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Ivy Marsnik

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Meet Mr. Barry
Meet Mr. Barry 2055 1566 Ivy Marsnik

Every Wednesday for the past year, 12-15 Way to Grow preschool children cannot wait to see Mr. Barry’s friendly smile when they arrive at school.

Mr. Barry volunteers as a Preschool Literacy Tutor at the Way to Grow Preschool in South Minneapolis. “I love reading to the kids,” he says, “I get to the preschool before class starts, and before you know it” Barry cheerfully explains, “I’ll have several children crowding around me; excited to read, to learn and to enjoy a story!”

To say Mr. Barry has a passion for teaching would be an understatement. “I always wanted to be a teacher,” Mr. Barry goes on. “But, one thing led to another, and I wound up with a successful career in retail; but I never stopped thinking I would have liked to be a teacher.” So, even while working full time, Mr. Barry started his equally successful volunteer career as K-3 tutor at Emerson Public School where he served for over ten years. Though Mr. Barry enjoyed the one-on-one time, this school enjoyed a large number of volunteers. He credits this experience with inspiring him, and looked for more opportunities where he could make an impact.

“That’s when I saw a call to volunteer with Way to Grow in the newspaper,” Mr. Barry says. “I looked into the program and was very drawn to the idea of working with a population of students [where a large percentage are] assimilating to America, while simultaneously learning to navigate the school system. It’s hard not to tie this work to the achievement gaps everyone is talking about in Minneapolis, and, well, you can’t keep complaining that kids are undereducated, if you’re not going to do anything about it!” And so, Mr. Barry did, and has been with our Preschool P.A.L.S. ever since.

“I know that the families at the preschool are getting a head start, and that’s very profound throughout Way to Grow,” Mr. Barry concludes. “I, myself have learned a lot by watching these children and families progress and learn new skills. We are getting these kids ready to be successful and well educated. Seeing these results – let me tell you, I am so proud of how advanced these children are. It is what keeps me involved and inspired.”

Mr. Barry thinks about the impact his involvement may have in the future, “Someday one of these children might be our mayor, a successful CEO, a noted teacher or anything else they can dream of – even representing us in the White House!”  And Mr. Barry likes to think he is helping them get there; “Even if just a little bit!”

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Looking to the Second Generation – How Transformative is Early Ed?
Looking to the Second Generation – How Transformative is Early Ed? 2560 1707 Ivy Marsnik

Imagine a three-year old girl, born into poverty. Her parents may not have finished high school and statistically, it’s even less likely anyone from her family has ever graduated college. Let’s say she defies the odds and graduates high school on time, but shortly after, she becomes pregnant. She seeks help and finds herself at Way to Grow. As she grows more confident in her ability to create a different path for her child, she decides to go back to school, becoming a first generation college student.

It isn’t easy. She will face many challenges; How can I afford school? Who will care for my child when I’m in class? What about transportation? Where will I find the time to work, study, and raise my child on my own?  The unfortunate reality is that a disproportionately low number of first-generation students succeed in college. However, there is a path forward.

Her daughter already has a childhood that looks much different than her own. She will reap the benefits of a childhood where her mother knows the importance of living healthy, reading with her child daily, and advocating for her daughter’s education. Her mother spends time with her to read and uses everyday experiences as an opportunity to teach. Her mother is involved in her school, and this little girl grows up knowing her mom is the number one advocate for her education. The bar has been raised. Education is no longer simply a choice, but an expectation. With this, a second generation is born. She learns to pick up the torch from where her mother left off, and continues to blaze forward on the path of educational attainment towards greater social opportunities – A hope we all share for our children.

Powerful isn’t it? The daughter in this story is more likely as a second generation college student to persist beyond three years of higher education, and that much closer to earning her bachelor’s degree; arguably the most important rung in the educational attainment ladder in terms of upward social mobility. This is why early childhood education and parent engagement matters. This is why Way to Grow matters.

Dr. Mary Dana Hinton, 15th president of the College of Saint Benedict will deliver a keynote address at the Way to Grow Spring Luncheon.

Join Dr. Hinton as she delves deeper into the power of the second generation >>

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Celebrating Social Innovation Month – Our Initial Findings
Celebrating Social Innovation Month – Our Initial Findings 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

In 2013, Way to Grow was selected as one of six (SIF) fund recipients in the Twin Cities, which included a $100,000 investment from the Social Innovation Fund to expand our Great by Eight home visiting model. The goal of this project is to determine if the Way to Grow Great by Eight program is a scalable, replicable model for early childhood and parent success.

