ARISE Seniors One Step Closer to College Goal

When she opened the letter from Mills College, ARISE senior Ana Cristina couldn’t quite believe what she read. “I didn’t know if I’d really been accepted,” she remembers. “I really never thought I’d be in that place. I saw myself going to college, but I didn’t know how I was going to get there.”

Arise Seniors Ana Cristina and MiguelArise Seniors Ana Cristina and MiguelTo be certain, she brought the letter to Co-Principal Romeo Garcia, who confirmed its message: Ana Cristina was in. “He was really proud, and I was really happy because it was my first one.”

It would not be the only one. Two weeks later came the letter from St. Mary’s College. “[After Mills], I didn’t tell a lot of people,” she says. “I didn’t want to be like ‘Oh I got accepted,’ and brag about it. But [my classmates] all got mad, saying, ‘You’re supposed to tell us!’ So this time, I texted everybody.”

Ana Cristina’s acceptance letters are part of a college-going momentum that’s been building all year at ARISE. Entering the fall, every senior knew they had the chance to be the first in their families to attend college. And now, with the letters rolling in, it’s quickly becoming a reality: Every student who’s applied has been accepted by at least one school. (See ARISE Seniors' College Acceptance List)

While Ana Cristina has been at ARISE since 9th grade, fellow senior Miguel’s path to graduation was a winding one. “For me it’s been a tough road,” he reflects. “I’ve been to four different high schools, and lived in Chicago for a year and a half. But when I came to ARISE [in his junior year], I started getting on track. Now college is a reality. Now I see it as something I need to do.”

“It’s a Tight Community”

Exposure to other schools has given Miguel a unique appreciation for the culture at ARISE. “It’s a smaller environment, and that really helps you learn,” he explains. “I’ve been to a school with 3,000 students, where it’s really hard to have the sort of collaboration and atmosphere [we have at ARISE].”

“It’s a tight community,” adds Ana Cristina, “and the teachers are always supporting us, giving us resources and opportunities.”
Among those opportunities are the “Proficiency” projects (in the areas of literary analysis, math, science, history, and artistic expression) that juniors and seniors display before a panel of staff and community volunteers.

“I think it’s really good we have Proficiencies here,” says Ana. “When you research and write a 10-15 page paper, then present it to a panel, that’s really preparing you for college classes.” What’s more, ARISE encourages every student to take courses on college campuses: Ana Cristina has done so two years running, receiving straight A’s in all five community college courses she took, from Perspectives on American Racism and English 201B to Pre-Calculus and Illustration.

”We’re really serious about [college prep],” says Co-Principal Laura Flaxman, explaining how ARISE’s program goes far beyond the standard A-G requirements. “It’s harder to graduate from ARISE than from any other Oakland high school.”

The seniors appreciate the high expectations and rigorous preparation, and understand what’s at stake as they sit on the brink of being the first ARISE students to graduate and the first in their families to attend college. “A lot of chances don’t come two times,” says Miguel, who hopes to attend St. Mary’s in the fall. “Sometimes you have just one chance and you have to take advantage of it.”

“It’s cool because we’re going to be the first ones and everybody’s going to remember us,” says Ana Cristina. “I’m proud to be in the first graduating class because I think I have set an example for other people to follow.”

“I still remember my first day of school when I was five years old, and I’ve been through a lot since then,” reflects Miguel. “I’m going to be the first in my family to go, and I’m really excited that this long journey is finally paying off.”

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Family First: Greenleaf Firms up Family Engagement Focus

The Williams and Carcano families both have three children at Greenleaf Elementary School, so the ability of staff to involve parents is of great importance to them. “[The Greenleaf community] is helping just fabulously with my family,” says Joey Williams, whose children are 5th-grader Jordan, 4th-grader Leerane, and 2nd-grader Freenita. “The school is really close-knit, and they are like family to me. The staff is very lovable, considerate, caring, and patient.”

“I have always admired how the principal and staff understand each individual student’s needs,” says Erika Carcano. She cites the board on Principal Monica Thomas’s office wall where Greenleaf tracks every single student’s academic progress. “The staff and everyone go out of their way to be in contact with the parents…so they understand how their kids are developing academically, and based on that they are able to participate and help their children achieve.”

Not only does Carcano speak frequently with all of her kids’ teachers about how she can support their learning, but she’s involved on a larger scale as a Parent Representative. In that role, she’s involved in decisions and goals at the classroom and school level, and is responsible for sharing those with other students’ families.

