brush their teeth.
They are so excited, because
many of them, we found out,
do not brush their teeth
or have toothpaste
and toothbrushes at home.
So that's been huge for us
within just the number
absences, and kids being
willing to learn, and ready
to learn in the classroom.
Community connection
in our school is big.
Right now, we probably,
on a weekly basis, have
75 different volunteers
that come through our building
and work with our students
on a weekly basis.
>> I'm just amazed
at the collaborative spirit
of Howe School
and Howe Resource Center.
I think that we work
so well together.
And we share the same goals
so it's easy.
It would be incredibly difficult
for us to do what we do
without Howe School.
I think it would be difficult
for Howe School to do
all the things that they do
without us.
We are working with the
multicultural student services
of St. Norbert College.
Most of our tutors that
are coming in to work with
our students are multicultural
students themselves.
It makes a huge difference,
you know, it's somebody
who is speaking your language,
literally, and somebody
who is sharing that experience.
>> We happen to do family
dinner nights in conjunction
with the Family Resource Center
once a month.
We had a lot of dialog
as a staff, and talked about
now we incorporate some
educational component with it,
so maybe it's a literacy night,
maybe it's a math night.
>> I like parent's night,
because I like the activities
that the kids
can get involved in.
It's time to spend
with your kids.
You know, you can come home and
you don't have to cook dinner.
You can go there and eat.
Usually, there's free books
and stuff the kids can pick up
and take home.
>> I think the United
Community center is probably
the main reason why the school
is as successful as it is.
It is a partnership.
It's a marriage that's proven
to be a successful model.
We receive about $7700
per student from DPI,
yet we have to fund-raise
about a million dollars a year
on top of that in order
to support some of the programs
that we have.
>> It's not unusual
for us to have three, four,
we've had even five generations
of the same family in
our building at the same time.
We say to a parent that if you
give us your three year old,
we will turn a college graduate
in a few years.
If you do 50% of the work,
we'll put up
the other 50% of the work.
>> I really believe
that Bridging the Gap
is a partnership.
It's a partnership
with our high schools.
It's a partnership
between UCC and Bruce-Guadalupe.
It's a partnership
with our parents.
It's using all of that knowledge
and all of that insight
to better inform families,
to better inform students
as they're making decisions.
>> We just don't leave them
when they leave us
in eighth grade.
We follow them for the next
four years.
We provide them scholarships
to schools that are
some of the best high schools
in Milwaukee,
so that they can then mingle
and participate with others
in the larger community,
because that's who they're
going to be working with.
>> Within our own program,
we found that those that
go off to four-year colleges
have had the highest
parental involvement.
So for us, parental involvement
is key.
>> We set the partnership
rit at the beginning
of the school year.
So we're going to be sharing
examples like that,
of what parents can do to become
a part of that partnership,
so that it becomes what we call
a symbiotic relationship,
or a reciprocal relationship.
It's not just about what schools
can do to fix children
and families.
And it's not just about
what parents can do to fix
their child before they send
that child to school.
It's about what we can do
collectively with one another.
>> I think it's important for
the parents to be in the kid's
education, because the school
can't teach a kid everything.
You know, if your kid doesn't
want to learn, and you're not
going to push your kid to learn,
then they're going to go
to school and slack off.
If you're behind your kid,
and you're showing them
that you want them to succeed,
nine times out of ten,
they're going to try to succeed,
because they're going to try
to please you.
>> When you talk about
parent involvement,
or what's the greatest part
that we don't have control over,
that's something that we
struggle with on a daily basis.
We always have to go back
to what can we control.
We can't control that home part.
Our real thought is,
most of the parents are doing
the best that they can
with what they have.
We really feel
that they understand
education is important.
Their life is day to day,
moment to moment,
you know, let it be.
Is it food
that they're going to have?
Are we going to continue
to be in the home that we're in?
You know,
do we have a vehicle today?
Or, it's a wind chill
of minus 30 degrees.
