Saving the World -- One Problem at a Time!

Happy kids (and teachers) learning about tigers at

the zoo. (We got to pet a real tiger pelt!)

This summer's LEAP program has drawn to a close and it is with heavy hearts that we bid our students goodbye.  It's been a wonderful summer with trips to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo (with much excitement about the size of elephant's poop!) and the Museum of Science and Technology (where we climbed a rock wall and Ms. Jasmine and Ms. Lauren bravely crawled through a rather small cave).

The kids had been reading Keena Ford and the Field Trip Mix-Up, but fortunately, we had none of Keena's hijinks on our trips.

The kids meet some friendly rescue dogs and the

friendly Ms. Schaefer from the SPCA.

They also enjoyed a visit from Dee Schaefer of the SPCA, who explained how we can help dogs that have been abused.

The heart of the LEAP program is empowering the children to respond to a problem they have identified in their community.  One group was working on ending dog abuse and learned that pets are currently treated like livestock under NY law -- and basic shelter and food is all that is required.  Ms. Schaefer wanted to see pet abuse moved into the penal code, so that it would be a crime to treat a dog cruelly.  The children in the group composed letters to their legislators requesting stronger penalties for dog abuse and mandatory training for pet owners.

Another group worked to improve the health of Seymour students by including swim lessons as part of the school's curriculum.  After researching the many benefits of swimming (did you know that swimming helps your brain to grow?), they made a presentation to the school's Vice Principal and summarized their findings in a letter.

A third group wants to end smoking in New York and have requested that the legal age to smoke be raised to 45.  (I chuckled at their logic -- 45 seemed so old to them that smoking would make no difference to longevity for such ancient people!)  They did think carefully about the problem, pointing out the dangers of second-hand smoke.  They were sensitive to the effect of such a law on retailers -- adding that the cost of a pack of cigarettes should be doubled, in order to give retailers some time to adjust to the change without a significant loss of income.  They addressed their concerns -- and their letters -- to our mayor and their local Common Council member.

Proud LEAPers and their teacher, Ms. MacKenzie, present

the bully box to Mr. Polera.

The last group chose bullying as the problem to solve -- and it was one of the largest groups.  Their first suggestion was to make posters to put up around the school -- but there were already plenty of posters up in the school.  After a meeting with Vice Principal Steve Polera, they devised a new plan -- an anonymous way to report that someone is bullying.  They designed a box, covered with facts about bullying, and made a presentation to the Mr. Polera.  It is sad to know that reports were made before the end of summer school -- but also promising to think that the system has a chance to address bullying at Seymour.

We'll keep you updated on the results of these students taking up the power that reading and writing makes possible and becoming active citizens in their community!

Writing with SWAG

LEAP is up and running and we're having a blast with our group of 23 students at Seymour Dual Language Academy.  Kids are already hard at work solving problems in their community from abuse of dogs to smoking.  But today began on a discouraging note.  Our field trip to the zoo had to be postponed because of thunderstorms.

Our fall back plan was to watch a zoo-themed movie, and for a while the kids were settled on the big, multi-colored carpet, watching Zootopia.  But first one, and then more kids walked away from the show and -- entirely on their own -- started writing at their tables.  We've been teaching them to write with SWAG by making sure each sentence:

• Starts with a capital letter
• is Written neatly
• has A space between each word, and
• uses Given punctuation (a period, question mark, or exclamation point).

The kids started writing each word on separate index cards (so they could be sure to leave a space between each word), then taped the words together to form a sentence.  And what great sentences they wrote!  We handed out markers and helped students sound out words, but the work was all their own. Here's a sample of their sentences:

"My Mom and Dad are cool because they love me."

"I love my Mom and my Dad and my brother."

"I love my teachers."

and "I love summer school."

Some of the students started taping their long strips of words into crowns.  

Gotta love kids, who on a rainy day, with a cancelled field trip, decide they'll work on building sentences!

If you'd like to support these awesome kids -- you can donate here.

Is the Public Service Leadership Academy at Fowler the Answer to a Neighborhood's Troubles?

On June 25^th, the last graduating class from Fowler High School will walk the stage.  As these last 149 students’ names are called, Fowler High School’s story will end – but a new story is already beginning at the Public Service Leadership Academy at Fowler (PSLA), the Career and Technical Education school that is now housed in Fowler’s renovated space.  Whether this new story will be a happy one is yet to be determined.

