Cleveland Says Yes to Education
Can you imagine a district ensuring that any student who graduates after spending four years in a district high school will receive a college scholarship? Imagine if that district also integrated support services into the education system starting at the elementary school level so that students were getting access to professionals to address mental, social, behavioral, and physical health challenges that are creating barriers to learning?
Thanks to the Say Yes to Education initiative at Cleveland Municipal School District, families in Cleveland no longer have to imagine. With over $90 million already raised to support the initiative, students can now leave high school with a scholarship to further their education. In addition, starting this year, students in ten elementary schools and six high schools have family support specialists who identify student concerns and connect the students to the services and supports to help address these concerns. More schools will be added each year until every school in the district is covered.
Last month, I had the opportunity to visit two of these schools with our Cleveland Teachers Union (CTU) President David Quolke and national AFT President Randi Weingarten. We started our visit at Lincoln West which is a high school specializing in Global Studies. This school has a student population representing more than 20 nationalities and focuses on connecting students with these different communities. We were greeted in the hallway by a group of students cooking empanadas as a fundraiser for a trip to Puerto Rico, where they will visit schools still suffering from the effects of Hurricane Maria. These students regularly sell food items that reflect the different nationalities in the school as part of their fundraising efforts. Because AFT has close ties with Puerto Rico, where there is an AFT affiliate, President Weingarten committed to contributing to the trip and to helping make connections with people in the area.
In another classroom, a Government class was studying the Bill of Rights. In addition to discussing their assigned topics with President Weingarten, students also talked about the trip they are planning to Washington, D.C. in the spring to see our government in action and to potentially meet with Sen. Sherrod Brown and Sen. Rob Portman.
In a current environment of political polarization, increasing incidences of hate crimes, and a growing intolerance of differences, it was encouraging and uplifting to visit a school where students are learning about how the government is intended to work, lifting up different cultures, and working side-by-side with people from diverse backgrounds. Even more uplifting is knowing that thanks to the new initiative in Cleveland, when these students graduate, they will be given a scholarship to continue their education and build upon the solid start they get at Lincoln West.
Our second visit of the day was to Memorial Elementary, one of the elementary schools with a family support specialist. Jillian Ahrens, a CTU member who has been critical in the development and implementation of the Social Emotioinal Learning (SEL) work in the district introduced us to the The Say Yes team who talked with us about how the family support specialist works with families to connect them with service providers who can address their needs. Memorial is also a school that has focused on SEL for several years. While there, we got to see an SEL lesson in action in a Kindergarten classroom.
Kim Jones never missed a beat as a group of adults on this tour entered her classroom of about twenty kindergarten students. Her topic for the day was “compliments” and she pulled out her turtle puppet to help deliver the lesson. The turtle talked with the students about what a compliment is and how a compliment makes us feel. Ms. Jones and the turtle then went on to give a compliment, one by one, to every student in the class. These compliments weren’t just cursory “you look nice today” complements, but rather genuine, planned out statements about how a student worked hard on a lesson, or helped another student at recess, or made a good grade on a test — demonstrating that Ms. Jones had put a lot of time and thought into how to make her lesson on compliments become real for these students. And you could see the effect on the class as one by one each student beamed while the teacher had something kind to say. Furthermore, she taught the class how to give a compliment so that they can look for ways to create good feelings in the classroom.
Given all the reports we hear on the news about bullying and children committing suicide, this lesson, and others like it taught on a regular basis at Memorial are arguably as important as any lesson on reading, writing, and arithmetic.
While there is so much more to see and discuss about what is happening in Cleveland, this one-day look at an elementary and a high school gave a glimpse into the potential for students in the district. While some districts offer wrap-around services in schools, and some districts have social emotional learning agendas, and some districts have the ability to offer scholarships to students, this is the first time I have been able to visit a district where all those pieces are wrapped into one package.
What makes it even more special is knowing the pivotal roles that CTU president David Quolke and members in the CTU have played in envisioning this type of atmosphere, negotiating for needed elements, planning for how it can happen, providing professional development for proper implementation, and now bringing it all to fruition on a daily basis. Thank you President Quolke and CTU members for working on behalf of members and students to not only provide supports to improve learning conditions for students but to also provide a pathway for continuing education beyond high school.