Carcano also praises the school’s whole-child focus, an approach embodied by the music story on page one. (Carcano’s daughter Katherine is the flutist quoted in that article.) “It’s not simply academically that we’re trying to advance our students,” she says, “but really trying to understand the child as a whole, including what’s happening at home. Greenleaf really looks at the child holistically.”

Williams concurs. “Academically, socially, and emotionally they have built students’ self-esteem up to where they can be great in every avenue,” she says. “My children have matured a lot. The things we have been going through, inside and outside of the home, [Greenleaf staff] have allowed their counselors to come and talk to my children, and they’ve helped them overcome major hurdles.”

“What I like most about Greenleaf is learning more every day at school,” reflects Carcano’s daughter, 5th-grader Katherine. “My favorite subject is Language Arts.” Her sister Samantha sides with Math, while her brother Angel says he can’t decide – he likes Math and Language Arts equally.

Carcano is proud that all three scored Proficient on the recent California Standards Test (CST), but she’s hoping they can all move up to Advanced. “I’m sharing with them the importance of continuing to advance and how that’s going to benefit them in the future,” she says.

As we reported in the last Greenleaf Scholar, our school-wide CST scores showed some of the most impressive growth in all of Oakland, and our Academic Performance Index (API) score rose to 777. Two short years since opening, we are already just shy of 800, the state target.

“Scholastically, oh my goodness, they’ve really improved tremendously,” says Williams. “And why is that? [Because the school community] is so spirited and loving and meaning business at the same time. It’s just a beautiful learning party!”

"Culture of Reading" Shapes School Year at TCN

Every morning before Monica Purdy and Marie Sanner’s kindergarten classes, the scene is the same: Parents arrive to drop off their children – but they don’t leave. Instead, they gather at the round tables or on the alphabet carpet, and sit down to read with their kids until the school day officially begins.

Morning Reading, which began on a small scale in 2004, has become a signature Think College Now tradition. “One parent told me I was going to see a big change [in my kindergarten son’s reading ability],” says Aysha Franco, “and by Christmas, there was a total difference already in how much Xavier was reading. All this reading in the morning has paid off.”

When he enrolled his son Donavon at TCN, Russell Clemmons says he was unsure about showing up early to read with his son every morning. “I thought, ‘I’ve been out of school a whole lot of years,’” Clemmons laughs. “I was kind of apprehensive. But it’s great, it really makes a difference. Donavon is eager to learn. When I was young, we were eager to play.”

”When I began teaching at TCN in 2006, Family Reading was in place,” says Purdy. “But in the four years I’ve been here I’ve never seen anything like this. Every day I have at least 15 families reading [in my classroom]. I’ve seen students flourish as readers much earlier and with greater success than ever before.”

Jeanice Williams, TCN’s night custodian, says her son Jeki “really looks forward to it. He tells me, ‘Mommy, we can’t miss Morning Reading — come on, come on!’ The one time we actually missed it, he cried.”

A communal spirit has also come out of the mornings spent reading. “It works great,” says Sidney Knocum, whose youngest son Jaymon is in kindergarten. (Her other son, Jabari, is in 4th grade.) “If kids’ parents leave, or can’t be here, we just have them come read with us. They’re just like my own kids. Everybody feels at home, we’re like one big family.”

“It totally connects us as parents,” says Williams, who is learning Spanish. “[And the kids] appreciate the different cultures – my son speaks [about that].”

“Other schools out there say they’re diverse, but there’s no community, each group is isolated,” explains Franco. “But this kinder group has really brought us all together.”
All of the parents say the morning routine has set a tone for the kids, and they see more reading at home – and less TV. “At TCN, the principle of reading is number one,” says Franco. “[That culture] is instilling in them a love of reading.”
“I like reading [with my mom in the morning] because I want to learn and go to college,” says Knocum’s son Jaymon.

“More than any time before, the culture at TCN this year has been about reading,” says Principal David Silver. “Kids are reading before class in the morning, in the halls, after school and at home. It’s everywhere and all the time.”

Clemmons is now leading the charge to expand Morning Reading to 1st grade. “I said to my wife, ‘I guess I’ll be here every morning again next year,’” he says. “I really think [the school] should get 1st-grade Morning Reading going!”

Purdy agrees. “I hope we’re able to extend it to 1st grade,” she says, “and also replicate this year’s success with our new crop of kindergartners next year.”