Category Archives: schools

Learning to Collaborate

Some thoughts from our Grant Coach, MaryEllen Bergh, on schools and collaboration:

The Full-Service Community Schools Program Grant application has just been released so my thoughts have turned, once again, to the fact that schools just can’t take on all the problems of today’s children and their parents and, at the same time, focus on turning around a school labeled as “failing.” Schools need other agencies to share some of the responsibility.

Imagine a community school intentionally transformed into a neighborhood hub – open all the time to children and their families and, in this school, a range of support services is provided by community agencies to help students overcome the obstacles that interfere with their learning and success in school.

In order to create this system of comprehensive, coordinated support in a community school model, schools have to learn to work in different ways. Schools have tended to be isolated to a significant extent from direct intervention of other professionals; where they have had to work with other agencies, their relative size, statutory nature and high degree of control over what happens within their walls have often made them difficult partners (and I know many community non-profits working with children at school sites can attest to that!).

Educators and human service providers traditionally have been on different tracks. To collaborate, schools (and agencies) must be willing to negotiate on issues such as confidentiality, discipline, equipment, and transportation, to name a few. Many large educational initiatives (Safe Schools/Healthy Students, Healthy Start, 21st Century Community Learning Centers) insist on collaboration – often on the school site – and this has shifted the balance from control to cooperation. Principals and teachers realize that they need the cooperation of other professionals in order to reach the standards of performance by which their schools are judged.

Full service community schools are jointly operated and financed by a school district and a community-based organization. Each community school is unique based on what the neighborhood needs. Does the full service community school work? Preliminary research shows improved achievement, much better attendance rates, lower delinquency, and significant student and parent approval. Joy Dryfoos (well-known researcher and advocate of full service schools) states that the full service community school is a strategy – not a program – for “redesigning education to meet the needs of a modern, dynamic society.”

Learning to collaborate is a critical key in successful community schools. Collaboration benefits schools and community organizations in several ways:

  1. Working as a team leads to improved effectiveness, more efficient use of resources, better access to services and more productive partnerships;
  2. When schools and community based organizations cooperate to align resources with common goals, children and youth are more likely to succeed academically, socially, and physically;
  3. Collaboration among professionals provides opportunities to enlarge and deepen practice as school staff and community organizations learn from each other; and 
  4. Much more can be accomplished for children and families as a team than can be accomplished by any one organization in isolation.

Take a look at the Full Service Community Schools Program application.

For more information: Inside Full Service Community Schools, by Joy G. Dryfoos & Sue Maguire.

———————–

Visit GrantGoddess.com for more great tips on collaboration and grant writing!


Learning to Collaborate

Some thoughts from our Grant Coach, MaryEllen Bergh, on schools and collaboration:

The Full-Service Community Schools Program Grant application has just been released so my thoughts have turned, once again, to the fact that schools just can’t take on all the problems of today’s children and their parents and, at the same time, focus on turning around a school labeled as “failing.” Schools need other agencies to share some of the responsibility.

Imagine a community school intentionally transformed into a neighborhood hub – open all the time to children and their families and, in this school, a range of support services is provided by community agencies to help students overcome the obstacles that interfere with their learning and success in school.

In order to create this system of comprehensive, coordinated support in a community school model, schools have to learn to work in different ways. Schools have tended to be isolated to a significant extent from direct intervention of other professionals; where they have had to work with other agencies, their relative size, statutory nature and high degree of control over what happens within their walls have often made them difficult partners (and I know many community non-profits working with children at school sites can attest to that!).

Educators and human service providers traditionally have been on different tracks. To collaborate, schools (and agencies) must be willing to negotiate on issues such as confidentiality, discipline, equipment, and transportation, to name a few. Many large educational initiatives (Safe Schools/Healthy Students, Healthy Start, 21st Century Community Learning Centers) insist on collaboration – often on the school site – and this has shifted the balance from control to cooperation. Principals and teachers realize that they need the cooperation of other professionals in order to reach the standards of performance by which their schools are judged.