>> You know, you never really
know when you come into work
with the students each day,
when we pull them to tutor them
where they're coming from today.
We don't know if it's going
to be a good day or a bad day,
if it's going to be a day
where we can sit down
and focus on the learning
and get a lot done,
or a day when we have to
talk through a problem
that happened at home,
a fight, why they're not
talking to us today.
>> The stressors of poverty
are hard, because it's not like
someone who has a broken leg,
and you can see that
and you give them crutches
and you really help.
The stressors of poverty
are so internal and emotional
that that's a hard balance
of even when you have--
Well, for our classrooms
basically you're going to have
nine out of ten students
that come from poverty,
so to be able to give them
that individual attention
all the time in the classroom
makes that difficult.
>> Eighty percent
of a person's success
throughout their life span
does not just come from reading,
writing and arithmetic.
It comes from the ability
to understand your own emotions
and behaviors,
and the emotions and behaviors
of other people.
Kids who score higher
on standardized tests
have higher levels of social
and emotional education.
Our public school system,
I think, often doesn't spend
enough time showing kids
how to use their problems
as their best friend.
When kids see their problems
as a reason to turn in
their homework, to go to class,
to make better decisions,
these kids thrive
and these kids have hope.
If I had to create a formula
to really turn around this
achievement gap,
I would say resiliency, plus
social and emotional education
equals hope.
>> So I think that's where
our biggest challenge is,
is you have to get through
that social-emotional,
and they have to be able
to receive the learning before
you can teach the learning.
You know, that gets that whole
philosophy of, I taught it,
but if they didn't get it
and I didn't teach it in a way
that they're able to receive it,
it doesn't matter
that you taught it.
>> A teacher told me this.
Usually, the kids
who need our help the most
are the ones we want to spend
the least amount of time with.
Of course,
I've got a lot of issues.
What do you expect?
I'm being abused.
My mom's on drugs.
We're homeless.
I need help.
I need someone to come in
and just tell me that you care.
I know that's draining.
I know you can get burned out
from doing that.
But that's the only thing that's
going to reach someone like me,
or one of these guys out here
who's about to give up.
>> Even with the learning,
I really believe
in a high poverty school,
you will find some of
the very best teachers and
the most knowledgeable teachers
and best practices,
because we have students
that won't learn in spite of us.
>> On your worst day--
On your worst day,
you're that kid's best hope.
On your worst day,
you're that kid's best hope.
If you don't reach him,
if you don't look that
little Manny Scott in the eyes
and let him know you seeim,
that you believe in him,
you might lose him.
>> If someone said to me,
"Christian,
if you had a magic wand,
and you could really, really
turn that achievement gap
around, what would you use?"
What I would use is
a simple word called resiliency.
We have to teach these kids
how to use their challenges
as a reason to work harder,
to be greater.
No teacher, counselor,
or social worker
could get rid of the challenges
in my home.
They couldn't get rid of some of
my parents' mental health
issues; they couldn't get rid
of my learning disabilities;
they couldn't get rid of
the neighborhood I grew up in;
they couldn't get rid
of the graduation requirements.
>> The education is the goal
to anything.
I mean, any job now, anything
you have to do, you have to
have--
If you're not college bound
these days,
you're not going to make it far.
I wish I would've finished
school.
My kids bug me all the time
to go back to school.
>> I'm the kid who had
all of those issues, the abuse,
the domestic violence,
the homelessness, the poverty.
So it's personal to me.
I'm not just a statistic.
I'm a human being
who has problems,
who had issues,
who was broken.
And all I needed was a chance.
All I needed was an opportunity,
Someone to come
and, not to give me a handout,
but a hand up.
>> I believe administrators
are the catalyst
for the change.
Their leadership is paramount
in making that difference,
of challenging
and pushing those teachers
to challenge
and push their children,
to challenge and push parents,
to challenge
and push the community.
We've got to have the catalyst
start this fusion
and this fission.
We've got to have that working,
working together, working out,
with the challenge
and not backing down,
because it's hard,
because it's hard work.