The Graduation Rate Summit - "The Power of Community Partnerships" was held on Monday, March 5, at the DCU in Worcester. Approximately 500 superintendents, principals, guidance councilors, DOE, adult learning coordinators, community college presidents, Workforce Investment Board coordinators, DYS directors, DSS directors, and other job or school representatives attended. There was one librarian in attendance - me. I was invited by Chris Shannon at the Merrimac Valley Workforce Investment Board.
The goals of the Summit were (as written in the welcoming letter in the binder given to every participant):
- To acknowledge that the graduation rate is an issue for the entire state and the solutions include collaborations with state partners, not just schools
- To showcase replicable practices from the organizations, partnerships, and schools that are doing an impressive job to assist students in staying in school; and
- To provide an opportunity for structured inter-agency regional discussions on improving the number of students who graduate from high school.
It was a full day of statistics and presentations which began with a quick keynote from Governor Deval Patrick. He is calling for a higher dropout age. Currently, kids can decide to drop out of school at age 16. As the Governor said, come on, age 16? He is calling for that age to be raised to 18. He also is calling for young parents to be more involved in the education process. The Governor said it wasn't just a matter of getting more money but seeking creative solutions that involved more civic collaboration. He mentioned key words such as afterschool programs, lifelong learning, and preschool programs. Hmm, I reflected. Those are familiar words to a librarian! I looked about to nod knowingly at someone. Oh right, I was the only librarian there!
Following the Governor's remarks, Andrew Sum, Director of Labor Market Studies, addressed the sobering statistics picture of dropouts and the consequences for the Commonwealth. While it's true Massachusetts is on the low end of dropouts nationally, the concern is that there is a 12% dropout rate and that goes up to about 30% in the urban communities. Dr. Sum's presentation looked at the dropout rate and the impact on income, health, social, civic, and fiscal outcomes. It wasn't pretty.
The next activity was to attend one of the smaller breakout sessions. I selected for the morning a session entitled: "Bring Learning to Life: Models for Engaging Students". The models of community service learning paid internships for at risk kids were highlighted. The key did seem to be money: programs were supported by money and the kids were paid. Again, I was able to hear familiar words to librarians such as "intergenerational" and "youth driven". If libraries had been represented, we could have talked about our Teen Advisory Boards and some of the projects and programs these teens do under the auspices of a library! But, remember, I was the only librarian there!
We gathered together again as the larger group for lunch and to hear Laura Shubilla, President of the Philadelphia Youth Network, speak on "Philadelphia's Community Approach to the Dropout Crisis". I found Ms. Shubilla to be clear and full of helpful advice for our group. She stressed the process in her program and it's an important factor to keep in mind as Massachusetts begins theirs. I sometimes think process is overlooked in our rush to get to the product.
The afternoon broke up the larger group again into breakout sessions. I selected "Building Unified School and Community Supports for Youth". This sounded like an opportunity for libraries! We heard about the great collaboration between the Worcester Schools and the Worcester Youth Center. The Youth Center was able to offer space and access to technology to teach job skills. There were a couple of other presenters for this session. The programs were funded with existing dollars, just reconfigured or redeployed.
I am afraid the day was unsettling for me. Not just because of the grim reality of dropouts in Massachusetts. But because I was the only librarian there! There was so much which resonated "library" but the word was not even pronounced the whole day! Where are we in this picture? Why are we not even considered to be in the picture? More importantly, how can we get into this picture? I came away, feeling certain there is a place for all libraries in this collaboration. There will be follow up local taskforce meetings and you can be certain that I will make sure library representatives are present. We can offer so much: space, support and ideas, technology, programs, services, networking. We need to communicate that to our communities, let them know that not only are libraries willing partners but also creative in thinking outside of the box!
Click Here view a clip of this Summit.