Full service community schools are jointly operated and financed by a school district and a community-based organization. Each community school is unique based on what the neighborhood needs. Does the full service community school work? Preliminary research shows improved achievement, much better attendance rates, lower delinquency, and significant student and parent approval. Joy Dryfoos (well-known researcher and advocate of full service schools) states that the full service community school is a strategy – not a program – for “redesigning education to meet the needs of a modern, dynamic society.”

Learning to collaborate is a critical key in successful community schools. Collaboration benefits schools and community organizations in several ways:

  1. Working as a team leads to improved effectiveness, more efficient use of resources, better access to services and more productive partnerships;
  2. When schools and community based organizations cooperate to align resources with common goals, children and youth are more likely to succeed academically, socially, and physically;
  3. Collaboration among professionals provides opportunities to enlarge and deepen practice as school staff and community organizations learn from each other; and 
  4. Much more can be accomplished for children and families as a team than can be accomplished by any one organization in isolation.

Take a look at the Full Service Community Schools Program application.

For more information: Inside Full Service Community Schools, by Joy G. Dryfoos & Sue Maguire.

———————–

Visit GrantGoddess.com for more great tips on collaboration and grant writing!

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Rest in Peace, Mr. Escalante

Like many others, I was saddened to learn this morning of Jaime Escalante’s passing. I vividly remember being inspired by his story, both as it was portrayed by Edward James Olmos in Stand and Deliver, and as it unfolded after the film was released.

Mr. Escalante found himself at the center of a controversy that still surrounds California schools today. What’s the problem?  Low student performance. Huge achievement gap between minority students (who are the majority in most of our urban schools). Overwhelmingly powerful unions. Overburdened teachers. Apathetic teachers. Parents who are completely disconnected from the education system because they are either focused on survival or dealing with their own personal issues.  Inadequate school funding.

Sound familiar? It should.

Mr. Escalante dealt with it in a way that I deeply admired, and that had a profound effect on my own career in education.  He lit a candle. He ignored the naysayers, and the union, and all the negative forces around him, and he did everything he could to make a difference in the lives of the youth he taught. He not only had high expectations for them (a buzzword that has become so overused that most people don’t even know what it would really look like in the classroom anymore), but he demanded excellence from his students – and then he put his money (a.k.a. his time) where his mouth was, and he provided the support they needed to meet his demands. To paraphrase Gandhi, he decided that he would be the change he wanted in the world, and it almost killed him.

When the movie first came out, I had mixed feelings about it.  On the one hand, who could not be inspired by his selfless and inspirational teaching and the results he got?  On the other hand, I was a bit offended by the implication that teachers should have to give up their personal lives, huge amounts of time with their families, and even their health in order to be successful at their jobs.

As time went on, I began to understand that something is terribly wrong with a system that would demand such incredible sacrifice on the part of a teacher, yet I know teachers who give as much as Mr. Escalante every day, even to this very day.  Make no mistake about it, he was, and is, not alone in his dedication, his ability to inspire children, and his belief that he can make a difference by lighting his candle and making change in his classroom, with his students. In spite of this, all of the characters you remember from the movie telling him to work less and laughing at him for believing that those kids could really achieve are still around even though the faces and names have changed.  They are all over the state, in every school and district, and the system has ground to a halt largely because of them.

They play a game of blame, insisting that everyone else is responsible for the failing state of our schools- especially the children and their families. They show up at exactly their contracted time 30 minutes before the bell in the morning and they leave at exactly the time their contract says their day is over. I have seen them stand up in the middle of student presentations at after school sessions and walk out because the clock chimed “contract” and it was their time to go. They keep such a close eye on their own rights, time, and compensation that they have completely lost sight of the children who depend on them. Yes, I know they would angrily object to my characterization, but I have seen them for years in my work in the schools, I have met them, I know them.  They can’t hide from me.

