Posted: 9:04 p.m.Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015

$4.25 million to assist with studentimprovement

By Rick McCrabb

Staff Writer

MONROE — 

TheMiddletown Community Foundation committed more than $4 million to launch acommunity-wide collaboration to improve student performance and educationalattainment in five local school districts, it announced Thursday night.

T.Duane Gordon, executive director of the MCF, said three years ago thefoundation convened a group of nearly 100 volunteers – local experts in theirfield, representation from each of the five school districts it serves, localUnited Way staff and volunteers, economic development, workforce development,local institutes of higher learning, practitioners in early childhood education– who donated more than 7,000 hours of service to develop a plan for addressingthese needs in the community.

Thecommittee looked over the research, what are the best practices from othercommunities that have tackled these issues, and what has worked in the Middletown area but needsexpansion, and they developed a plan that became “Ready! The Campaign for OurKids’ Future.”

Hesaid the program will be used in the five districts the MCF serves, Middletown, Monroe,Edgewood, Madison and Franklin.

“Itwas carefully crafted not to duplicate any work already being done in thecommunity, instead to partner with those agencies seeing success and buildtheir capacity to expand what they’re already doing so that they can serve morechildren in need in our community,” Gordon told the crowd at Miami ValleyGaming.

Thecost for these programs: $3.11 million over five years for early childhood and$1.13 million over five years for high school to total $4.25 million over fiveyears, or $850,000 per year over that time, Gordon said. Because the CommunityFoundation’s operations are funded through other sources, it’s not deductingany fundraising expenses from these donations, instead depositing all of themto its Ready! Fund to provide for these initiatives.

Todate, Gordon said, the MCF has raised about $2 million, mostly in pledges thatwill be paid over the same five-year period of the program.

Hesaid the pre-school campaign is being named in memory of Dr. Robert Flagel, 75,who passed away on April 5, 2015. Flagel’s death left “a tremendous void” onthe committee, Gordon said.

Gordonsaid the initiative is important because Kindergarten Readiness Assessment forLiteracy (KRA-L) test scores need to improve, especially in the Middletown district.

Theassessment is mandated by the Ohio Department of Education for allkindergartners, said Suzanne Prescott, director of Early Childhood Programs atthe Butler County Educational Service Center.Students take the test the first month of the school year and it measures sixelements or essential indicators of early literacy success: answeringquestions, sentence repetition, rhyming production, rhyming identification,letter identification and initial sounds, she said.

TheKRA-L is not an indicator of how successful children will be in school, but isaimed at determining areas where students may need extra attention so they canget that help as soon as possible, educators said.

Studentsreceive a composite score that ranges from 0 to 29. The state measures scoresin three categories, with children scoring from 0-13 needing intenseinstruction, 14-23 needing targeted instruction and 24-29 set for enrichinginstruction.

InMiddletown, 570 students took the KRA-L last year, and 32 percent of themscored between 0 to 13; 42 percent scored 14 to 23; and 25 percent scored 24 t029. Middletown’s average was 17.30, while Ohio’s average was 20.

Therewas a direct correlation between test scores, whether the student was enrolledin a preschool program and their family’s financial status, according to thedata.

Ofthe kindergarten students, 67 percent attended preschool programs, and theiraverage KRA-L score was 18.3, which falls within the middle composite score.Those who had no preschool experience scored an average of 15.21.

Threeyears ago, when the test was administered, Middletownstudents scored the second lowest of the 10 school districts in Butler County,according to the ODE. Middletown’scomposite score of 17.1 was only higher than New Miami’s 16.9. Ross Local’s22.1 was the highest in the county.

Since2006, Middletown’scomposite score has risen slightly from its 16.41 in 2006.

Thetwo poorest performing districts in the county, New Miami and Middletown, also had the highest percent ofeconomically disadvantaged students. In New Miami, 99.4 percent were classifiedas economically disadvantaged, while 71.3 percent were in Middletown. Lakota’s 18.9 percent was thelowest.

Totry to improve early childhood, Gordon said, the strategies include:

PartneringButler County Educational Service Center to expand home visitation for at-riskchildren birth to age 3 and ages 3-5 by providing funds to hire additional homevisitors to reduce or eliminate waiting lists;

Partneringwith United Way and the Parent Resource Center to create peer-to-peer parentambassadors for early childhood education to spread the word on the importanceof early childhood education and recruit parents for local programs, includingexpanded parent support classes;

Partneringwith 4c for Children to provide incentives to encourage local pre-schools toutilize coaching programs to meet the state’s five-star quality early childhoodeducation accreditation program;

Partneringwith schools and the city to provide transportation assistance for familiesinvolved in these programs;

Partneringwith highly-rated preschools (three stars and above) to provide sliding-scalepre-school scholarship vouchers for low-income families;

Partneringwith United Wayand all five school districts to continue the foundation’s ready schoolskindergarten orientation initiative;

Partneringwith local elementary schools on literacy enrichment programs for grades k-2;

Partneringwith the Educational Service Centerto provide community resource liaison social workers for elementary schoolscurrently without them;

Partnerwith another agency to provide a staff position to administer a parentawareness campaign on early childhood education through social media, healthcare providers, the business community, and the faith community while alsocoordinating these various early childhood programs funded by Ready!

Thehigh school piece has three strategies, all in partnership with the five schooldistricts:

Atechnology assistance fund to help districts purchase necessary equipment notfunded by their budgets;

Atesting assistance fund to provide help for students to take fee-basedstandardized tests such as the ACT and SAT, guidance testing in school, and GEDtesting for drop-outs;

Professionaldevelopment for teachers to assist in guidance of students down the correctpath, be it college prep, workforce development, or vocational training.

Membersof the foundation’s youth council passed out pledge cards to everyone presentat Thursday’s kickoff.

KenCohen, president of Cohen Recycling, said his company has made its five-yearcommitment to the campaign. He called the campaign “of prime importance” to theMiddletowncommunity.

Heencouraged those to pledge $1,000 to $10,000 for each of the five years.

Duringthe MCF annual meeting Thursday, the following questions were asked:

Approximatelyhow more likely are children unprepared for kindergarten to face chronicunemployment as adults than peers who are prepared for school? Answer: 70 percent

Approximatelyhow more likely are children unprepared for kindergarten to be arrested for aviolent crime before age 18 than peers who are prepared for school? Answer: 70 percent

Whatpercentage of the brain’s development has occurred by a child’s fifth birthday? Answer: 90 percent

Whatis the average return on investment in quality early childhood interventions? Answer: 700-1,000 percent

Approximately24,000 children birth to age 18 live in the five school districts served by theMCF. About how many are economically disadvantaged? Answer: 12,000