Call to Arms: FREE Support for Rochester Students

by Friends of Educational Excellence Partnerships (aka FREE Partnerships)

Project Report | Dec 17, 2012
Happy Holidays from FREE Partnerships

By Bruce Pollock | Executive Director

Bruce Pollock with O'Naiya and Emmanuel

Happy Holidays to you and your family from all of us at Friends of Educational Excellence (FREE) Partnerships!

Our support for Rochester city schools is strong and growing this year. We are supporting 10 Rochester elementary schools with 300 volunteer. We just formed a new community partnership between St. Monica Church and School 4.

It's been very gratifying to receive recognition in the Rochester community for our work. Please check out my Speaking Out essay that was published on November 6 in the Democrat & Chronicle online.

On November 13, Rev. Dr. Marvin McMickle, President of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, spoke at a FREE Partnerships event. If you weren't there to hear him, you can be inspired by his pressentation by watching him here.

We are very grateful for the ongoing support you have provided to our organization. During this holiday season, I'm so thankful for all the blessings we have received. I'm grateful that so many people in the greater Rochester area are so generous with their time and money to support underprivileged children in Rochester.

If you'd like to make a year-end donation via GlobalGiving, we will use the funding to recruit and train more volunteers to tutor more Rochester students in 2013.

Happy Holidays!

Bruce Pollock

Executive Director, Friends of Educational Excellence Partnerships

bpollock@freepartnerships.org

www.freepartnerships.org

585-218-0038

Links:

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Sep 4, 2012
FREE Schools Moving Ahead

By Bruce Pollock | Executive Director

2012 FREE School Rankings - State English Exam

August 2012 Newsletter

Have Friends of Educational Excellence (FREE) Partnerships been successful in helping Rochester city students succeed in school?

In a word: Yes!

In the 2011 - 2012 school year, FREE Partnerships supported 10 Rochester city elementary schools that had over 500 volunteers who tutored students during the school day under the guidance of classroom teachers.

Let's look at the recent 2012 New York State English and math test results to see how these 10 schools performed.

2012 English Language Arts (ELA) Test Results

Six of 10 FREE schools improved their ranking versus the 38 Rochester elementary schools. School 52 held its #2 ranking so 7 of 10 FREE schools held or improve their ranking.
Three schools had significant improvements in their rankings: School 7, School 10, and School 20
Only 4 Rochester elementary schools increased the percentage of students that passed the ELA test. FREE schools were 3 of those 4 schools: School 7, School 10, and School 52.
School 52 maintained its #2 ranking!
The School 52 third grade had the best ELA performance of any public elementary school in Rochester.

2012 Math Test Results

Eight of 10 FREE schools improved their ranking versus the 38 Rochester elementary schools

Three schools had significant improvements in their rankings: School 10, School 22, and School 34
Seven FREE schools improved the percentage of students that passed the math test: Schools 10, 12, 20, 22, 34, 39, and 52
School 52 improved its ranking to #3!
The School 20 and School 52 sixth grades had the 2nd and 3rd best math performance in Rochester public elementary schools

The FREE Partnerships model works!

Using this model, the School 52 rankings for English (ELA) and math have improved dramatically since 2006. School 52 is now #2 in ELA and #3 in math out of 38 Rochester city elementary schools. The School 52 volunteers are an integral part of the student learning environment. Students there are on a positive path!

So here are a few requests:

If you are not already volunteering in a Rochester city school and you have time each week to help a Rochester student succeed in school, please become a volunteer or contact others that can volunteer. Contact us at: http://www.freepartnerships.org/volunteer.php

FREE Partnerships survives by the grace of your financial support. Please make a donation to help us continue this good work.

There's an exciting social media / documentary project underway that shows how urban youth across America are persevering through the challenges of their lifes to be successful in school. These students are "undroppable". Check out their stories and stay tuned for the intriguing movie about their lives: http://undroppable.com/

Thanks so much for your support,

Bruce Pollock

Executive Director

Friends of Educational Excellence Partnerships

2012 FREE School Rankings - State Math Exam

School 52 Rankings - ELA and Math Exams

Links:

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May 3, 2012
FREE Partnerships - Annual Meeting Update - April 24

By Bruce Pollock | Executive Director

2012 FREE Annual Meeting Awards

The FREE Partnerships Annual Meeting held on April 24 was a wonderful event. Over 80 people attended the meeting in the Kate Gleason Auditorium in the Rochester Central Library. The program began with a welcome from Board Member, Kevin Loughran. Executive Director, Bruce Pollock, provided a review of the prior year. Here are the highlights of that review:

Who are the Friends of Educational Excellence?

