After-School Pioneer Jaime Escalante

The movement advocating academically-focused after-school programs lost a true pioneer this week: Jaime Escalante, the teacher made famous by the 1988 film "Stand and Deliver." As Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews wrote:

"Much of Mr. Escalante's success with students stemmed from his ability to persuade them to work on lessons in his classroom after school each day, and to attend Saturday and summer classes to prepare for calculus. He rejected the usual markers of academic excellence and insisted that regardless of a student's GPA, he would let her take the AP course if she promised to work hard." Read more

Students, Others at Paddison Elementary Learn About & Support "Locks of Love"

Students, parents, staff and others affiliated with the THINK Together after-school program at Paddison Elementary in the Little Lake City School District were invited to donate their hair (10" minimum) to "Locks of Love." The week prior to the event the students watched a documentary detailing how donated hair is used to produce wigs for young patients who have lost their own hair due to medical reasons. In total there were about 10 ponytails donated as part of "Locks of Love" at Paddison Elementary!

click arrow below to view slide show here

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THINK Together Students from Tracy Elementary Participated in 2010 LA Marathon

Letitia Aquino, THINK Together Site Coordinator at Tracy Elementary School in Baldwin Park, set up a Flickr account (THINK@Tracy) and shared these pics in the slideshow below of her students participating in the 2010 LA Marathon yesterday!

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Starbucks Free Pastry Day (3/23, prior to 10:30 a.m.): Coupon

Join THINK Together, Hangar 24 Craft Brewery and KCAL 96.7 to ...

"Keep Education Going"

Friday, March 19th
4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Arrowhead Credit Union Ball Park
280 South "E" Street
San Bernardino, CA 92401

Join the party and make a difference in your community. Our goal is to raise awareness of the academic issues affecting the youth in our community.

The event is FREE. Food and beverges will be available for purchase. In order to consume alcoholic beverages at the event, guest will have to buy a wristband that includes three beer tabs. To bypass the long lines and enter the event immediately, you can register and pre-purchase your wristband online at THINKtogether.org/KEG.

Bring a valid ID. Proof of age is required. No Refunds.

White House Releases Blueprint for Reform - Reauthorization of ESEA

On Saturday, March 13, the Obama administration released its blueprint for revising the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which would ask states to adopt college- and career-ready standards and reward schools for producing dramatic gains in student achievement. The proposal challenges the nation to embrace educational standards that would put America on a path to global leadership.

The blueprint provides incentives for states to adopt academic standards that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and create accountability systems that measure student growth toward meeting the goal that all children graduate and succeed in college.

Get a copy: A Blueprint for Reform

ED.gov

THINK Together & Santa Ana's Valley High Partner for Spring Production of "Beauty and the Beast"

This semester THINK Together has collaborated with the Musical Theater Group at Valley High School in Santa Ana on a production of Beauty and the Beast which will run March 25, 26 & 27 at 7:00 p.m. in the Valley High Auditorium.

Students have been rehearsing everyday for the last three months. When they are not rehearsing they are receiving tutoring in THINK Together's Homework Club.

The MACY Awards committee, which awards the best student musicals in the region, will be there on March 26th. The staff at Valley High hopes to have support for the students at each performance, but they are particularly targeting March 26 as the night to have THINK Together staff, volunteers and supporters in attendance.

THINK Together's Success cited in Crime Fighter's Report to Legislature

A new report released yesterday cites THINK Together’s success with academically-oriented after-school programs in making the case for California lawmakers to expand funding for such programs. The report also profiles THINK Together’s Shalimar Teen Center alum Javier Diaz.

“Fight Crime: Invest in Kids,” (FightCrime.org) a group of more than 400 Police Chiefs, Sheriffs, DAs, crime survivors and others, released the report entitled “California’s After-School Commitment: Keeping Kids On Track and Out of Trouble." The people behind “Fight Crime” are calling on state leaders to help prevent crime by protecting and, as the economy recovers, increasing access to quality after-school programs.

While the report acknowledges that California already leads the nation in its commitment to after-school programs, it urges Sacramento Legislators to do more.

Presently 400,000 California students are supported through after-school programs each school day; however, as the report documents, many more low-income children are left unsupervised because there are still not enough programs to meet demand. Consider that THINK Together alone has a waiting lists of 5,000+ students.

The Fight Crime report details by County the number of low-income schools across the state that are without after-school programs. Here’s how that shapes up across THINK Together’s Southern California footprint:

• Los Angele County – 405 schools w/o
• Inland Empire – 328 schools w/o
• Orange County – 75 schools w/o

Full Report
Media Summary
Complete Report Related Resources

Marked Improvement More Likely for Struggling Students who Enroll in THINK Together

An examination of CST scores (California Standards Test) between 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 for over 4,000 THINK Together participants across the enterprise showed that regular participants who scored below proficient upon enrollment were more likely than similar non-participants to move toward proficiency in English Language Arts and much more likely to move toward proficiency in Math.

