Cradle-to-Career Education Access: A New Information Resource

Education, from cradle to career, is a critical issue for our very eclectic community in the DC metro area. We’ve got some of the most highly-educated people as well as some of the least-educated.

We must work together

Improving education requires all of us — public, private and nonprofit sectors — to work together in new ways. And it requires a clear-eyed view of the problem and its roots. For instance, the fact is, high school dropouts are more than 12 years in the making.

Nationally,

• Disadvantaged children start school at least 2 years behind in pre-reading skills.
• For every 50 children who don’t learn to read in kindergarten, 44 will still be struggling in 3rd grade.
• Children without reading skills by 3rd grade are unlikely to graduate. New research shows grades and absenteeism rates by 3rd grade can predict dropouts with 90% accuracy.

That's why the entire education continuum — from birth through 24 years old — must be in our sightline if we are to move the needle on educational achievement and preparing our youth for success.

A new resource for education advocates

To overcome the challenge of finding credible, actionable resources for improving educational outcomes for our youth, United Way NCA has launched a new educational insights news service. This interactive set of videos, tools, and resources can easily be embedded on your website or blog. Once it’s done, your visitors will receive the latest information about the state of education in our region. Once you embed the multimedia player, each time we update it, your version will automatically be synchronized with the new information.

Check out this month’s Insights, headlined by the Kenilworth-Parkside area’s Irasema Salcido, the CEO and founder of the Cesar Chavez Charter High School for Public Policy.

Click here for instructions for embedding the interactive media player on your own website or blog.

Education: United Way NCA and the Promise Neighborhood Initiative

On Wednesday, February 23rd, United Way NCA presented testimony (see the post below) before the Council of the District of Columbia, reinforcing our commitment cross-sector collaboration on improving education in our region.

As part of this mission, United Way has become a key partner in the DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative.

With the Cesar Chavez Public Charter Schools for Public Policy as its applicant agency, the DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI) won a $500,000 grant to plan a Promise Neighborhood in the Parkside-Kenilworth community in Ward 7 of the District of Columbia. DCPNI’s mission is to increase the number of children who complete their education from cradle to college, and enter adulthood as productive participants in the 21st Century economy and in the civic life of their communities.

DCPNI Founder and CEO
Irasema Salcido

The Promise Neighborhood Initiative is an ideal partner for United Way NCA as, like us, they recognize the interconnectedness of diverse social issues on the overall condition of individuals, families and communities. For a tour of the DC Promise Neighborhood, sign up here.

United Way NCA will play a key role with DCPNI as the lead organization of the Funding Desk, charged with identifying new and continuing funding streams to sustain the program.

Opportunities being explored include, but are not limited to:

• the White House’s Race to the Top Initiative;
• Educare; and the
• HUD Choice Neighborhoods program.

United Way NCA is also co-leading the External Relations Strategic Initiatives. This effort includes outreach to:

• Capitol Hill,
• the White House,
• DC Government, and
• regional development and business groups.

We are also a participant in the Local Funders Group dedicated to identifying and securing private sector supporters of the program.

Our partnership with DCPNI is a great step toward improving lives in one of the most distressed communities in our region. As we stated in our testimony to the DC Council, this effort needs to built upon and expanded for other troubled communities in the National Capital Area, and United Way NCA plans to be an active partner in this progress.