LAUNCH Flagstaff update for Feb. 27

Frank Moraga | February 28, 2018

ADVANCING WORLD-CLASS EDUCATION

As a community, we have our work cut out for us. Our baseline report on the state of education in Flagstaff makes that abundantly clear. The partners of LAUNCH Flagstaff remain committed to understanding the achievement disparities illustrated in the report from a systemic way. This means taking a communitywide, collective impact approach to ensure that all students are served well, not only in our schools but in our community.Not all communities have the resources to make significant improvements for their kids, but Flagstaff does. This is why we will succeed in our goal to create a culture and system of world-class education for every child, from cradle through career.

Read more about the report and the progress we’ve made over the past month.

3 STEPS FORWARD

LAUNCH Flagstaff Releases Initial Baseline Education Report

On February 21, 2018 LAUNCH Flagstaff released a Baseline Education Report, with some initial strategies for improving educational outcomes for every child. A partnership of community stakeholders, LAUNCH Flagstaff has a set of shared goals which encompass kindergarten readiness, third grade reading proficiency, eighth grade math proficiency, high school graduation and enrollment in post-secondary education and training. The partnership’s newly reported data spotlight specific areas for increased focus, based on the premise that student success leads to a community’s health and vitality.

On February 6, 2018, the LAUNCH Flagstaff Community Leadership Council met to review the data and outline specific steps for the year ahead. These steps provide a roadmap for the community as LAUNCH Flagstaff facilitates the alignment of existing resources in support of practices that create measurable improvements of the partnership’s goals.
“Multiple data show the connection between educational outcomes and the impacts of other community systems on families,” said Paul Kulpinski, Partnership Director of LAUNCH. There is a strong correlation with education attainment to greater self-reported health status as shown in the 2017 Regional Health Equity Assessment from the NAU Center for Health Equity Research. “This is one demonstration of how the success of LAUNCH in improving educational outcomes can support improvement in other community sectors,” said Kulpinski.

Educational outcomes are also deeply linked to conditions of poverty as reported in the recently adopted 2017 Coconino County Community Needs Assessment.

“LAUNCH Flagstaff serves as the impartial agent that brings together the right people with the right data,” said Kulpinski. “We couldn’t do that without major support from the Arizona Community Foundation of Flagstaff, the United Way of Northern Arizona, and The Wharton Foundation.”

Screen Time Symposium: A Collaborative Success

On the afternoon of Sunday January 28, 2018, nearly 300 parents, students and community members came out to participate in the Screen Time Symposium at the Coconino Center for the Arts. Top billing for the event was two screenings of the film Screenagers,which probes into the vulnerable corners of family life and depicts messy struggles, over social media, video games, academics and internet addiction. However, the greatest excitement came from student dramatic performances from Coconino High School and Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy Middle School students on the topic of social media and technology addiction .Coconino drama club students Sarah Norris, Lynn Selby and Emily King performed “My Life” which was created out of three individual student experiences. FALA students performed a series of short scenes, the order of which was randomly selected by audience members.

The student performances were one of several break-out sessions which followed the first screening of the film.

Stephanie Kohnen, parent of a FALA 7th grader felt that the entire symposium “made a huge step in creating a more supportive alliance between families and schools on the issue of teens and screens.”

8th Grade Math Community Action Network (CAN) LAUNCHed

Of the five shared goals of the LAUNCH Flagstaff partnership, two have had active CANs of subject matter experts working toward identifying and implementing strategic action related to their respective outcomes – until now. Starting in February, LAUNCH Flagstaff officially has it’s third CAN on improving outcomes in 8th grade mathematics.

At the February 6th LAUNCH Flagstaff Community Leadership Council meeting, members there identified and developed goals and a plan for action in 2018. That plan has a measurable outcome of starting the development of effective interventions to improve the math proficiency of the lower performing cohort of 8th grade students.

Participating organizations in the 8th grade conversation on February 6th were:

STEM-City
T-Gen
Lowell Observatory
Flagstaff Arts Council
Expect More Arizona
FUSD

STEM-City will take the next step and coordinate an initial review of data along with a teacher survey they are conducting. Once this information is gathered, LAUNCH will convene the next meeting of the 8th Grade CAN.

Stay informed of this CANs progress by checking your subscription preferences and make sure you’ve checked an interest in “mathematics” and we’ll be sure to send you all the latest information and meeting times. Click here to update your preferences.

LOOKING FORWARD

Baseline Report Hits the Road

We want to make sure as many people and organizations in Flagstaff know about and understand the details in the LAUNCH Flagstaff 2018 Community Education Report. We want to speak to your organization members or board of directors.

Call Paul Kulpinski at 928.773.9813 to schedule a presentation.