I am hoping the day is coming when they can’t hide from the rest of California anymore, either.

The unions are so powerful in California that people are afraid to speak out because the second they do the unions cast them as a teacher-hater.  Politicians who attempt real reform are quickly beaten back.  Social security may be the third rail of politics nationally, but there is no doubt that meaningful school reform and standing up to the unions to accomplish it form the third rail of California politics.

Mr. Escalante taught his students about the importance of las ganas. You have to really want it. To accomplish anything difficult, you have to really, really want it.  You have to work hard at it.  You have to sacrifice for it. That’s what our schools need.  Advocates who are willing to work hard to make a change because they really, really want it.  And not just a few, but thousands of advocates.

Some will do that work in their classrooms, but we need others who will do it as school leaders in the front offices of schools, as district leaders in the district offices, as trustees in the board rooms across the state, and as parents everywhere, in all of those settings.

The time has long passed when we should have started recognizing effective teachers with higher pay and job security, and that we deal with ineffective teachers (and administrators) by helping them on their way to a new profession.

I don’t know when the tipping point was reached – that point when unions, and apathy, and self-interest took control of our schools out of the hands of effective teachers, administrators, parents, and local communities – but I know that it’s time to take it back.

Mr. Escalante showed us what it looks like when a teacher has las ganas to make a difference. We know it’s possible.  I wonder what our system would look like if thousands of us across the spectrum let that desire loose, too.

It is my hope that Mr. Escalante’s legacy will be that others, who may have been inspired by his life but not inspired enough to change and act, will reflect on his contribution to education and decide to pick up the torch and keep the movement he started moving forward.  If one man can make such a difference, imagine what all of us could do.

Rest in peace, Mr. Escalante.  We will miss you….and thank you.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Escalante

Like many others, I was saddened to learn this morning of Jaime Escalante’s passing. I vividly remember being inspired by his story, both as it was portrayed by Edward James Olmos in Stand and Deliver, and as it unfolded after the film was released.

Mr. Escalante found himself at the center of a controversy that still surrounds California schools today. What’s the problem?  Low student performance. Huge achievement gap between minority students (who are the majority in most of our urban schools). Overwhelmingly powerful unions. Overburdened teachers. Apathetic teachers. Parents who are completely disconnected from the education system because they are either focused on survival or dealing with their own personal issues.  Inadequate school funding.

Sound familiar? It should.

Mr. Escalante dealt with it in a way that I deeply admired, and that had a profound effect on my own career in education.  He lit a candle. He ignored the naysayers, and the union, and all the negative forces around him, and he did everything he could to make a difference in the lives of the youth he taught. He not only had high expectations for them (a buzzword that has become so overused that most people don’t even know what it would really look like in the classroom anymore), but he demanded excellence from his students – and then he put his money (a.k.a. his time) where his mouth was, and he provided the support they needed to meet his demands. To paraphrase Gandhi, he decided that he would be the change he wanted in the world, and it almost killed him.

When the movie first came out, I had mixed feelings about it.  On the one hand, who could not be inspired by his selfless and inspirational teaching and the results he got?  On the other hand, I was a bit offended by the implication that teachers should have to give up their personal lives, huge amounts of time with their families, and even their health in order to be successful at their jobs.

As time went on, I began to understand that something is terribly wrong with a system that would demand such incredible sacrifice on the part of a teacher, yet I know teachers who give as much as Mr. Escalante every day, even to this very day.  Make no mistake about it, he was, and is, not alone in his dedication, his ability to inspire children, and his belief that he can make a difference by lighting his candle and making change in his classroom, with his students. In spite of this, all of the characters you remember from the movie telling him to work less and laughing at him for believing that those kids could really achieve are still around even though the faces and names have changed.  They are all over the state, in every school and district, and the system has ground to a halt largely because of them.

