Keeping kids focused on the destination

By Kathleen O'Donnell, July guest blogger

In late June, while most kids were just settling into summer, Destination 2010 students came together to prepare for the final leg of their K-12 journey. Their third annual summer weekend retreat was held at Camp Saint Croix with the theme of Rising to the Challenge and Exceeding Expectations.

Destination 2010 is an initiative of The Minneapolis Foundation designed to help a cohort of students graduate on time (in 2010) and pursue higher education — while sharing lessons learned along the way. Instead of creating new programs, the initiative weaves together existing resources to provide information, opportunities, and support to the students, the majority of whom are low-income students of color, and many of whom will be the first in their families to attend college. The program also conducts campus tours, connects kids with summer enrichment activities (and underwrites the costs), and offers many other activities to keep kids involved, focused, and achieving year round.

It’s an unusual program for its size and scope — launched in 2001, every 3rd grader in seven struggling Minneapolis and Saint Paul public schools was invited to participate. Every student who remained continuously enrolled in the two districts would receive a $5,000 or $10,000 scholarship to pursue post-secondary education. As they prepare to enter their senior year, 185 students remain in the program. This includes 40% of the original 364 students, along with students in another program who merged with Destination 2010 midstream.

The high attrition rate underscores the fact that mobility has posed the same challenges to Destination 2010 as it has to the school system itself. And the effect on the students can be devastating. We’ve witnessed first-hand the corrosive effects of mobility on relationships over time, on access to information and opportunities, and on academic success.

On the flip side, one of our greatest successes has been the ability to keep students on our radar who might have otherwise fallen off. For many students, the identity of being in Destination 2010 has transcended time and place. We’ve been able to maintain relationships with some students through homelessness, multiple moves, family upheaval, and time in the juvenile justice system.

Another significant challenge has been the need to constantly combat the pull of low expectations — both from external sources and within the students themselves — especially among so-called ‘average” students. Generally speaking, high-performing low-income students (those who are “beating the odds”) garner attention. Students viewed as average or underperforming often pass under the radar of efforts to nurture college aspirations. Yet even as Destination 2010’s approach has been to set the same high goals for all students, that vision hasn’t necessarily taken root for every single student or family.

And, honestly, for some students, the barriers can seem overwhelming. It can be very challenging to continue to hold high expectations and demand accountability for our students, when we’re aware of the difficulties and instability in their personal lives. It’s a balancing act for everyone who teaches young people to strive to achieve amid stressful circumstances.

Fortunately, we work in close partnership with the families, community programs, and school leadership and staff. To connect most effectively with the students and their families, a group of Destination 2010 liaisons who reflect the diversity of our students serve as the primary contacts. The liaisons have built relationships that open the door for tough conversations about what it will take to get into higher ed. They work with the students, but also help families navigate the roadmap to higher education (financial aid applications, appropriate pre-college class selections, etc.). They even keep family phone numbers current...not a small task. They keep our students encouraged and connected; keep the families informed, involved, and empowered; and have helped make Destination 2010 a diverse yet cohesive community of students striving to achieve.

Destination2010 student Rakeem has reflected, "I have been through a lot of programs in my life due to certain circumstances, but D2010 is by far my favorite. I look forward to seeing my friends and fellow students doing something productive and so serious about their lives to come. I see so many of my peers throwing their lives away with drugs and what not. I have made the choice to do something better and I feel that the decision I have made is the right one. Well, I am aware of my surroundings and I am capable of getting to my destination, are you?”

Question to readers: What strategies have you found to be successful in keeping students connected through achievement programs that aren’t necessarily focused on a specific school, neighborhood, or activity?

Comments

[Joe Nathan]

Thanks to Ms. McDonnell for her report.