Fowler High School struggled with inadequate facilities and low graduation rates.  In a recent Syracuse.com article, Julie McMahon detailed the troubled history of Fowler – poor construction leading to raw sewage seeping into the school, persistently poor test scores, and violent flare-ups.  However, McMahon also makes clear that the neighborhood school is situated in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country and serves a particularly stressed community – people from oppressed racial backgrounds, immigrants, refugees.  (In fact, both the valedictorian and the salutatorian of this year’s graduating class came to the United States from refugee camps in Thailand.)  McMahon quotes ***** that Fowler was “set up from the giddy-up,” poorly resourced to meet the needs of a challenging population.  People in the neighborhood found the school to be a sanctuary – with teachers who cared and who understood what it meant to live on the West Side.  With low graduation rates, it’s clear that most of Fowler’s students did not find success – but many did.  There are always stories of hard work and perserverance, even in the most difficult circumstances.  In the end, however, the No Child Left Behind law requires that consistently failing schools be “restructured” – and thus, Fowler became PSLA.

What has changed in the restructuring?  First, the renovation of the school has added windows and, with them, light -- the space is more cheerful than in the past.  A towering library and the transformation of the factory-like old building demonstrate real improvements.  There is a new principal and administrative staff, and a totally new curriculum.  The school is focused on CTE programs -- with 11 choices, focused on public service.  They are:

• Cosmetology/Barbering
• Electrical trades
• Computer forensics
• Cybersecurity
• Geospatial intelligence
• Drone technology
• Law enforcement
• Emergency medical technician
• Forensic science
• Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps

While school officials say that the curriculum will help students become college or career ready, the emphasis is on careers.  If you examine the curriculum, you will see that students are held to the same Common Core State Standards for literacy, math, and science as students in traditional high school programs.  PSLA at Fowler students will take the regents exams.  There are partnerships in place with Onondaga Community College to continue students' education in some of the programs.  There are also partnerships with local employers to give students hands on experience in their chosen fields and prepare them for careers.  According to school officials, the goal is "for students to graduate with a clear sense of their next step in life, whether it's a job right out of school or higher education.  Students often graduate with credentials or certification to work in their chosen field."

There are a number of questions that can be raised about PSLA at Fowler.  First, this kind of practical training, integrated with academic skills in reading, writing, math, and science, is similar to LEAP's emphasis on problem-based instruction.  The education is concrete and leads to succes in a career.  These are worthy goals.  But, at the same time, encouraging these students to focus on careers, rather than college, is to underestimate their potential.  Not everyone wants to go to college or will find fulfillment there.  We need police officers, EMTs, barbers, etc.  But we should not decide in advance which children should go to college and which should go directly into careers.  As long as these students have a real option to choose their path -- and to puruse "a job right out of school or higher education," is the question.  Inadequate schools combined with inadequate nutrition combined with the stress of poverty can set children up for failure.  Is turning to a career focused academy just realism?  Or are we giving up on these kids, and deciding that they cannot go to college?  One commentator on Syracuse.com wrote: "it seems that a whole lot of the 'village' it takes to raise a child, failed them."  Does a new name, a new curriculum, and a renovated building address the issues that led to Fowler becoming a "failure factory"?  

What do you think about the new PSLA at Fowler?  Is this a step in the right direction?  Are there other steps we should be taking?  Or are you concerned that we are giving up these kids?  Please let us know what you're thinking in the comments below.

LEAP into Lit this Summer!

We are excited to announce our free summer literacy program!  We will be working with children who have finished second grade but not yet started third grade.  The goal of the program is to increase the students' interest and ability for reading and writing.  Let's start third grade ready to go!

The LEAP program uses literature to jump into writing and problem-solving. Students in LEAP choose a problem in their world and work to find solutions to it. The solutions are then passed on to stakeholders in the community so that the children’s ideas can be put into action. Everything we do is student-centered. LEAP teachers believe that these are smart children who have a lot to say. The project’s goal is to show young students that reading and writing well will help them use their voices to change the world.

LEAP teachers work with small groups, giving lots of one on one attention

LEAP will start July 5 and run through Aug. 4. The program will meet from 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday at Great Grace Church, 410 Oswego St. Classes are small. Each teacher works with only 4 or 5 students, so each child gets individual attention.  

Registration for the program is now open. For more information and to apply, click here.  Feel free to contact our program director, Tabor Fisher, with any questions.  

School Lunches: Healthy or Popular?

As parents, many of us know about the constant struggle to provide healthy food for our kids and get them to eat it.  We struggle to plan meals, balance our budgets, avoid sodas and expand our children's choices. (I remember a long period when my children ate macaroni and cheese and peas for every meal.  And I'm not sure they always ate enough peas!)  Parents do our best, but it isn't always easy.  All of this becomes even harder when there isn't enough money to buy healthy food.  In families experiencing poverty, 32.8% experience food insecurity.

How our children eat impacts how well they can learn in school.  A hungry child can be tired, have difficulty concentrating, and have trouble remembering things.  Long term hunger can lead to delays in the mind's development -- leading to lower standardized test scores.  It is crucial that our children have enough food -- and healthy food -- to get the most they can out of their schooling.

