White Students 57 Hispanic Students 26

 

Another year, another big achievement gap in our state.

The Connecticut Mirror reports that for Connecticut – where one of every 10 public school students speaks Spanish as his or her primary language – academic achievement gaps between Hispanic students and their white classmates are among the largest in the nation.

26 percent of Hispanic students and 57 percent of white students were at or above proficiency in 4th-grade reading. That’s a 31-point gap. (Link to source article is below)

While the report is focused on the struggle of English learners, it serves as yet another reminder of the adversities and hurdles facing so many of our children in the schools systems today.

It also underscores the vital need for our students to use every tool available to help them achieve in an environment of scant resources and shrinking budgets.

One very important tool is the motivation and persistence needed to overcome adversity and achieve even in an environment and circumstance that is far from perfect.

And let’s be honest, for many students, helping themselves is all the help they are going to get for the foreseeable future.

Increased student motivation, and engagement are required ingredients for any recipe for success in narrowing the student achievement gaps.

There is one organization whose main goal is helping students to help themselves.

Brave Enough to Fail Inc. is a Connecticut based nonprofit formed in late 2015, that provides motivational programs and scholarships to high schools with a special focus on those schools that are most in-need.

The mission is to raise student achievement by inspiring kids with the courage to achieve their dreams and to help students see their education as a way to get what they want from life.

About the author

Wayne Winsley is founder and Executive Director of Brave Enough to Fail Inc. which provides motivational programs and scholarships to schools. The mission is raising student achievement by inspiring kids to achieve their dreams. www.BraveEnoughToFail.org

Source article for this post is here 

 

 

Don’t Let CT’s Children Fall into the Gap

BraveEnoughToFail.org

“Always Strive for excellence, no matter what you do. Excellence will overcome prejudice, poverty, and adversity every time.”

When I heard those words spoken by the father of my best friend, I was a fourteen year old black kid wandering the streets of Cleveland Ohio. I was a repeat eighth grader who hadn’t attended school regularly for a year. Statistically I was too old to be reachable and was on a one-way path to either a prison cell or a cemetery plot.

But that simple message helped motivate me to make better choices and have the courage to follow my dreams.

I managed to get an education, even in the substandard inner city schools that I attended, and become a productive citizen in the country that I love. After serving in the United States Navy, I enjoyed a fantastic 20 year career as a radio newscaster and talk show host, ran for U.S. Congress, and now I am a teacher inspiring and educating my middle school students.

That is how I know that on any given day the right message, from the right person, can change the trajectory of a child’s life.

That is why I am convinced that we can break the cycles of poor achievement and poverty for many of our young people here in Connecticut.

There are more than 206,000 students in Connecticut public schools who are classified as poor, based on their family’s income level.

“Teachers, principals, superintendents, and others connected to some of the state’s lowest-achieving schools took turns testifying during a recent trial about the trauma and poverty their students face – and the shortage of resources they say they have with which to help.”

We are reaching out help some of those students to help themselves.

“In Bridgeport and Hartford, two of the largest school districts in the state, only a quarter of the students are reading at grade level and half are significantly behind.”

Our mission is to help change those numbers for the better.

The Tauck Family Foundation, a private foundation that invests in the development of children from low-income families in Bridgeport, reports that students in low-performing schools are five times more likely to drop out of high school than those in high-performing schools.

One high school in Stamford has nearly 200 repeat freshmen who are high risk to drop out.

  Our goal is to inspire those students not to give up on themselves.                                           We will be a lifeline of motivation and resources that these students can hold onto over the next four years to help pull themselves out and over their circumstances and fulfill their dreams.

We are also launching leadership programs for students as young as 4th and 5th grade.

Our children can’t wait for the grownups to to get their act together.

The decision of Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding v. Rell came over 10 years after the case was brought to court in 2005. The appeal could take even longer and after that, the politicians have to fight about exactly how to go about helping the children caught on the wrong side of the achievement gap. How many years will that take?

What about the thousands and thousands of children struggling in our failing schools now?

Far too many of our young people are leaving poor school systems unable to break the cycle of poverty and ending up in prison or in the social services safety net.

You can help change that.

Can our student motivational program save every student? Of course not.

But can it save SOME students by inspiring them with the courage and determination to overcome the odds and succeed even in so-called failing school systems?

The answer is YES!

Is saving the future of even a few of these children worth the effort?  Is it worth doing?

If your answer is yes,  please give as much as you can right now.                                    

Your donation could literally change the destiny of a child.

You can Sponsor a school for $5,000, Sponsor a scholarship for $1,000

                             Give $500, $250, $100, $50, $25, $10

Author

Wayne Winsley

Executive Director, Brave Enough to Fail Inc.

Sources:

Ct Mirror When Poverty Permeates the Classroom  by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

@jacquelinerabe

Yale Daily News Behind Connecticut’s “Opportunity Gap” by RACHEL TREISMAN