All-America City promising practices webinar series Educational Equity: Stockton, California and Montgomery County-Dayton, Ohio

2018 All-America city award promoting equity through inclusive civic engagement 2018 is the 50th anniversary of the Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorder. The report concluded with words that fit easily within our own times, “it is time to make good the promises of American democracy to all citizens – urban and rural, white, black, Spanish surname, American Indians, and every minority group.”  

Stockton: All-America City How a collective-impact approach to early literacy helped a bankrupt city rebound for another national honor

Adults without a high school diploma: 22% 11/18/2017 Adults without a high school diploma: 22% Adults with bachelor’s degree or higher: 18% Families in poverty: 23% Unemployment: 8.6% Preschool enrollment: 40% Library circulation: 2.6 (per capita) Third graders reading at grade level: 27%

Problems to overcome Mass layoffs of sworn police officers Fiscal issues for school districts including teacher layoffs City retirees losing portions of pension and health care Businesses shutting their doors and unemployment near 10 percent The title of “Foreclosure Capital” of the United States The arduous plan to emerge from bankruptcy A stain on the community’s image

A “town-gown” community-impact approach Pacific President Pamela Eibeck reading during “Family Day at the Park” – a 20-year community literacy event.

BOG: What we do Phase 1: Recruit community partners; focus on needs, planning and implementation of efforts; Phase 2: Continue to refine strategies and evaluate outcomes; implement $300,000 in Irvine Foundation funding to focus on early literacy efforts; Phase 3: Build self-sufficiency so community partners can move forward and implement their own plans.

Who we are working along side Non-profit agencies United Way and the Community Foundation for San Joaquin The county office of education Public school districts and private schools The faith community Hospitals Other healthcare providers Businesses and business organizations Social service organizations

In our tool belt Annual literacy report card for Reading By Third; Summer Reading Guides in partnership with local newspaper; The Talk! Sing! Read! Draw! Play! Campaign for youth activity; A county-wide attendance challenge to fight chronic absenteeism; Opening up the campus to use by Beyond Our Gates partners; Funding of a grant writer to help agencies secure funds; Other bilingual tools to help foster literacy.

Changes for the positive Chronic absences are down from 9 percent in 2013 to 4.9 percent last school year; While third-grade reading still trails the state average, there has been a five percent boost; Summer programs are stemming the tide of reading loss due to inactivity; A San Joaquin County Children and Youth Task Force has been formed; Approximately $150,000 in literacy mini-grants have been given to area agencies.

San Joaquin Reads: Early Literacy, Every Day

Stockton: emerging from the abyss The city elected a 26-year-old African-American Stanford graduate as mayor in November; The police force, helped by a voter-approved tax, is at an all-time high of 450 sworn officers; School districts are hiring more teachers and there is intense focus on everything from grade-level reading to STEM learning; Business are expanding; Others are moving to Stockton; The real estate market has rebounded and some home construction has begun; Developers are investing in the city’s long-dormant inner core.

All-America City … again 1999 2004 2015 2017

Questions?

Tom Lasley Tom.Lasley@LearntoEarnDayton.org Ritika Kurup Ritika.Kurup@LearntoEarnDayton.org

Starting the conversation In Dayton, we started the hard conversation about equity with Know the Gap, Close the Gap. Disaggregating local data ‘brings home’ the challenge. These are ‘our kids,’ not national statistics.

The numbers are haunting

We invited people to talk

Where are people talking about equity? Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings helped kick off the conversation. ‘Equity’ was the focus of our Readiness Summit. Data walks are occurring with: Families School leaders and teachers Faith leaders Civic and social service groups

The ‘reflex’ is to cite poverty People want to use ‘poverty’ to explain the achievement gap between the races and ethnic groups. They’re stunned to see the data that refutes that.

‘Poverty’ alone is not the explanation

Avoid the ‘blame game’ Don’t let conversations devolve into blaming. Ask ‘How can we change things?’ – not ‘Who is at fault?’

What are we learning? People do not know how tragically behind Dayton’s African-American children are – even though they vaguely know national statistics. People want to help, but they need direction about what they can do. To change the trend lines, we must have champions in leadership roles. People (especially teachers) who directly touch children have to know the numbers.

What’s next? We’re still grappling with the data. We have to institutionalize the practice of examining data by subpopulation. Going forward, our annual report will disaggregate data, we’re sharing school district-level data on our website and at our annual Readiness Summit. We’re wrestling with getting from talk to action.