The federal government takes these issues seriously.  The Obama administration changed the regulations for school lunches, mandating more whole grains, more fruits and vegetables, less sodium, and nonfat milk.  The regulations put in place by the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act in 2010 set high standards for nutritious food for our kids.

So, what can be wrong with these regulations?  All I have to think about is that seemingly endless period of time when my kids would only eat macaroni and cheese.  I can't imagine them stretching their palates to accept whole grain pasta in that macaroni and cheese.  What happens if the school offers healthy food -- but the kids won't eat it?

This is the concern raised by the School Nutrition Association.  In 2014, Lyman Graham, SNA's Director, pointed out that "with sky-high produce costs, we simply cannot afford to feed our trash cans."  The new administration is sympathetic to those concerns.  Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has halted the phasing in of some of the new regulations.  Some school districts, including C. W. Baker High School in Baldwinsville and Manlius Pebble Hill School in Syracuse, have already opted out of the federal regulations, giving up on federal funding for free and reduced meals, because students have resisted the healthier food.

What do you do when your kids want pizza or soda?  How do you balance the demands of making sure your children eat and making sure they eat well?  Do your kids complain about or praise school lunches?  And what do you think the school should serve?  Whole grain healthy food -- with hopes kids will get used to it?  Or not as healthy food, which we know they will eat?  Please post your opinions below.

The Vicious Cycle of Poverty and Iliteracy

            When my eldest child began to read, I remember the world suddenly opening up for him.  We’d be driving in the car and he would be so excited about reading each and every sign – whether it was the distance to the next town or an advertisement for fast food.  As he exclaimed with joy over the bits of information flowing to him from roadsigns (“Gas next exit,” “Garage sale,” “Grand opening”), I was struck by how much of our world is covered in text.  You are reading right now.  We get news from our friends in writing on Facebook; we find our way to the “restrooms” by reading the sign, I know I can get a cheeseburger, fries, and a soda, because it is written on the menu.  Without being able to read, what would the world look like?  How would we find our way around, pick up bargains, know what is happening in our city or state or country or world?

            Not being able to read well can have negative effects on human flourishing.  According to The New England Journal of Medicine people who are not good readers can misunderstand the instructions a doctor has given them, misread prescription dosages, and have severe health problems simply because they do not have the health information they need.  Poor readers have difficulty filling out job applications, finding addresses, and understanding safety information.  

There is a reinforcing cycle of connections between illiteracy and poverty.  People who have money are more likely to own books.  They are also more likely to have jobs that give them the time to encourage their children to engage with those books.  If someone works a janitorial job, for example, she is more likely to both make less money and work during the hours a school-aged child is home from school.  For these reasons, people who live in poverty are more likely to have poor literacy skills. 

However, the cycle continues: people who have poor literacy skills are more likely to become or remain poor.  The skills needed for higher paying jobs, the ability to read job notices and fill our job applications, and the clarity and confidence of oral skills are often lacking for people who have trouble reading and writing.  Literacy advocate AndyMcNab says that while the ability of a school to spend time on literacy is "not a problem for children who were exposed to books at home, it left those from deprived backgrounds disadvantaged because they had few role models outside school to encourage them to read.  'Kids from working-class families are being failed because they don't come from a middle class culture where everyone reads,' he said." 

Schools can only do so much, and without the supplemental instruction many children who live in poverty cannot receive at home, there is a growing gap in literacy skills between middle-class and poorer children.  This disparity is evident in the Syracuse City Schools, where the different in attainment on the third grade ELA test between those who are economically disadvanted and those who are not is the greatest difference in any category.  While 24% of children who are not economically disadvantaged in the Syracuse City School District were proficient on the 3rd grade ELS test, only 7% of students who are economically disadvantaged were proficient.

It is clear that children do better when they have access to good books and to adults who engage them in reading.  Reading for fun -- and finding the fun in reading -- is crucial.  That is what we do in LEAP.  Our summer literacy enrichment program will take place at Great Grace Church of God in Christ, making it easier for children on the Near West Side ot participate.  The census tracts near the church include some of the highest concentrations of poverty in Syracuse, including census tract 30 with 65% of its residents below the poverty line, according to the most recent data.  The kids we work with are smart and curious -- but they do not have the same resources as other children.

At LEAP, we offer children a student-centered approach to reading and writing that focuses on their strengths and their enjoyment.  We encourage children to have fun with their reading and to write with a purpose.  Our well-trained teachers focus on each child's unique skills and needs, working with no more than 5 children each.  If you'd like to get more information about this summer's LEAP program or would like to support our efforts, feel free to contact us or donate.