Fixing a Broken System By Haley Jones
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Table of Contents Dedication 4 Foreword 6-7 Introduction 8-11 Chapter 1 12-13 Chapter 2 17-18 Chapter 3 22-26 Works Cited 29
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Sign at Brentwood Academy in East Palo Alto
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I dedicate this book to my mom, Laura, who inspires me through the work that she does.
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Foreword Since a young age, my mom has been extremely involved with my education. She would volunteer for anything and everything she thought was important. From chaperoning students on field trips at my elementary school, to organizing Writers Week at my high school, my mom has been the epitome of an involved parent. However, her dedication to education went beyond me and my sister. My mom comes from a family of public school educators and believes that every child deserves an equal and quality education. For many years she has been part of the East Palo Alto Kids Foun dation, a non-profit organization that gives teachers in East Palo Alto schools micro grants to buy supplies needed for their classroom. My mom served as president of the organization from 2008 to 2011 and is currently a board member. Growing up, I was always asked to help out in East Palo Alto Schools. I have helped build bookcases, sort books, run a sports camp and I am currently making a documentary on the work that East Palo Alto Kids Foundation does. Now that I am at an age where I understand the social and econom ic issues East Palo Alto is facing, I am shocked how unaware people in surrounding areas are. It’s hard to fathom that I live in one of the 6
richest cities in the United States, yet twenty minutes away is an area with a struggling school system where a large percent of students live under the poverty line. My goal with this book and documentary is to raise awareness of these issues in hopes of urging people to act. Donating or volunteering for East Palo Alto Kids Foundation is a way in which people can help East Palo Alto students get a quality education. In this book, I will take a more indepth look at how EPAK started, what it does and how it benefits students in the area.
Student artwork at Brentwood Academy 7
Introduction
What comes to mind when you hear the words innovation, technological advancements and one of the most affluent regions in the world? Most people think of the Silicon Valley. Yet what many people don’t think of is East Palo Alto, an area in the heart of Silicon Valley, with a nearly forty percent dropout rate ranging from grades K-12. How can East Palo Alto have such a weak education system while being located next to Facebook, Google and Apple, three of the most influential companies in the technological revolution? Although there is no exact answer to this question, there are several theories that could prove plausible. According to Stanford graduate and co-founder of the East Palo Alto Kids Foundation, Jacqueline Stewart, the main issue facing East Palo Alto schools is the “lack of quality and equality of educational funding.” For most people living in the Silicon Valley, California school funding is less of an issue because of associations such as the Parent Teacher Association, or PTA, which raise money to bridge the gap between school funding and a school’s needs. But what happens when the PTA cannot raise enough money to meet the schools needs? Or even worse, what if the school district has no PTA at all? This is the problem facing East Palo Alto’s Ravenswood City School District. The average per capita income in East Palo Alto is over ten thousand dollars less than the average for California and over one hundred 8
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thousand less than neighboring communities (“Bay Area Census”). Most parents in East Palo Alto simply do not have the resources to help fund their child’s schools needs. Not only do they lack extra resources, but almost seventeen percent of the people living in East Palo Alto are living under the poverty line (“Bay Area Census”). Would school be your main priority if you and your family were struggling to meet your basic needs? Another reason for such high dropout rates could be due to the fact that out of its 28,502 residents, nearly seventy percent speak a language other than English at home (“Bay Area Census”). This makes it difficult for teachers to communicate with certain students, especially if they are lacking resources in the classroom, and makes it challenging for parents to help their children with homework and help them understand vital concepts. Because English is often their second language, parent volunteering can look differently than it does in surrounding school districts and East Palo Alto schools often lack volunteers that can work within the classroom. Despite all of these obstacles, East Palo Alto’s Ravenswood City School District is managing to make breakthrough improvements in educational opportunities for East Palo Alto and Eastern Menlo Park students. This is in large part because of the East Palo Alto Kids Foundation, a non-profit organization that raises money to give micro-grants to teachers in the Ravenswood City schools. These grants allow teachers to buy supplies and resources that the schools could otherwise not afford. The East Palo Alto Kids Foundation proves to be a huge support for the Ravenswood City School District to get their students on track for success. 10
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Chapter One: The Beginning East Palo Alto Kids Foundation, or EPAK, began in 1992 (and was incorporated in 1993) by Faye Brown and Jacqueline Stewart. After teaching classes and tutoring in East Palo Alto, Jacqueline Stewart caught a glimpse of the special challenges this school district was facing. This low-income area encounters many issues that surrounding school districts have never seen. The needs of the Ravenswood City School District’s student population present special challenges to its schools. The majority of students in this area are English language learners due to the diverse ethnic makeup of East Palo Alto, and as a result, teachers must find ways to effectively communicate with students. Teachers find this extremely challenging to do without funding for proper resources. Tasha Castaneda, a teacher in the Ravenswood School District recalls “a third grade student who came to school with a toothache. The next day she didn’t come to school, the day after that she didn’t come to school. I called her home and I heard her crying in the background and the parents had run out of the medicine that would numb her tooth and her appointment at the free dental clinic wasn’t for another couple of days.” Because 12
of the lack of access to medical care, students in this school district tend to miss more school. Tasha Castaneda recalls another unique challenge the school district has to face; “Students don’t have the resources they need, in particular, I remember for one student I went out and bought shoes because the child didn’t have any shoes to wear to school.” These extra challenges in the Ravenswood City School District result in an achievement gap between Ravenswood schools and surrounding districts. Ravenswood’s students are significantly underperforming compared to its neighboring districts, as measured by California’s Academic Performance Index (API). Ravenswood has an average API of 715, whereas the Menlo Park Elementary District and Palo Alto Unified have API scores exceeding 900 (“EPAK Annual Report”). After recognizing the dire needs East Palo Alto schools have, Faye Brown and Jacqueline Stewart worked together to create the East Palo Alto Kids Foundation.
