Stephen Thormahlen shares findings from PNC's Wealth and Values Study (photo by Jane Hess Collins)

Philanthropy’s Changing Landscape

Foundation, non-profit and philanthropic organization members listened to tips, wisdom and lessons learned from public and private sector citizens who partnered together to improve Washington, DC’s public schools and health care systems. The breakfast and panel discussion was hosted by Arabella Philanthropic Investment Advisors, Washington Grantmakers and PNC Wealth Management in the Pierce Room of the Willard Intercontinental Hotel on January 26.

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KATHERINE BRADLEY, CITYBRIDGE FOUNDATION

Katherine Bradley reading to children in the Jump Start program.

Three years ago, I invited my husband, David Bradley, and our son, Carter, to tour a brand new charter school in a church basement on Minnesota Avenue in Southeast Washington’s Ward 7. We were visiting KIPPLEAP, the first early childhood program launched in the District by the KIPP public charter school network. Most of the school’s students came from low-income households. Their demographic peers across the nation generally struggle in failing schools, but these students were thriving in a program indistinguishable in quality from the sought-after Upper Northwest preschool my children had attended. The more we watched, the more we realized that these four-year-olds were more advanced than my boys had been at the same age. David turned to me and – with uncharacteristic emotion – said: “Once anyone has seen this, how can they tolerate failing schools around the corner? Do,people know this is possible?”

Increasingly, the answer is “yes.” We do know what’s possible. Low-income kids are succeeding in rigorous (and nurturing) schools all over the country. We are beginning to understand that poverty need not be destiny. Every single one of the four-year olds we saw in the church basement – 100 percent of the class – is now at or above grade-level in reading. Once you’ve seen this sort of standardsetting school yourself – as Education Secretary Arne Duncan and President Obama have – you urgently want to spread the word: The country’s urban education crisis is a solvable problem.

Our family foundation, CityBridge, has focused on education reform in the District since the 2005 launch of our Early Years Education Initiative, a series of investments in schools and teachers for young children in Washington. We were lucky that our partners’ work complemented City Council Chairman Vincent Gray’s legislative goal of quality pre-kindergarten for all District children. A powerful model for change resulted: Political leadership, philanthropy, and nonprofit advocates all aligned toward the same set of early childhood goals, allowing significant social change to happen quickly and (relatively) easily.

Getting early childhood right is the essential first step for school reform, but it’s no magic bullet. Each part of the educational continuum has to be good for low-income kids to thrive. As we’ve broadened our focus, we have found that the K-12 space is also filled with compelling ideas, levers for real change, such as new ways to support the best teaching talent or interventions that help children thrive in high-poverty schools. Even with highest-caliber talent – such as Chancellor Michelle Rhee has recruited – it’s much harder to teach when children come to school burdened by the stresses of poverty. So we are helping a successful New York-based organization, which addresses the school-based challenges of poverty, explore whether to come to Washington.

Five years of school reform work has taught us, however, that great schools are not enough. Education reform is a fragile enterprise, and hard-won progress will lastonly if residents from all over the District invest time, resources, and political capital in permanent change. We think education advocates need to build a movement – not just fix the schools. What would that look like for CityBridge? Our K-12 portfolio of education work, which we are calling Breakthrough Schools, will also include local advocacy, funder collaboration, and broadbased engagement – from grass-roots leaders to local corporations. One idea we have is to expand our existing CityBridge Foundation model of corporate civic engagement. We hope to connect local companies to schools at the vanguard of exciting change, such as the schools in the DC Catalyst project, where new programs in science, the arts, and world cultures will launch next fall.

CityBridge envisions a city of stewards – all invested, across time, in results for our kids. We have so much progress to celebrate: Test scores are up, education talent is flocking to our city, and we have a sound system of schools – charters, traditional public schools, and voucher schools – all creating a healthy market for educational options. If our city can continue this progress, and build a very large team of education stewards, our kids will succeed. At CityBridge, we are (incessantly) hopeful.

CHANCELLOR MICHELLE RHEE

Chancellor Michelle Rhee (Photo by Tony Powell)

This morning I awoke to headlines that hunger in the United States is at a 14- year high. In the D.C. Public Schools, 70 percent of children do not have the money to pay for a school lunch. I am grateful that the local community pulls together every year during the holidays to increase donations for children who come to school hungry and cold. Yet as we focus on giving this month, my challenge to the community is an even bigger one.

