Showing posts with label school choice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school choice. Show all posts

Sunday, September 12, 2021

Come and see!

School tours are beginning!

Imagine walking down a hallway and opening a door to this scene from kindergarten day 7!  Remember this is from the seventh day these children have EVER been in school!  Our wonderful teachers consistently create a culture of learning and respecting others.  So exciting to see!  Please email me at richard.clark@partnershipcle.org or text or call me at 216.409.709.  Visits are available to both our schools:  Archbishop Lyke and/or St. Thomas Aquinas.  The school day begins at 8 AM and ends at 4 PM.  The scene above was filmed at Archbishop Lyke.

Face the brutal facts!

Is it OK that black eighth graders aren’t proficient in math and reading?


The question above was asked in a recent Wall Street Journal editiorial.

Why do we keep making excuses?  We need to face this issue in all schools:  public, private, charter, homeschool...you name it!  Our American cities have not faced these brutal facts...instead reasons are given for decades of slow or no progress!  The time for excuses is over.  Partnership Schools is facing this head on.  We seek constant, year after year, improvement in reading and math proficiency.  We have just introduced a curriculum in fourth grade that will lead to our scholars taking algebra in eighth grade.  We want all our scholars to have the freedom to succeed in high school and complete a four year college degree.  We have a long way to go!  The following graph is taken from the National Assessment of Educational Progress/Our Nation's Report Card website.


Return to in person instruction for all!

4th Graders learning together
A recent blog
by Maggie Johnson, who was one of the leaders for our opening week of professional development in Cleveland outlines what is ahead of us.  Cleveland's nearly 40% increase in students last year meant that we needed to create a completely new culture for all our students with a great number of them having never stepped into a Catholic school.  This coming year all of our students will begin on the same page!  Our teachers have been through a year of rigorous training and have familiarized themselves with new curriculum across board. 



Sunday, August 9, 2020

A tiny whispering sound...

 

Partnership Schools Cleveland team featured on Sounds of Ideas

This past week, Portia Gadson, Enrollment and Recruitment Coordinator; Christian Dallavis, Assistant Superintendent; and Rich Clark, Founding Director of Partnership Schools Cleveland, joined Rick Jackson on WCPN for story about us!   This link will take you to the whole show, our segment runs from 11:10-37.38.  Portia, Christian and I are the staff for Cleveland.  Portia has led the charge on enrollment and our numbers are strong!  Christian has been working closely with our two principals as well as the faculties of both schools.

Mission Forward!

Our mission is to teach, love, and care for our community.  We believe that great schools are guided by faith and values, grounded in rigorous content, supported by quality professional development, and
animated by a clear vision.  The first day of school for Cleveland Partnership Schools is September 8, 30 days from now.  Our plan is to accomplish that mission in the best way possible.  Sans COVID, in person school would never be in question.  Now, in order to accomplish our mission, we may have to creatively find ways to reach our goals.  Presently we are ready for opening school with in school option.  We hope that through good community health practices and citizens working hard to prevent the community spread of the virus, we can safely do that!  As with all schools right now, we are planning for multiple and in some cases simultaneous methods of accomplishing our mission.  I don't pretend however to know the status of the world 30 days from now!!  I think our growth in enrollment (up 10% over last year and still growing) can be explained in part by our willingness to listen and work with families with the understanding that we are committed to make the best of this horrific health crisis

Why ignore the crisis??

When I read of parties in the Ozarks, on Long Island, or AirBNB house parties I shake my head with disbelief.  The spread continues and in some places it even worsens.  I have mentioned a wonderful podcast series called Cautionary Tales before.  This most recent season was 5 shorter shows concerning how the past can shed light on what is going on now in our pandemic.  The one about a nightclub fire in Beverly Hills helped me understand our strange response to this killer virus.  Click here to listen!

Something small...

The reading today from the Hebrew Scripture is one of my favorites.  It is the story of Elijah encountering God.  He was told to leave the cave he was in for shelter because the Lord will be passing by.  First there was a strong and heavy wind that was rending the mountains and crushing rocks...but the Lord was not in the wind.  Then an earthquake...but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  Then there was fire...but the Lord was not in the fire.  After all that, there was a tiny whispering sound and that was the

A tiny whispering sound...

Lord!  A tiny whispering sound after all those big and noisy events...the Lord was in the whisperings.  This is reminiscent of Adam and Eve hearing the rustling sound of footsteps in the garden.  Many stories by Jesus use small things that grow or have big effects:  yeast, salt, and mustard seeds to name a few.  So too am I called to leave the safety of the cave and listen for that tiny whispering sound amidst all the cacophony of our daily world.  Echoed even in today's Gospel the call from Jesus on the water, "take courage, it is I; do not be afraid."

We need your help in spreading the word!

Please consider subscribing to this blog and passing the link on to your friends.  If you wish, you can share other emails with me for people you think might be interested.  In the upcoming weeks we are going to have a digital "Launch Party" and I will give you that information and will really need you to pass that along to all your friends.  That's how small things grow!  I am also available for calls, tours of the school buildings, Zoom or in person (outside, socially distant) meetings.  My email is richard.clark@partnershipcle.org or mobile number is 216.409.7018.


Thursday, January 10, 2013

National School Choice Week

National School Choice Week
January 27-February 2, 2013


It's probably been a long time since a whistle-stop tour made its way to Cleveland!  Thursday, January 31, 2013, 12:45-1:45 PM reception at Great Lakes Science Center.  If you are interested in attending, send an email to cleveland@schoolchoiceweek.com.

We need to keep puplic awareness up and we need to led our legislators know of our desire to have school choice and to keep the numbers of ed choice and Cleveland vouchers growing as well as increasing the amount of dollars as well!




Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Guess who's back!


       Winston Churchill
If you're going through hell, keep going.




Where the heck have I been? (who cares?)

My last post was two years ago...I am sure not too many missed me but Saint Martin de Porres High School has continued to grow and produce outstanding results.  My last few posts were about parity in the school choice and Cleveland voucher programs.  Amen!  It happened...now students in Cleveland are treated equally with all other Ohio students.  Not that I have been going through hell, Winston, but these last two years have been full of the roller coaster rides of starting an urban school.  We're not done, but we are two years closer.  Seth Godin's book, The Dip, is a must read for anyone committed to a mission but is sloshing through the mud to get there.  For anyone who has not heard of Mr. Godin, I strongly urge you to sign up for his blog...just follow the link above.

So what is the next crusade or burning issue that is possible for me?  The question is what will secondary education look like in five years?  The burning issue is what do urban high school grads need to succeed in post secondary world and what is the world??  Follow me on #richardfclark!


Stay tuned!