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Photo courtesy to Lou Pelosi
“ If you can empower these teachers to really be more effective with their kids then you have a very customized, targeted system for benefitting the kids in their educational pursuits.� -Jacqueline Stewart Founder of East Palo Alto Kids Foundation
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Chapter Two: The Mission Faye Brown and Jacqueline Stewart decided the best way to make an impact on the students’ education was to give the money directly to the teachers in the classroom. Jacqueline says, “If you can empower these teachers to really be more effective with their kids then you have a very customized, targeted system for benefitting the kids in their educational pursuits.” The mission of the East Palo Alto Kids Foundation is to promote educational opportunities and academic success for students in East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park. The idea behind this organization is, “a one-digit difference in ZIP code shouldn’t make a difference in the quality of education a child receives” (“EPAK Annual Report”). EPAK “serves as a conduit for funds directly into the classroom based on a teachers needs” (Stewart). Teachers can identify these needs in an application for grants up to $600 during the Fall and Winter of each school year. East Palo Alto Kids Foundation serves approximately 4,500 students PreK-12th grade from eleven schools in the East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park areas (“EPAK Annual Report”). This organization is governed by an all-volunteer Board of Directors, comprised of 17
teachers, administrators, and members of the community dedicated to providing quality education to children in this low-income area (“EPAK Annual Report”). Because of the absence of a Parent Teacher Association in the Ravenswood City School Because of the absence of a Parent Teacher Association in the Ravenswood City School District, schools do not receive the necessary funding for students to thrive. East Palo Alto Kids Foundation acts as the PTA to help provide funding for school programs and resources. EPAK ventures to bridge the gap in local and statewide educational funding through teacher grants and also supports a Sponsored Projects Grant Program to address the needs of more than a classroom of students (“EPAK Annual Report”).
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Mural at Brentwood Academy
Garden tools at Apsire Elementary school
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Chapter Three: The Impact
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Without the funding provided by the East Palo Alto Kids Foundation, students in the Ravenswood City School District would not get the opportunities or resources to experience an enhanced and targeted education. Teachers use EPAK grants in a wide variety of ways. Tami Espinosa, former teacher and principal at Brentwood Academy in East Palo Alto says teachers at her school “have used their grants from East Palo Alto Kids Foundation for books in the classroom, for transportation for field trips, for entrance into museums and zoos, for technology to help enhance the instruction they are already giving.” Because a large majority of students at Ravenswood schools are English language learners, many teachers use their grants for literacy support materials, such as new books for libraries and audio books that enable students to practice their reading. Tasha Castaneda recalls using her EPAK grants to help her “students visit libraries. We went on the public bus to the East Palo Alto library, we went on the public bus to the Menlo Park library, we got library cards, we bought some books for the classroom so that students could practice checking out books.”
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Teacher grants also allow students to get out of the classroom and go on field trips, something that would rarely happen without the help of the East Palo Alto Kids Foundation. Students have been able to visit The Exploratorium, The Tech Museum, The California Academy of Sciences and the San Francisco Zoo to acquire a hands-on learning experience (“EPAK Annual Report”). “It’s really exciting to be able to take students to places they’ve never been and have them experience things they’ve learned about and we wouldn’t be able to do that if we didn’t have outside funding specifically from the East Palo Alto Kids Foundation,” says Tami Espinosa. “When I was a teacher, I was able to take my fourth grade students who study California history to Sacramento and we got to see old town Sacramento, Sutter’s Fort and actually see, and walk around and touch things that we had read about and it made it very real to them.” However, many teachers also use their EPAK grants to purchase technology for the classroom to enhance their lessons and provide classroom wide understanding of a subject. Audio books allow students with English as their second language to practice reading and pronunciation. Other technology including iPads, document cameras and software such as StratoLogica help make a more efficient learning environment. 24
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East Palo Alto Kids Foundation has proved to be essential to the improvement of education within East Palo Alto’s Ravenswood City School District. Faced with high dropout rates, low test scores and a plethora of other challenges not faced by surrounding areas, East Palo Alto schools struggle to meet education standards. Many of these issues are due to the unequal funding of East Palo Alto Schools, leading to lack of resources within the classroom. East Palo Alto Kids Foundation plays a major role in providing the needs lacking in these schools. This non-profit organization takes the place of a PTA and gives teachers grants to improve the education of East Palo Alto students. Without the help of East Palo Alto Kids Foundation, the Ravenswood City School District would face worse academic circumstances and struggle to be able to provide students with essential learning opportunities that could impact their student’s success in the future.
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“To be able to empower these teachers to do things with their class that they love and that they can pass onto their kids is just a marvelous avenue.� -Jacqueline Stewart Founder of East Palo Alto Kids Foundation
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Works Cited Aspire Public Schools. N.p.. Web. 22 Mar 2013.
<http://www.aspirepublicschools.org/?q=bayarea>.
de Sá, Karen. “Classroom Kindness.” n. page. Print. <http://www.mercurynews.info/wishbook/2012/page. php?w=epak>. “EPAK Annual Report.” East Palo Alto Kids Foundation. N.p., n.d.
Web. 22 Mar 2013.
<http://www.epak.org/files/EPAK Annual Report 2011-2012_
final.pdf>. Espinosa, Tami. Personal Interview. 28 Feb 2013. Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Bay Area Census. Oak
land, CA 94607: , 2010. Web.
<http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/cities/EastPaloAlto.htm>. Roberts, Laura. Personal Interview. 3 Mar 2013. Stewart, Jacqueline. Personal Interview. 28 Feb 2013.
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