By Cindy Mejia, USCM Intern
December 20, 2006

Mayors from six cities, along with a selected education leader from their city, participated in an invitational meeting November 16 in St. Louis to discuss strategies to improve graduation rates and the preparation for postsecondary education. St. Louis Mayor Francis G. Slay, Chair of the Conference of Mayors Jobs, Education and Workforce Committee, hosted and chaired the meeting. In his opening remarks he reminded everyone that, “Education affects the core of our cities. Whether we are trying to reduce crime, improve our neighborhoods, have a good, trained workforce, and improve the health of our citizens - education contributes to it all.”

Other mayors who participated were: Providence Mayor David Cicilline and his school superintendent Dr. Donnie Evans; Bridgeport Mayor John Fabrizi and his school superintendent Dr. John Ramos; Mobile Mayor Samuel Jones and his school superintendent Dr. Harold Dodge; Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his school board president Dr. Jimmy Womack; and Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell and his director of schools Dr. Pedro Garcia. This invitational meeting was made possible with a grant to The U.S. Conference of Mayors by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The opening presentation by Education Trust-West’s Executive Director Russlynn Ali set the tone. She presented a graphic picture of the quality of urban education across the country with specific data on reading and math achievement both nationally and for students in the cities with mayors in attendance. Mayors were aware of some of the facts about their cities, but did not have a sense of how their city compared nationally or to other urban areas. It was a wake-up call that invigorated the mayors to increase their level of concern in becoming more engaged in local education. Ali described what happens to students as they journey from kindergarten to college, pointing out problems and solutions. “Closing the achievement gap is the most important civil rights issue of our time,” said Ali.

Mayors reacted strongly to the information. Data that drew the strongest reactions were:

• The gap between African-American and white students has grown over the last several decades;

• African-American and Latino 17 year olds score at the same level in mathematics as 13 year old white students; and

• 70 percent of African-Americans perform below their Latino counterparts.

This was followed by a presentation describing examples of various shared city efforts to either keep students in school or bring students out of school back to an educational learning environment. Nancy Martin of the American Youth Policy Forum shared ideas of what different cities are doing to improve graduation rates and re-engage students with learning in the hope of earning a high school diploma and skill to go to postsecondary education or the work world. A key point made by Martin was that it is “not just about data collection but also about sharing that data and the lessons learned.”

Mike Casserly, Executive Director of the Council of Great City Schools, emphasized the critical role that 9th grade plays in whether students drop out or make it through high school. He focused on two pints that work in retaining these students:

• Beginning in 9th grade, bearing down on instructional program but monitoring kids through 9th grade and intervening at any point through that first year when students begin to fail or lag behind. There is a need to monitor achievement and progress data and early intervention makes a huge difference; and

• Keep students personally connected with an adult to provide an anchor for them beginning in the 9th grade.

Following these presentations, the discussion became very animated. Mayors discussed their role options and relationships with the schools including mayoral control, mayoral partnerships with schools, and defining or finding the appropriate role. Mayors posed questions to each other and searched for answers to find best practices, approaches and lessons learned to assist them in developing better strategies for their involvement. Cicilline and Evans described their collaborative effort to transform high schools in Providence. “The most important business in Providence is the education of our youth,” said Cicilline.

Purcell described his education efforts with the school system to grow a community-wide collaboration for improvement and change. One unique effort is Alignment Nashville. It is an independent group comprised of all aspects of the city from government to the schools and universities, and business to non-profit organizations. The group is divided up into task forces to address various education issues affecting the whole city-county area and look for ways to address those needs to ensure a quality education for every child with a comprehensive system of support. The mayor does not support mayoral control but endorses and encourages mayoral leadership and involvement in education.

Other mayors, such as Slay, Fabrizi and Kilpatrick, expressed frustration about their working relationships with either the school system or its board. Kilpatrick said, “I have been trying to figure out how to make it a better relationship and at this point, I haven’t figured it out.” The mayors sought a variety of options for their situations. Even though there were no answers to all of their educational needs, they did take away one or two ideas. Jones remarked, “This is very helpful. We’ve made some progress, heard some things that we can focus on to move forward when we get home.”