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Healthy Kids
Success Stories
Expanded Learning Opportunities at Carson High School
Story posted January 22, 2013
Results:
- Attendance is strong: students are coming to school every day for every class period.
- AMA’s students are outperforming the school district average on several standardized tests
- Last year 98 percent of the academy’s students passed California’s high school exit exam
Background
The Academy of Medical Arts (AMA) at Carson High School is a small high school located in Carson City-- an area between downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach. The city is home to California State University, Dominguez Hills—a major university in Los Angeles County.
The student population at AMA is ethnically diverse and includes young Filipinos, Samoans, Latinos, African-Americans, Whites, and Native Americans, among others. No single ethnic group dominates the student body, and teachers say that gives the campus a feeling of equality and balance. Many of the students come from families who work blue collar jobs as mechanics, oil refinery workers, longshoreman, drivers, and retail and grocery store staff. Some students’ parents also work in the medical field as nursing assistants or diagnostic technicians. ...
Iowa’s Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program for Four-Year-Old Children
Story posted February 9, 2012
Results:
- Over 64% of kindergarten children who attended preschool were considered proficient on DIBELS in the 2008, 2009 and 2010 school years, compared to approximately 52%, 56% and 57% (respectively) of their peers who did not attend preschool, and the impact is greater for children in poverty
The Iowa State Board of Education has long supported quality early childhood education, and in 2007 the legislature created the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program for Four-Year-Old Children (SWVPP). The purpose of the program is to provide an opportunity for all 4-year-old children in the state of Iowa to enter school ready to learn by expanding access to research-based preschool curriculum and licensed teaching staff.
Under the program, school districts, along with community partners, submitted grant applications to participate. Those awarded a grant demonstrated collaborative involvement with multiple stakeholders in both the planning and ...
A Full-Service School Fulfills Its Promise
Story posted September 9, 2008, Updated August 29, 2011.
Results:
- 95% of 4th graders scored proficient or better through 2010
- In 2008, 70% of 4th graders scored proficient or better on the New York State's English language arts assessment (compared to 19% passing in 1999)
- In 2008, 94% of students are now medically insured (compared with less than 23% in 1999)
In the late 1990s, teachers and administrators here at Thomas Edison Elementary School in Port Chester, New York, could see that the struggles of neighborhood families were affecting students' safety and well-being. They were also contributing to low academic achievement.
Although Port Chester is surrounded by affluent areas of Westchester County, our community is far from wealthy. More than 80 percent of Thomas Edison's students receive free or reduced-price lunch, and nearly 50 percent are English language learners. The majority of our families are recent immigrants from Hispanic countries. They struggle to afford adequate housing, child care, nutrition, and health care. They also face the stresses that ...
When "City Connects" Helps the Whole Child, Achievement Gaps Shrink
Story posted June 18, 2010
Results:
• The intervention moved students at the 50th percentile up to or near the 75th, and students at the 25th up to or near the 50th
• While the intervention ends in 5th grade, positive effects continue to be seen in middle-school test scores
An innovative program out of Boston College is making a big difference for children in 11 Boston elementary schools. City Connects (CCNX) works with the schools to link each child to a "tailored set of intervention, prevention and enrichment services located in the community."
Its efforts have gone a good distance towards closing achievement gaps between the low-income children in the program and children who meet state averages. CCNX's results offer powerful support for what should be common sense: When we address the challenges poor students face both within and beyond schools, they flourish.
A rigorous study (PDF) of the program's outcomes tells a pretty stunning story:
- The beneficial impact of BCNX [the former name of CCNX] on student growth in academic achievement (across grades 1 to 5) was, on average, approximately three times the harmful impact of poverty.
- By the end of grade 5, achievement differences between BCNX and comparison students indicated that the BCNX intervention moves students at the 50th percentile up to or near the 75th percentile, and the students at the 25th percentile up to or near the 50th.
- For multiple outcomes, the treatment effects were largest for students at greatest risk for academic failure. For example, English language learners experienced the largest treatment benefits on literacy outcomes, by third grade demonstrating similar report card scores to those proficient in English in comparison schools. In fact,as a result of BCNX, there was no longer an achievement gap between these students.
- After grade 5, the lasting positive effects ofthe BCNX intervention can be seen in middle-school MCAS scores. The size ofthe positive effect of BCNX ranged from approximately 50% to 130% as large as the negative effects of poverty on these scores.1
We recently caught up with two of the program's leaders: Dr. Mary Walsh, its Executive Director, and Patrice DiNatale, its Director of Practice.
Public School Insights: What is City Connects?
Walsh: City Connects is a systemic, evidence-based approach to school-based student support. It involves assessing, in conversation with teachers and other school staff, each child in the school at the beginning of the school year and then developing a tailored student support plan based on that student's strengths and needs in four areas: academic, social emotional/behavioral, health and family.
That support plan involves accessing services, supports, resources and enrichment for the child, both school-based resources as well as, and importantly, community resources. A trained professional with a Master’s degree—either ...
