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STEELE CREEK NEWS
Alignment SW
Charlotte Strives to Help Area Students Reach their Potential
 (August
25,
2013) Steele Creek area businesses, churches, and community
organizations are partnering with area schools to bring their
resources into alignment so that their coordinated support of
Charlotte’s youth will have a positive impact on public school
success, children’s health, and the success of our community as a
whole.
The effort, called
Alignment SW Charlotte, was initiated by the Olympic
Community of Schools, the Arrowood Business Association, and the
City of Charlotte,
but over 50 business and community organizations are participating.
Participants represent a deep cross section of
the significant stakeholder groups in the Steele Creek community.
Click
HERE to see lists of Alignment Schools and Founding
Partners.
Alignment SW Charlotte is a transformational program that promises
to redefine the relationship between education and the community it
serves.
 Although
the name refers to southwest Charlotte, the focus is on the five
high schools in the Olympic Community of Schools plus the five
elementary and two middle schools in Steele Creek, which roughly
corresponds to the Olympic attendance area.
The objective is to
find where the interests of the schools and community "align" and
overlap so they can collaborate and create partnerships that
reinvent how education and the Steele Creek community will work
together for the sake of its children.
The
community has the opportunity to do something special with this
alignment effort by leveraging the successes and trust already
gained over the years through joint ventures with the business,
faith, nonprofit, college, and government communities.
“We embrace a “cradle to career” focus in finding ways to act
together and align interests so more children reach their human
potential, which will allow communities, neighborhoods and business
reach their potential as well,” says Charles Wilkerson, president of
the Arrowood Business Association, one of the movement’s key
sponsors.
“We intend to leverage and expand upon the great success that our
organization and so many others have had in making a difference at
the Olympic Community of Schools -- a phenomenal success story since
it started seriously collaborating with the Charlotte community
through public-private partnerships. We all need to get out of our
silos and find ways to work together with public education.”
 On
August 14, 85 people representing over 50 organizations participated
in an Alignment SW Charlotte work session, which connected K-12
principals with community stakeholders so they could determine how
they can work more effectively together in transitioning children
successfully from "cradle to career."
Participants were encouraged by the level of cooperation and the
intensity of discussion at each work table. Reports from each table
identified several collaborative projects that participants have
decided to move forward with. Many of those projects and
partnerships have already begun.
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The Alignment SW
Charlotte web site (www.alignmentswcharlotte.org)
will be updated soon with outlines of these projects. The web
site will go through continual development, so it is advisable
to bookmark it and check back often.
Additional partners
are needed to help more of Steele Creek's children become
successful in school, work, and life.
Anyone
interested in helping area students can support and join
Alignment SW Charlotte. The effort hopes to mobilize any and all
stakeholders who benefit from children reaching their human
potential so their full talent is contributed to this community. |
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About The Olympic Community of Schools
The Olympic Community of Schools consists of five autonomous
theme-based high schools housed within Olympic High School
campus, and it is part of the Bill and Melinda Gates small
school movement. The five schools are: School of Global
Studies and Economics; Renaissance School; Biotechnology,
Health and Public Administration; School of International
Business and Communications Studies; and the School of Math,
Engineering, Technology and Science. The Olympic small
schools are committed to providing students a high school
learning experience that is relevant and engaging. Since
converting to a small school operational model seven years
ago, EOC test scores have increased by over 65% at Olympic,
and the small school campus has been recognized nationally
by corporate leaders like Microsoft for their innovation and
21st century focus in better preparing students
with vital skills needed for success in school, work, and
life. |
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If
you are interested in participating in Alignment SW Charlotte or
have questions, please see the
Alignment SW Charlotte Contact page.
To comment on this
story, please visit the
Steele Creek Forum.
Click here:
to share this story to your Facebook page,
or click below to visit the Steele Creek Residents Association
Facebook page.
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The Essential Question -- Can we better align community
organizations and resources so that their coordinated support of
SW Charlotte’s youth has a positive impact on public school
success and the success of our community as a whole? Let's help
more of our children become successful in school, work, and life
so they reach their human potential.
Since 2006, Olympic has partnered with hundreds of organizations
in finding ways to improve education by increasing proficiency
test scores by 65% on state exams and graduation rates by about
20%. These organizations who partner with Olympic (Siemens
Energy, Duke Energy, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Time Warner, Piedmont
Natural Gas, etc.) understand how communities across
America are being negatively impacted because of serious
conditions like these:
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There are 4 M unfilled high paying-high skilled jobs in
America, and local employers can't find qualified employees to
hire
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A significant number of Americans both nationally and locally
are either underemployed or unemployed because we don't train
and educate our people to do the jobs of the 21st century
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American K-12 education is significantly underfunded to meet
the needs of a global, 21st century society
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America is #17 in the world in Science and #25 in Math (the 2
key disciplines)
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America remains #1 in the world in the percentage of
incarcerated citizens
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40,000 children sit in CMS classrooms every day that have no
chance in becoming successful, contributing adults if we don't
change the equation and reduce the dropout rate
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66% of our economy is dependent on discretionary income and
what we spend at the cash register, but 1) U.S. median wages
have not increased since 1972, 2) we don't prepare our
citizens for high paying 21st century jobs, and 3) too many
citizens become "takers" not "makers"
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The greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world is
presently underway (T. Boone Pickens)
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"The #1 threat to the United States is the lack of a competent
21st century workforce."-- says Alan Greenspan
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There is a silent international jobs war being undertaken that
will determine the future prosperity of our children -- Gallup
A local business executive recently wrote this op-ed for the
Observer ...
Jobs are out there – for graduates who
have the right skills
Other communities across the nation have acted by coming
together to address these issues under the umbrella of what is
known as the Ford Next Generational Learning model. 15 entire
school districts across the nation have undertaken city-wide
efforts to "align their interests" and reinvent the foundation
of the social compact.
One of the most successful ones is "Alignment Nashville" which
has increased graduation rates from 62%-84% in just 8 years
through a new leading Board of CEO's that represent the
interests of the city's vital industries (if we had this type of
outcome in CMS, it would be like saving the lives of 1,000
children a year by keeping them in school). We will be
replicating some best practices from the "Alignment Nashville"
model.
Actually, Olympic and its community partners are already engaged
with many of these best practices, so we are really just
broadening and deepening what has been working here in SW
Charlotte and helping more students, schools, teachers, and the
community in general.
Mike Realon
Olympic Community of Schools |
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