They play a game of blame, insisting that everyone else is responsible for the failing state of our schools- especially the children and their families. They show up at exactly their contracted time 30 minutes before the bell in the morning and they leave at exactly the time their contract says their day is over. I have seen them stand up in the middle of student presentations at after school sessions and walk out because the clock chimed “contract” and it was their time to go. They keep such a close eye on their own rights, time, and compensation that they have completely lost sight of the children who depend on them. Yes, I know they would angrily object to my characterization, but I have seen them for years in my work in the schools, I have met them, I know them.  They can’t hide from me.

I am hoping the day is coming when they can’t hide from the rest of California anymore, either.

The unions are so powerful in California that people are afraid to speak out because the second they do the unions cast them as a teacher-hater.  Politicians who attempt real reform are quickly beaten back.  Social security may be the third rail of politics nationally, but there is no doubt that meaningful school reform and standing up to the unions to accomplish it form the third rail of California politics.

Mr. Escalante taught his students about the importance of las ganas. You have to really want it. To accomplish anything difficult, you have to really, really want it.  You have to work hard at it.  You have to sacrifice for it. That’s what our schools need.  Advocates who are willing to work hard to make a change because they really, really want it.  And not just a few, but thousands of advocates.

Some will do that work in their classrooms, but we need others who will do it as school leaders in the front offices of schools, as district leaders in the district offices, as trustees in the board rooms across the state, and as parents everywhere, in all of those settings.

The time has long passed when we should have started recognizing effective teachers with higher pay and job security, and that we deal with ineffective teachers (and administrators) by helping them on their way to a new profession.

I don’t know when the tipping point was reached – that point when unions, and apathy, and self-interest took control of our schools out of the hands of effective teachers, administrators, parents, and local communities – but I know that it’s time to take it back.

Mr. Escalante showed us what it looks like when a teacher has las ganas to make a difference. We know it’s possible.  I wonder what our system would look like if thousands of us across the spectrum let that desire loose, too.

It is my hope that Mr. Escalante’s legacy will be that others, who may have been inspired by his life but not inspired enough to change and act, will reflect on his contribution to education and decide to pick up the torch and keep the movement he started moving forward.  If one man can make such a difference, imagine what all of us could do.

Rest in peace, Mr. Escalante.  We will miss you….and thank you.

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Sweeping Grant Funds Into General Fund Budgets

Something unusual is happening this year as a result of the fiscal situation being faced by organizations across the county. I have experienced it directly as it has affected school districts in California. I suspect it has also affected folks in other states.

Here’s what happened here in the Golden State….

School districts received permission to “sweep” funds from a whole bunch of categorical programs into their general budgets to allow for maximum flexibility in the use of those funds during this period of fiscal hardship. It sounds OK so far, huh? The concept sold to school districts, school boards, and their communities around the state is that the former system of categorical funding was inefficient and based on state and federal priorities, rather than local priorities (which, for the most part, is true).

The new rule would allow local districts to establish their own priorities and lump all that money together to be spent in a way that supports local needs. Sounds great.

Except for one thing.

Some state competitive grant programs were lumped in with that list of categorical funds that could be swept.

Schools that had worked hard to pull community partners together, plan programs, write successful grant proposals, and implement successful programs came to work one day this spring only to learn that their school district administrators had chosen to sweep those funds out from under them mid-year so the money could be used to help back fill the overall district budget deficit.

Even worse, in some school districts, district administrators have begun sweeping grant funds for programs that are not allowed to be swept, conveniently assuming that it will all be forgiven later because of the hardships that most public agencies are facing now.

Originally, this new “sweeping” rule required that districts hold public hearings to get input from the public on whether these funds should be swept or not and, if so, how the money should best be spent…..but that all was changed at some point, allowing district administrators to make these decisions behind closed doors. The decisions get approved at school board meetings without clear public notice (hasn’t the generic term “budget modifications” (or something like it) been on every school board agenda for months now?).

