Year One: “We believe that we can do hard things.”
On January 24th, 2020, the Diocese of Cleveland announced the closure of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School on the east side of Cleveland. Three weeks later, the diocese reversed that decision and signed an agreement with the Partnership Schools to take over St. Thomas Aquinas and another east side school, Archbishop Lyke. The very next day, Bishop Nelson Perez, our partner in planning for two years, departed Cleveland for Philadelphia, where he was installed as Archbishop four days later. And just three weeks after that, nearly every school in the nation closed its doors for the remainder of the 2019-2020 academic year, as the threat of the emerging COVID pandemic reared its head.
Twenty-five weeks later, however, St. Thomas Aquinas and Archbishop Lyke re-opened their doors to their first enrollment increase in years. By early October, dozens more children had joined the Partnership Schools, and enrollment had grown by nearly 40 percent.
As the year unfolded, Partnership Cleveland students, parents, and teachers went to school until 4 pm for the first time; they got used to wearing masks all day; they kept their distance from each other and were separated by plastic shields; they tackled new
rigorous academic curriculum in every subject; they held prayer services, Masses, graduation, and other celebrations at a distance; they sacrificed many time- honored rituals and traditions; and most challenging of all, they experienced increased unemployment, family instability, illness, and death. Our communities demonstrated, without a shadow of a doubt, their conviction: that we can do hard things.
Year Two: “We believe that we are made for greatness.”
In Year Two, those same teachers and leaders are focused on another root belief: We believe that we are made for greatness. Now that the seats are filling up, our community is taking more seriously than ever our responsibility to ensure that each child has access to a Catholic education of the highest quality. As enrollment increases, we are determined to ensure that each child in our care flourishes.
Catholic School Culture
We began our first year in Cleveland by focusing on building strong, positive, intentional Catholic school culture. We believe that school culture is the ocean everything swims in at a school and is integral to both academic achievement and student formation. Teachers and leaders articulated a clear and compelling set of root beliefs that have since driven actions, habits, and mindsets. They work to align each of the actions of the school day—lessons, rituals, routines, communications, policies,
programs, and procedures—so all are explicitly and intentionally aligned to those root beliefs. These actions are becoming the habits that will ensure St. Thomas Aquinas and Archbishop Lyke graduates flourish in high
school, college, and beyond. Everyday classroom procedures are framed in terms of the beliefs. Teachers encourage students to turn-and-talk in class because “we learn better together;” the daily attendance and on-time rates are posted on a whiteboard at carline because we are always learning and, therefore, “every minute matters;” students who are struggling with a math problem are encouraged to remember that “we can do hard things.”
We see first-hand students internalizing the language of these beliefs in unsolicited responses and in classroom instruction;
hallways are adorned with bulletin boards and banners proclaiming “We are better together” and “We are made for each other.” Early last year, we observed a first grader promising his principal that he would go back to class and try something again because, as he put
it, “I know I can do hard things.” We’ve heard morning announcements at St. Thomas Aquinas, where the principal starts every day proclaiming, “We are St. Thomas Aquinas…,” and the entire school shouts back with a deafening “AND WE ARE BETTER TOGETHER!”And we overheard this exchange between the principal of Archbishop Lyke and a second grader who was sent to her office:
Mrs. Lynch: “What do I always say at announcements?” 2nd Grader: “That we’re made for greatness.”
Mrs. Lynch: “That’s right. So what do you think you should do?” 2nd Grader: “Apologize?”
Mrs. Lynch: “Well, sure, do you think that will show how great you are? I agree—that will be a good start. And then do you think you can go back to class and spend the rest of the day showing how much greatness you have?”
2nd Grader: “Yes.”
Mrs. Lynch: “Okay. Let’s wipe those tears, go back to class, and make the rest of the day as great as you are made to be. You know you can do this hard thing.”
These beliefs—that we are made for greatness, that we are better together, that we can do hard things— have become touchstones in conversations, relationships, and decisions in the schools. In the classrooms and hallways, students and teachers are not just internalizing but are themselves actively transmitting a set of beliefs that proclaims each person’s dignity as a child of God, embraces others as community, and affirms their capacity for the extraordinary.
Enrollment
When the Partnership entered the agreement with the Diocese, St. Thomas Aquinas and Archbishop Lyke had collectively lost 36 percent of their enrollment over the previous five years, from 2015 to 2019. In the Partnership’s first two years in Cleveland, the schools’ gained 37 percent. In the first year,
in the midst of the pandemic, we experienced the largest enrollment growth in the Diocese of Cleveland. Indeed, St. Thomas Aquinas and Archbishop Lyke outperformed all schools in their region and the rest of the diocese by an extraordinary margin and the largest gains of any schools in the diocese in recent memory.