Making Healthy Students a Priority
Story posted May 26, 2010.
Learn more about this district and its school-based health clinics in our interviews with district official Linda Gann and nurse practitioner Jennifer Danielson.
Results:
• 439 students had mental health visits in the first two years of the clinic's operation
• 313 students were seen by the nurse practitioner
• 113 students were enrolled in an insurance program
The Concern
Montrose County School District serves 6,500 students. About 54 percent of those students are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch. At one school, Northside Elementary, 78 percent of students are eligible. The school board’s mission is that all children will learn at their optimal level. It is difficult for students to learn if they are not well. Students in high-poverty schools have barriers to getting health care. According to Richard Rothstein, in his book Class and Schools, “Without fully adequate health care for (high poverty) children, there is little hope of fully closing the achievement gap. ... So, a high priority should be establishing health clinics associated with schools that serve disadvantaged children.”
The Solution
The district established a school-based health clinic on the campus of Northside Elementary School. It’s open full-time during the school year and one month in the summer. The full-time staff includes ...
A Community Re-Captures Its Students
Story posted February 10, 2010
Results:
• In only three years the school has re-captured at least 150 students who had dropped out or needed alternative schedules to graduate 
• Six years ago, as a K-8 school, 84% of students never made it to 10th grade; as a preK-12 school, staff anticipates an unofficial high school graduation rate exceeding 70%*
The Appalachian community of Lower Price Hill lies in an industrial area along the Ohio River, where homes are interspersed with factories and environmental quality is very poor. More than a quarter of residents are illiterate.
A few years ago, the community’s Oyler Elementary School was in danger of closing due to decreasing enrollment and poor academic outcomes. Initially local families were reluctant to intervene to save the school, but by using a variety of community engagement strategies, Cincinnati Public Schools Consultant Darlene Kamine mobilized residents. They created a new vision for a new school—a Community Learning Center. This effort was supported by ...
Story posted February 5, 2009
Results:
• School-wide increases in reading and math test scores for the past three years
• In mathematics, the school has outperformed the district for the past two years, even though it serves a significantly higher portion of free and reduced-price lunch students
For decades, the Payne Phalen neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota, housed generations of immigrants and provided solid factory jobs. However, between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s, the neighborhood lost more than 2,500 industrial jobs, and between 1980 and 1990, child poverty increased by 800 percent, according to the U.S. Census.
In the late 1990s, the city of St. Paul began efforts to revitalize the neighborhood through housing and business investment initiatives. As a part of this revitalization, St. Paul Public Schools decided to build a new elementary school where a high school had long stood empty. In partnership with ...
Community Helps Struggling School Reopen to Success
Story posted July, 2008
Results:
• 10-15% average annual increase in standardized test scores for 4 years
• 100% of the school's first graduating students passed the math portion of the state Graduate Qualifying Exam and 90% passed the language arts portion (both district records)
It's hard to imagine that George Washington Community School was once struggling so badly that the school district had to close it. Today, the school is alive with activity and its students are thriving.
The transition did not happen overnight-and it would not have happened at all if it had not been for the powerful commitment and intensity of support from the community. The work to reopen the closed high school grew out of a grassroots desire by the community to provide an environment where young people, and their families, could succeed. Neighborhood residents envisioned a center of community collectively focused on improving graduation rates and preparing young people for post-secondary education. ...
Transforming a School's Culture, One Snack at a Time
Story posted May, 2008
Results:
• Improved school's nutrition environment
• The school cafeteria orders 30% more produce to keep up with demand
• Pre and post- program surveys indicate children eat more fruit, play outside more often and drink less soda
Dr. Crisp Elementary is an inner-city school in Nashua, NH that enrolls 425 students from preschool to grade 5. More than 65% of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
In 2003, we had few guidelines regulating school nutrition. Children typically brought sugary snacks to schools. Classroom celebrations often included cupcakes, brownies and soda. The cafeteria's salad bar was empty.
In the fall of that year, the "Changing the Scene" program through the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension opened our eyes to the childhood obesity epidemic. Hardly a week went by without frightening reports on the health of today's children. We decided it was time take action. ...
School/Community Connections Benefit Both in Missouri
Story posted April, 2008
Results:
• Over 80% of kindergarteners have contact with the district before entering school
• Students involved in the extended program show improvement in almost every measurable area: participation, self-reliance, homework completion, attendance, academic achievement, and more
Everyone in Independence plays a role in educating young people. Each elementary and one high school has a School/Neighborhood Site Council that includes parents, teachers, community members, and students. These councils assess needs for their neighborhood and school and then implement action plans aimed at improving the well-being of students, families, neighborhoods and the community. In Independence, the public believes that a caring community builds on its strengths to provide meaningful opportunities for young people.
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A VISION FOR GREAT SCHOOLS
On this website, educators, parents and policymakers from coast to coast are sharing what's already working in public schools--and sparking a national conversation about how to make it work for children in every school. Join the conversation!
