Way to Go, Class of 2022!

We’re so happy to see reports from our partner high schools on students’ next steps after graduation. Tonya Withers, director of student services at partner Carver High School in Winston-Salem, NC, wrote to say that part of the mission of the school is that every graduate will enroll in a college, university, or trade school; enlist in the military; or be employed in a career of their choice. Eighty-nine percent of the Carver senior class have post-graduation plans: 67% are enrolled in a college or trade school, 5% have enlisted in a branch of the military, and 17% are employed.

At partner school Glenville High School in Cleveland, OH, senior class members applied to and were accepted at a variety of colleges: Eight students will attend Cuyahoga Community College, for example; four will attend Kent State University; and one each will attend Hocking College, the University of Akron, and Cleveland State University.

To these young people and those many others in ISA partner schools, we say well done this year and good luck as they embark on their post-secondary adventures!

Summer Reading from the ISA Team

Members of the ISA family have a great group of books they plan to read this summer.

Fenot Aklog, ISA’s director for monitoring, evaluation, and research: Street Data: A Next-Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation by Shane Safir and Jamila Dugan. I attended the publisher’s book launch webinar, and the authors put forth interesting ideas about types of data needed to inform school transformation efforts. This includes going beyond standardized test scores, attendance, and graduation rates to include more experiential data collected from a range of stakeholders—students, teachers, parents, and members of the wider community.

Nigel Pugh, ISA’s liaison to our NYC partner schools: At first glance, Imani Perry’s South to America may not seem “education-related,” but the full title tells me she will take me on a journey to “understand the soul of a nation.” I admire her journalism and her take on language, culture, and place.

Marvin Pryor, senior director of programs: I will be reading James Baldwin and the American Schoolhouse by Dr. Carl A. Grant.

Jason DeAngelo, 8th grade English language arts (ELA) teacher, William Shemin Midtown Community School, Bayonne, NJ: This summer I plan to read The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. This is a classic novel that we will incorporate into our curriculum in the fall. In addition to it, I will look for another novel to read (at random) so that I can include it in my classroom library.

Janet Price, our liaison at NCREST, Teachers College at Columbia University: Elena Aguilar, with Lori Cohen, is coming out with a new book this summer called The PD Book. I want to see what Aguilar and her colleagues at Bright Morning have to say about professional development (PD).

Janet also recommended: Who’s in My Classroom? Building Developmentally and Culturally Responsive School Communities, which comes out of Youth Communication, a NYC-based nonprofit that offers a writing program for underserved high school students to share their stories. The book combines recent research, concrete strategies, and true stories written by young people to fuel important conversations.

From the National Urban League: Social and Emotional Learning Tools for Equity

In this newsletter we highlight a new set of tools from the National Urban League, called Social and Emotional Learning Tools for Equity.

As the National Urban League writes, “Over the last two years, National Urban League set out to shift the narrative on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). We collaborated with over 100 people and with them, co-created a set of tools that speak to the unique expertise and histories of communities, students, and families that are too often left outside of education innovation. The result is a dynamic suite of tools that advance Learning for Racial Equity, Justice, and Empowerment!”

Click here to read more.