The initial findings* provided credible evidence that our programming is achieving our stated impact, improving parent engagement, school readiness and academic proficiency among participating students.

Initial Findings SIF Evaluation – Parent Engagement

  • Frequency of home visits was a significant positive predictor of higher nurturing, discipline, support of child development and child care scores.
  • Frequency of home visits, both early learning and elementary, was a significant predictor of parent-teacher conference attendance.
  • Frequency of elementary home visits was a significant predictor of parents attending a school event or volunteering.


Initial Findings SIF Evaluation – Academics

  • Home visits the summer before kindergarten were a significant positive predictor of higher Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDI); when frequency of home visits increase, indicator scores increase.
  • Program participation duration is significantly associated with higher DIBELS scores.
  • Non English speaking children scored significantly higher on DIBELs compared to children with English as home language.
  • Highest gains were seen in mathematics (16.37 points) based on MAP scores, fall to spring.
  • The second highest gain was seen in informational text (reading) based on MAP scores.
  • The third highest gain was seen in the vocabulary scale based on MAP scores.

 

*Way to Grow received its initial evaluation findings in 2015, completed by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement through the guidance of the Corporation for National and Community Service, made possible through a grant from the Greater Twin Cities United Way in partnership with Generation Next and the STRIVE Network.

Social%20Innovation%20Fund%20LOGO%202015%20FINAL_0Great by Eight is supported by subgrant from the Social Innovation Fund (SIF), a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service. The Social Innovation Fund combines public and private resources to grow the impact of innovative, community-based solutions that have compelling evidence of improving the lives of people in low-income communities throughout the United States.

Equity in Education – What Does it Look Like?

Equity in Education – What Does it Look Like? 1707 2560 Ivy Marsnik
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Way to Grow Presents Dr. Mary Hinton on the Key to School and Life Success
Way to Grow Presents Dr. Mary Hinton on the Key to School and Life Success 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

2014 Mary Hinton HeadshotMark your calendars! Dr. Mary Dana Hinton, 15th president of the College of Saint Benedict will deliver a keynote address at the Way to Grow Spring Luncheon. In a time of challenges, her one hope is to improve access to education – starting early, providing families with holistic support with access to intentional programs as a way to ensure success. We are excited to hear Dr. Hinton share her personal experiences and passion for helping families achieve success from prenatal through college.

Dr. Hinton earned a Ph.D. in religion and religious education with high honors from Fordham University, a Master of Arts degree in clinical child psychology from the University of Kansas, Lawrence and a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Williams College. She has extensive administrative experience in Catholic higher education, national experience with non-profit K-12 education management and school development, and a philanthropic background in the corporate sector. Dr. Hinton’s scholarship focuses on African American religious history, religious education, and leadership, strategic planning, assessment, and diversity in the academy. She is the author of “The Commercial Church: Black Churches and the New Religious Marketplace in America.”

Dr. Hinton is a member of the Minnesota Private College Council Board of Presidents, the Greater St. Cloud Development Corporation Board of Directors, the International Women’s Forum of Minnesota, and the Bonner Foundation Presidents’ Advisory Council. Since 2012, she has taught in the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education doctoral program in higher education management.

Event details:
Way to Grow Spring Luncheon
at the Walker Art Center
Thursday, April 28, 2016
11:45-1:00 pm
This is a free event, however space is limited.
Save your seat today at waytogrow.org/events

 

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Second Grade Success
Second Grade Success 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

Way To Grow1230Since Kindergarten, Shamsa, Asma’s Way to Grow Family Educator, has been working with Asma on picture naming and vocabulary. A native Somali speaker, Asma was also enrolled in an Arabic program which initially, made English Language Learning even more challenging. Shamsa persisted, encouraging mom to attend ELL classes, to read daily with her children, and to set aside time to complete homework each night. Now a second grader at Pillsbury Elementary School, Asma scored 100% on both picture naming and spelling sight words this fall!

Asma’s family as a whole places a prominent value on education. With hopes of obtaining a degree in the field of Child Development, Asma’s mother is now taking college English classes at MCTC. These classes are helping mom learn to read and write at a collegiate level. In the meantime, Mom recognizes what an asset her increased English language skills are to teaching her children. With her own English Language Learning, mom has become more deeply engaged and involved with Asma’s education. She has become a powerful advocate for her children, and perhaps more importantly, a role model.

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Education – Where the Candidates Stand
Education – Where the Candidates Stand 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

With the primary election in full swing, we’ve heard a lot of talk from the candidates on other pressing issues, but what are their views on education? No matter who you support, or which party you belong to, education affects the prosperity of us all as individuals, as communities, and as a nation.