Our research finds that urban public schools that have been highly successful in helping low income urban students get into and through college, like YES Prep in Houston,
* are small
* have high expectations for all
* Have specific staff people who get to know each student well in the school (so that they don't have to rely on an outside agency to help them get to know each student)
* Have an extensive community service plan, so youngsters learn they can make a difference, and they can accomplish more than they often thought possible
* Have someone working with them inside the school, all through high school, to develop and monitor an individual plan

This kind of school also has a lower mobility rate because it works so strongly with the students and their families.

My understanding is that Mpls Foundation is announcing a new approach to some of its funding. I hope that will include some effort to help replicate some of the nation's most effective public schools, whether district or charter.

Joe Nathan
Humphrey Institute
Univ of Mn

[Joe Nathan]

Apologies - thanks to Ms. O'Donnell, not McDonnell, for her comment.

[Jenny Wright Collins]

Ms. O'Donnell and Mr. Nathan effectively illustrate the importance of building authentic relationships with young people in order to impact achievement, particularly in the presence of significant barriers to achievement. They also recognize that existing programs, schools, and initiatives can be used as models for replication and can be better connected to one another to ensure broader impact in our communities.

In our work with the Minneapolis Beacons Network we have seen the powerful impact of partnering WITH young people rather than DOING FOR them. Creating schools and communities that engage young people as active contributors is a strategy essential to ensuring that our next generation of leaders is equipped with the 21st century skills they will need to be successful in higher education, the workforce, and as leaders in our communities.

Beacon centers provide opportunities for young people to engage as leaders and learners in their schools and neighborhoods. Each center has a youth advisory board that shapes programs offered in the center and creates service and community action projects within the school or neighborhood. Young people progress through leadership opportunities that are designed to increase in sophistication as the young people themselves develop their skills and experiences. A young person in our programs may begin as a participant and group member, then become active in service learning or volunteer work, and eventually become staff in a leadership role in the program. Middle school students receive a small stipend for a pre-employment program in which they partner with adult staff to work with groups of younger children. High school students work as hourly employees during the summer and afterschool. Many of our alumni are now college students working as adult group leaders in our centers.

In answer to Ms. O'Donnell's question, I would suggest that it is important to continue to build strong partnerships with those existing programs focused on "a specific school, neighborhood, or activity" as well as engage the young people themselves as your next liaisons and staff members for your program. Our alumni are our best advertisers, marketers, and youthworkers, so their leadership benefits our program immeasurably. We have also found that having power to impact their own lives and the lives of others has been the powerful "spark" (to use Search Institute's term) that has kept many of our young people connected to our programs and to their own vision of their future in education and the workforce.

As Ms. O'Donnell's quote from Rakeem illustrates beautifully, young people are more than capable of contributing in significant ways to our efforts to improve our schools and communities. Our job as adults and institutions is to find innovative ways to partner with one another and with the young people themselves in order to make these improvements together.

Jenny Wright Collins
Minneapolis Beacons
Network Director

[Kathleen O'Donnell]

Thank you to both Mr. Nathan and Ms. Wright Collins for your timely and insightful responses.

We all seem to agree on the primacy of meaningful, asset-based relationships in working with youth and calling out their best selves. Successful programs that help close the achievement / opportunity gap insist that youth (and their families) are known, believed in, and offered opportunities to impact their world and stay connected over time. Ms. Wright Collins also emphasized the significance of inviting youth voice to shape any efforts to engage youth. Our Destination 2010 youth advisory board attempts to do just that. Having a youth perspective on what youth need, want and will respond to is critical to the success of any program. What are other ways to motivate youth to take advantage of the wonderful resources and opportunities our community offers? Many educational enrichment and other youth serving organizations struggle with low participation which can limit impact.

I encourage readers to review the new strategic plan and grant guidelines of The Minneapolis Foundation, which will illustrate ways in which The Minneapolis Foundation is committed to transforming education, promoting economic vitality, and building social capital. Click below to learn more, and consider participating in a community information meeting and / or a webinar.
http://www.minneapolisfoundation.org/aboutus/StrategicPlan.html

http://www.minneapolisfoundation.org/Grants/GuidelinesOverview.html