So, what’s wrong with this?

I won’t even talk about how crazy it is to sweep money saying that the district has other priorities when the district said in the grant applications themselves that the plans in the grants were district priorities.

Aside from the whole issue of making major decisions about changing how public money is spent without a meaningful opportunity for the public to comment, this practice damages relationships with community partners and discourages innovation in education. Here’s how…..

One of these programs that is being swept is the School Community Violence Prevention (SCVP) program (and this is only one example, there are others). When a district applied for these funds on behalf of a school, it was required to pull together a community partnership. That partnership had to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment and design a plan to leverage community resources to address a particular school-related violence issue. Local police departments, probation departments, mental health agencies, non-profit organizations, educators, and parents all came to the table in good faith to help the schools develop a plan for the school community that could address the problem.

Now the funds are being swept without any consultation with the community partners who made it possible for the district to get the money in the first place.

It’s disrespectful. It represents an animal-like dog-eat-dog approach to dealing with tough problems. It’s just wrong.

But there’s more.

One of the problems we have in education is that people who need money to implement creative solutions to tough problems in the schools have to apply for competitive grants to do so. It’s hard work, taken on by busy and dedicated professionals who simply don’t have the time to do it….but they do it anyway. Most others in the field don’t make the time. They lament the problems, and try to keep sticking their fingers in the holes in the dam hoping that their temporary solutions may work. They shake their heads at those who go the extra mile and pursue additional funding.

Now they – the ones who were not innovative, the ones who didn’t take the extra time or make the effort – lose very little in the budget debacle , while the innovators are essentially punished for their innovation.

The chilling effect on the whole system is that this single “sweeping” action will discourage innovation in the future at a time when our youth most need people who are willing to do things differently, to step out of “business as usual” and implement evidence-based programs that really work. The system is rewarding “falling in line and letting the folks at the district office handle it” (by the way, how scary is THAT????), while those who were actually doing it, and making a difference for kids, are punished.

And yes, it’s happening in my own community, too, and I’m just sick about it.

The worst part about this is that it’s happening under the radar and whenever educators speak up about it, they are told to sit down and be quiet – that it’s all justified because of the budget crisis.

I strongly disagree. I completely understand that times are tough and school boards have very tough decisions to make. Programs and services have to be cut. As a small business owner, I have felt the shake of the economic earthquake. I know how hard it is to lay people off. As an individual and a parent, I know what it feels like to have to cut back and to not be able to give my kids as much as I could last year. It’s hard. It hurts. But we teach children that it’s not OK do wrong things just because you are desperate. Stealing is wrong, even if you don’t have enough money to pay the mortgage.

The freedom to sweep these fund also means that school boards have the right to choose NOT to sweep them.

At minimum, our school boards need to ask harder questions, demand that the community be heard on the topic (in a meaningful way, with reasonable publicized notice). Then, if our elected and trusted officials choose to make the decision to do this, at least it has been made properly – not in a back room by people who were never elected by the public and who did not participate in the community process that brought the funds to the district to begin with.

Our elected officials should expect and demand more from those who work for us. We all should.

Sweeping Grant Funds Into General Fund Budgets

Something unusual is happening this year as a result of the fiscal situation being faced by organizations across the county. I have experienced it directly as it has affected school districts in California. I suspect it has also affected folks in other states.

Here’s what happened here in the Golden State….

School districts received permission to “sweep” funds from a whole bunch of categorical programs into their general budgets to allow for maximum flexibility in the use of those funds during this period of fiscal hardship. It sounds OK so far, huh? The concept sold to school districts, school boards, and their communities around the state is that the former system of categorical funding was inefficient and based on state and federal priorities, rather than local priorities (which, for the most part, is true).

The new rule would allow local districts to establish their own priorities and lump all that money together to be spent in a way that supports local needs. Sounds great.

Except for one thing.

Some state competitive grant programs were lumped in with that list of categorical funds that could be swept.