Here’s where the candidates stand (in five bullet points):

Hillary Clinton
• In favor of universal pre-k
• Believes in established right to education from preschool through college
• Supports scholarships for teachers who go to urban schools in effort to get more teachers into hard-to-serve areas
• Opposes Common Core
• View on vouchers: Against

Ted Cruz
• Supports cutting government spending on education/abolishing the U.S. Department of Education
• Believes school choice is “the civil rights issue of the 21st century. Every child deserves a fair chance at a quality education.”
• Advocates the right to education via public, private, charter, or home school
• Opposes Common Core
• View on vouchers: Supports

Martin O’Malley
• In favor of universal pre-k
• Supports focus on the early years and expanding pre-k as well as after-school programs
• Believes under-performing public schools need more resources
• Opposes Common Core
• View on vouchers: Against

Marco Rubio
• Expressed support for early learning programs while arguing they’d be better run by states, but hasn’t yet taken or supported any concrete policy action
• Promote voluntary pre-k scholarships and scholarships to low-income families and students in chronically failing schools
• Supports school choice
• Would like to create a national online learning program
• Opposes Common Core

Bernie Sanders
• Supports quality, affordable education, from child care to higher education
• Advocates for reducing class size to 18 children in grades 1-3
• Proposes $25 billion to renovate and repair elementary schools
• Opposes Common Core
• View on vouchers: Against

Donald Trump
• Supports cutting the Department of Education down in size and spending to localize education, but hasn’t indicated yet in what ways or how much
• Believes school choice will improve public schools
• Would like to “bring on the competition and tear down the union walls”
• Opposes Common Core
• View on vouchers: Supports

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Best in Class
Best in Class 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

April of 2013, then four-year-old Davion knew just two colors and the first letter of his name. Recognizing Davion was slightly behind, Tonia, Davion’s Family Educator got right to work. Tonia referred the family to Way to Grow Preschool Pals and began increasing home visits to get Davion caught up before he started school. After lots of hard work, Davion started kindergarten this fall recognizing all nine colors and counting up to 50 orally. He was also able to recognize all of his upper case letters except for “Q”. Davion recognized all lower case letters except “q” and “d” — because after all, Davion starts with a capital “D”!

Because of your support, Davion was able to enter kindergarten with the knowledge necessary to start off strong academically and socially. Now, he can spend more time enjoying the fun stuff. Davion’s favorite parts of kindergarten are story time and playing with toys. He also enjoys playing and talking with his best friend, Sammie.

Mom and Dad continue to be very supportive of their family and of each other. Their co-parenting skills have greatly improved and they are working more as a team advocating for the education of their children. Both parents attended fall conferences which went especially well. They were both very proud to hear that Davion is now ahead of his peers and is getting more challenging work during class time. Davion’s teacher has been helping him start to work on writing complete words and short sentences instead of simply practicing writing his ABCs.

Way to go, Davion!

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ESSA – Three Things to Know
ESSA – Three Things to Know 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

Eight years after No Child Left Behind (NCLB) went into effect, congress has passed a revision to the bill to allow states to reclaim control over much of their education policies. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), signed into law on December 10, will take full effect at the start of the 2016-2017 school year.

How is it different?

  1. ESSA includes a new $250 million program earmarked for high-quality early childhood education programs as well as avoiding Title I Portability, which according to Martin and Sargrad, would have caused the poorest districts to lose more than $675 million while gaining the richest districts more than $440 million.
  2. States will now look at multiple measures of performance and success beyond test scores and graduation rates and begin to consider altruistic factors like student and teacher engagement, success in advanced coursework, attendance rates, school climate and safety, and social-emotional development of their students. These factors also serve as important indicators of educational equity – encompassing a more holistic approach to evaluating each school’s success.
  3. States are federally required to identify and take action in the bottom 5 percent of schools and schools graduating less than two-thirds of students, but how they do so is now entirely in the hands of the state. States are now not only responsible for setting their own interventions, but also for setting new solutions, overhauling the one-size-fits-all approach of NCLB.

By allowing local legislators and officials more flexibility and say in how the state’s education system will operate, this bill holds great potential to positively impact our earliest learners here in Minnesota. As we go into the new year, and a new legislative session, one thing is for sure; it will be as important as ever for educators and officials to remember the old adage, with great power, comes great responsibility.

Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi Foundation for Children Awards More Than $1.3 Million in Grants

Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi Foundation for Children Awards More Than $1.3 Million in Grants 150 150 Ivy Marsnik
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