Over the first month of school, schools typically see some movement in enrollment - but the Partnership Schools in Cleveland
experienced unprecedented growth after the first day in Fall 2020. After the first day of re-opening school during the pandemic, word-of-mouth began to spread among parents about the refreshed facilities, new curriculum, extended hours, and at St. Thomas Aquinas, new leadership. Parents called from traffic in their cars on Superior and Harvard Avenues to inquire. Mrs.Williamson, at the front desk at St. Thomas, reported several callers asking essentially the same question: “I’m sitting in traffic on Superior on my way to work and see
kids in your playground. Are you doing in-person school? Because my kids need that.” Ultimately school enrollment increased by nearly 18 percent after the first day of school in Fall 2020.
As we begin our second year, enrollment is 454, with a slight increase at Archbishop Lyke and a slight decrease at St. Thomas Aquinas. Some families returned to their previous schools this fall, as Cleveland Metro Schools and local charters resumed in-person schooling and bus transportation returned to normal service. We had more families than usual move away from the area, both within the metro area and out of state. Ordinarily we consider this “normal” attrition, but this year most of these situations are COVID-related; our communities experienced serious unemployment, and our families had to move for new jobs. We also lost students whose parents wanted a remote learning option, which we did not offer this year. In the end, 286 of last fall’s enrolled students (70 percent) are enrolled in Cleveland’s Partnership Schools in fall 2021.
In summer 2021, Partnership Cleveland’s enrollment and recruitment coordinator Portia Gadson embarked on a 10-week recruiting campaign to visit 100 locations or events in Cleveland in 50 days, including summer camps, summer schools, daycares, hair and nail salons, barbershops, laundromats, Christian churches, Juneteenth festivals, Fourth of July gatherings, library reading hours, food banks, and clinics. She spoke to a vast array of community leaders and left advertising materials all over town. She planted yard signs advertising the schools, placed ads on cleveland.com, and she and veteran teacher Scott Wylie recorded radio ads on a local urban radio station, which played during drive-time and the Sunday post-church hours.
Portia and the Cleveland principals recruited 170 new students to St.Thomas Aquinas and Archbishop Lyke for fall 2021. While fall-to-fall enrollment is relatively stable, attrition and “post”-COVID movement resulted in over 37 percent of our students being new to Partnership Schools.
Academics
Curriculum
Over the past 12 months, we have implemented new curriculum programs in every subject and grade level, including:
Core Knowledge Language Arts, K-5
Teach Like A Champion’s Reading Reconsidered, 6-8
Eureka Math, K-5
Saxon Math, 4-8
Amplify Science, 6-8
Core Knowledge History & Geography Social Studies, 6
McGraw Hill Social Studies, 7-8
St. Mary’s Press Discover, 1-5
St. Mary’s Press Catholic Connections, 6-8
Instruction
In 2020-2021, our academic team provided monthly professional development via Zoom to support teachers in implementing our language arts and math curriculum, as well as integrating Teach Like a Champion teaching tactics. The Cleveland-based Partnership team and principals also led formation sessions for teachers to build school culture and strengthen academics throughout the year.
As COVID travel restrictions have eased in 2021, the national Partnership team has led professional development in Cleveland, both before and during the school year. Network leaders, school leaders from New York City Partnership Schools, and facilitators from our partner Teach Like a Champion have all visited schools, met with principals, observed classrooms, and conducted workshops.
Assessment
Our students took the NWEA MAP assessment in 2021, which provides a baseline measure for us to mark progress against moving forward. Because more than 200 students, or about 44 percent of all students tested in 2021, were new to our schools, we anticipated low baseline scores. These students were transferring from schools that their parents were dissatisfied with, and we anticipated they may be behind.
The results are not unlike the first testing data results of the New York flagship schools in 2013. Across both schools in all grades last spring, average student scores were at the 27.1 percentile in reading, 28.2 in language use, and 21.0 in math. We have much room for growth, and as we know from the first years of the Partnership in New York, establishing a new curriculum, extending the school day, and setting a new instructional vision are the first steps in the journey toward moving the needle on achievement data. In observations of classrooms, however, we are already seeing positive change in the quality of teaching and learning as teachers are working hard to implement the curriculum and integrate the teaching techniques we present during professional development.
Facilities
In 2020, we refreshed the facilities and took care of major repairs; floors were stripped and waxed,
all surfaces were painted, new whiteboards were installed, new projectors and screens put in, windows were cleaned, doors were replaced, and boilers were repaired. In 2021, classrooms were equipped with all new furniture, including student and teacher desks and chairs, bookshelves, and lockers. Front offices were refurbished with new reception desks and new office spaces were created at St. Thomas Aquinas. New blinds were installed, carpet was laid, boiler pipes replaced, and exhaust fans are being installed to enhance ventilation. Playgrounds at Archbishop Lyke were refreshed and new windows are being installed. The diocese of Cleveland acquired the property adjacent to Archbishop Lyke, including an empty rectory building, a garage, and large ballfields. The ballfields provide opportunities for community engagement and student recruitment, and potentially rental income. The rectory can eventually be used for a preschool program, for community gatherings, or for Partnership office space.