Schools that had worked hard to pull community partners together, plan programs, write successful grant proposals, and implement successful programs came to work one day this spring only to learn that their school district administrators had chosen to sweep those funds out from under them mid-year so the money could be used to help back fill the overall district budget deficit.

Even worse, in some school districts, district administrators have begun sweeping grant funds for programs that are not allowed to be swept, conveniently assuming that it will all be forgiven later because of the hardships that most public agencies are facing now.

Originally, this new “sweeping” rule required that districts hold public hearings to get input from the public on whether these funds should be swept or not and, if so, how the money should best be spent…..but that all was changed at some point, allowing district administrators to make these decisions behind closed doors. The decisions get approved at school board meetings without clear public notice (hasn’t the generic term “budget modifications” (or something like it) been on every school board agenda for months now?).

So, what’s wrong with this?

I won’t even talk about how crazy it is to sweep money saying that the district has other priorities when the district said in the grant applications themselves that the plans in the grants were district priorities.

Aside from the whole issue of making major decisions about changing how public money is spent without a meaningful opportunity for the public to comment, this practice damages relationships with community partners and discourages innovation in education. Here’s how…..

One of these programs that is being swept is the School Community Violence Prevention (SCVP) program (and this is only one example, there are others). When a district applied for these funds on behalf of a school, it was required to pull together a community partnership. That partnership had to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment and design a plan to leverage community resources to address a particular school-related violence issue. Local police departments, probation departments, mental health agencies, non-profit organizations, educators, and parents all came to the table in good faith to help the schools develop a plan for the school community that could address the problem.

Now the funds are being swept without any consultation with the community partners who made it possible for the district to get the money in the first place.

It’s disrespectful. It represents an animal-like dog-eat-dog approach to dealing with tough problems. It’s just wrong.

But there’s more.

One of the problems we have in education is that people who need money to implement creative solutions to tough problems in the schools have to apply for competitive grants to do so. It’s hard work, taken on by busy and dedicated professionals who simply don’t have the time to do it….but they do it anyway. Most others in the field don’t make the time. They lament the problems, and try to keep sticking their fingers in the holes in the dam hoping that their temporary solutions may work. They shake their heads at those who go the extra mile and pursue additional funding.

Now they – the ones who were not innovative, the ones who didn’t take the extra time or make the effort – lose very little in the budget debacle , while the innovators are essentially punished for their innovation.

The chilling effect on the whole system is that this single “sweeping” action will discourage innovation in the future at a time when our youth most need people who are willing to do things differently, to step out of “business as usual” and implement evidence-based programs that really work. The system is rewarding “falling in line and letting the folks at the district office handle it” (by the way, how scary is THAT????), while those who were actually doing it, and making a difference for kids, are punished.

And yes, it’s happening in my own community, too, and I’m just sick about it.

The worst part about this is that it’s happening under the radar and whenever educators speak up about it, they are told to sit down and be quiet – that it’s all justified because of the budget crisis.

I strongly disagree. I completely understand that times are tough and school boards have very tough decisions to make. Programs and services have to be cut. As a small business owner, I have felt the shake of the economic earthquake. I know how hard it is to lay people off. As an individual and a parent, I know what it feels like to have to cut back and to not be able to give my kids as much as I could last year. It’s hard. It hurts. But we teach children that it’s not OK do wrong things just because you are desperate. Stealing is wrong, even if you don’t have enough money to pay the mortgage.

The freedom to sweep these fund also means that school boards have the right to choose NOT to sweep them.

At minimum, our school boards need to ask harder questions, demand that the community be heard on the topic (in a meaningful way, with reasonable publicized notice). Then, if our elected and trusted officials choose to make the decision to do this, at least it has been made properly – not in a back room by people who were never elected by the public and who did not participate in the community process that brought the funds to the district to begin with.

Our elected officials should expect and demand more from those who work for us. We all should.

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com