Every conversation I have with students tells me they are as bright as high-achieving children in the suburbs. I speak with many adults who doubt this, especially considering the sobering numbers we face. Only nine percent of our high school freshmen go on to graduate from college within five years. We have achievement gaps in math and reading that are over 50 percent between black and white students, and 79 percent of our students are black. When I accepted leadership of the school system in 2007, only 12 percent of our eighth graders were proficient in reading, and eight percent were proficient in math.

Recently a reporter implied that I was crazy to think we could create a successful school system from this starting point. Those who agree with him tell me that as long as we have capitalism, there will always be “haves” and “have-nots.” Once any ethnic group dominates either category, the cycle is bound to continue from one generation to the next, providing little hope that we can expect discouraging statistics to move in our lifetimes.

The problem with this line of thinking is that the data shows otherwise, and it doesn’t take a bleeding heart to believe what children are demonstrating through data. At one D.C. Public School, Noyes Elementary, under a new principal student reading proficiency went from 24 percent to 85 percent in just four years, and in math from 10 percent to 64 percent. In another school, only nine percent of the students were on grade level, when just down the street in a successful charter school, over 90 percent of students were.

The challenges poverty, violence in the surrounding neighborhood,—all of the reasons used to lower expectations— did not change from school to school. Schools have enormous power when they are backed by the collective will, work, and expectation to succeed. Even on the district level we are seeing results. In math, in 2009 our 8th grade growth was three times the national average, and our 4th graders were the only group in the country to see gains in every subgroup: African American, English language learners, students on free and reduced lunch … they are outpacing the nation and are absolutely capable of meeting the high expectations we have held for suburban children for decades.

It is no pipe dream to say that public education can break the cycle of poverty that falls along racial lines in this city, and we have become far too comfortable accepting this cycle as a given for thousands of children. If I could have three wishes on my holiday list this year, I would ask for even more than the important holiday donations of food and clothing that will get many students’ families through the holidays. I would ask for:

• A shared outrage about any school or system that sends children into a competitive world without the skills to compete;
• A shared belief in the capabilities of all of our children, even those living in the most difficult of circumstances to achieve at the highest levels;
• A shared commitment to fueling our actions with both. This may be in the form of funds that are allowing us to radically reform teacher development, support and accountability; the time and expertise that businesses and individuals volunteer; or the political courage to make decisions that prioritize the politically voiceless children whose futures ride on our choices.

Even in an economy that pulls at both heartstrings and purse strings to make this commitment, I hope that readers will continue to give in these ways, pulling your friends and colleagues along with you throughout the year.

The Embassy of Jordan partners with the DC Public Education Fund to benefit local school, Ludlow-Taylor Elementary.

By Ambassador of Jordan Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein

The Ambassador of Jordan lends a helping hand at Ludlow-Taylor Elementary School. (Photo by Gail Scott/Photo courtesy of the Embassy of Jordan)

“This is a very historic year for us: the Tenth Anniversary of His Majesty King Abdullah II’s Accession to the Throne and 60 years of diplomatic relations with the United States so I wanted to do something more lasting, more helpful to the community than just host another big party.

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Rima Al-Sabah, Laura Bush, and Salem Al-Sabah holding baby Nasser ‘Nino’ Al-Sabah

Location: Kuwait Embassy Residence

WL EXCLUSIVE – Photos By Tony Powell

DARLING DAUGHTER: The 10th anniversary celebration of the Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School would have passed unnoticed under most circumstances. Having Jenna Bush (a former third-grade teacher there) and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty as guests of honor guaranteed a hefty donor base plus a thank-you dinner hosted by Kuwaiti Ambassador Salem Al-Sabah and his wife, Rima, that attracted not only Ms. Bush’s mother, First Lady Laura Bush, but her new husband, Henry Hager, as well.

PROGRAM NOTES: A heartfelt tribute for the famously low-profile First Daughter by her slightly elder twin, Barbara Bush, and another for Mayor Fenty by D.C. Schools’ sizzlin’ Chancellor Michelle Rhee were followed by a performance by the Compassionates, White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten’s band, with Dede McClure and Meryl Chertoff providing vocal accompaniment.