Sanchez recognized by Home Office Peers

SPOTLIGHT
Peer Recognition

Maria Sanchez, Human Resources Coordinator, was awarded the Home Office Star THINKer Peer Recognition Award for February 2010. Here are some of the nominations she received from her peers:

“I would like to nominate Maria for always stepping up when things need to get done, especially in tight timeframes. She is always ready to help at a moment’s notice. She is a great team contributor. Thank you, Maria!”

“Maria is very patient and helpful. She is constantly bombarded with calls and requests and she handles them all with patience and a smile.”

“Maria takes the initiative to get things done and she is always so willing and able to help out whenever and wherever she is needed.”

“Maria helps out whenever a time-sensitive project or information is needed. She’s a shining star!”

Five THINK Together High School Students Invited to Attend AAHHE Annual Conference

The American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) held its 2010 Conference in Costa Mesa, March 4-6. The objectives of the annual gathering are to increase Latino student retention in higher education, bring to light challenges facing Latino students, and recognize achievements of those in the community.

This year, AAHHE added a high school leadership component to the conference on March 6th and invited 50 high school students to participate in the national event. Five students from THINK Together’s “Bridging Dreams” class at Century High School in Santa Ana received invitations to participate: Nancy Alcala, Perla Balderas, Ambar Castaneda, Alicia Duque, and Eder Penaloza.

The students began the day listening to an open panel discussion on immigration and education, moderated by ABC news anchor, John Quinones, and then attended a series of workshops on leadership and networking. Cal State Fullerton sponsored their participation.

click arrow below to play slideshow here

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The Cat In The Hat Reads to 500 Santa Ana Kids

To honor the birthday of Dr. Seuss this week, his beloved character The Cat in the Hat visited with and read to nearly 500 1-5 year olds who participate in THINK Together's Santa Ana early literacy programs.

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Helping America Become a Grad Nation

Originally Posted on The White House Blog by General Colin Powell on March 1, 2010 at 9:01 AM EST

My wife Alma and I are honored to have President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan joining us today to announce a new multi-year campaign to mobilize all Americans to help end the high school dropout crisis. We call this work Grad Nation.

For the past two years, America’s Promise Alliance has been traveling the country, raising awareness about how high dropout rates and low readiness for college and work undermine our nation’s future. In nearly all 50 states and 55 cities, we have convened high-level Dropout Prevention Summits that brought together nearly 30,000 mayors and governors, business and community leaders, school administrators, students and parents. They have committed to concrete action plans to improve graduation rates in their states and communities.

To that end, the time for talking and planning has ended. Now we must turn our attention to solutions. This means acting on all the lessons we’ve learned at our summits, and more importantly, making sure all Americans see their stake in this and join us to reach an important goal, which is to see that 90 percent of today’s fourth-graders graduate from high school on time. If we achieve this, we will not only be a more healthy and prosperous nation, but we can also help realize President Obama’s goal of making the United States the global pacesetter of college graduation by 2020.

The simple proposition is this—improving graduation rates is not just an education issue; it’s a community issue. We cannot expect more from our schools and young people until all Americans are prepared to be more involved, because so many of the building blocks that make for success in school involve effort outside of the classroom.

Grad Nation is the way for us to mobilize to win this battle.

Much like the Olympic athletes we’ve been inspired by recently, we all need to push past our comfort levels and make our work benefit something greater than ourselves — our country. Whether it is through City Year’s “In School and On Track” initiative or The First Tee’s National School Program, our nearly 400 national Alliance partners and their local affiliates are stepping up to lead the way. We’re already seeing the impact of this type work in cities like Philadelphia and Tucson, which have improved their graduation rates by more than 20 percentage points in a decade.

So the question remains: What will you do? How can you help? The choice is simple. If we are to remain a great nation, we must be a Grad Nation.

To learn more about America’s Promise Alliance and Grad Nation, visit: http://www.americaspromise.org/.

General Colin Powell is founding chairman of America’s Promise Alliance

Martinez promoted to Site Coordinator at La Primaria in El Monte

SPOTLIGHT
Promotion

Hector Martinez has been promoted to Site Coordinator at La Primaria Elementary School in El Monte (Mountain View School District). Hector joined THINK Together as a Program Leader (PL) in 2007. Most recently, he was the Lead PL at Walnut Elementary in Baldwin Park Unified School District and acted as a Site Coordinator for two weeks at Geddes Elementary in that same District. In Fall 2010, Hector will continue his studies at Cal Poly Pomona majoring in Child Psychology with an emphasis on Early Childhood Development.