We are:

Friends of Social and Economic Justice
Friends of Equality and Opportunity
Friends of Independence and Dignity
Friends of Family Harmony
Friends of Helping the Next Generation Achieve its Full Potential
Enemies of Poverty and Ignorance
Enemies of Hopelessness and Despair
Friends of the Beloved Community
Friends of Revitalizing Rochester

The achievements for the last year include:

Adding 3 Partnerships to the FREE Partnerships Coalition (at Schools 10, 15, and 39)
Volunteer support in all 10 schools: 366 volunteers in April 2012
Over 500 volunteers participated in the 2011 - 2012 school year
Strong support from SUNY Brockport that provided 89 college students in FREE schools
Rochester Police Department (RPD) support where 30 officers signed up to read to students
Volunteer training: 4 training webinars have been provided
WAVE for Success article was published in the D&C online newspaper
FREE Partnerships - PENCIL Partnerships collaboration to support students

Bruce showed a video filmed and produced by filmmaker Mara Ahmed about the Partnership programs in Schools 15 and 50.

The evidence of how well the FREE Partnerships programs can work is demonstrated by the success of the School 52 Partnership where the school's rankings (out of 38 elementary schools) in the NYS English and Math tests have improved dramatically over the last six years (2006 to 2011):

The School 52 ranking for English has improved from 8th to 2nd
The School 52 ranking for Math has improved from 23rd to 4th

The success of each FREE Partnerships programs is based on the wonderful support the school principals have provided.

Bruce concluded his remarks with recognition of the wonderful financial support that has been provided by all the Friends of Educational Excellence, especially the following Sustaining Donors that contributed $1,000 or more:

Ford Motor Company
Rochester Area Community Foundation
Klein Steel Service
MCPEARL
Marc Johnson
Vivian Pollock

After Bruce's remarks, there was a panel discussion about the new cradle-to-career initiative in Rochester called ROC the Future, which is based on the Strive framework developed in Cinncinati, Ohio. The panel included:

Clayton Jones, Asst to the VP of Academic Services, Monroe Community College
Dirk Hightower, Executive Director, Children's Institute

Originally, RCSD Interim Superintendent, Bolgen Vargas, was to be the Keynote Speaker of the Annual Meeting and participate on the ROC the Future panel. However, he was named the permanent RCSD Superintendent that morning and so he could not attend the Annual Meeting at the start. Dr. Vargas did arrive later in the meeting and came to the podium amongst a standing ovation to provide some remarks and take questions from the audience.

After Dr. Vargas's remarks, Bruce named the recipients of the FREE Partnerships Leaders Awards at each school. These leaders came up to the podium and receive their Recognition Award handed to them by Dr. Vargas. The partnership leaders are:

Partnership Leaders Recognition

School 7 – Teacher: Beth Cross

First Universalist Church: Sarah Singal

School 10 – Teacher: Alva Vives

Community Christian Church: Lisa November

School 12 – Teachers: Susan Snyder, Laurie Murty

Highland Park Association: Vicki Robertson, Lori Bryce

School 15 – Teachers: Jennifer Benton, Jayne Alba

First Unitarian Church: Ann Bayley, Chris Farnum

School 20 – Volunteer Coordinator: Paula Hansen

Mt Olivet Baptist Church: Valerie Medley

School 22 – Teacher: Kim Mendelson

First Unitarian Church: Ann Bayley, Chris Farnum

School 34 – Teacher: Cindi Shear

St. Catherine of Siena Church: Terry Riordan

School 39 – AP: Rebecca Boyle; Parent Liaison: Yvetta Nelson

Church of the Transfiguration: Bob Flynn, Helen Konz, Charlie Newton

School 50 – Teachers: Janet Bird, Robin Valoris

St. Joseph’s Church: Patty Vermilion

School 52 – Jason Branner, Danielle Branner

Temple B’rith Kodesh: Don Ginsberg, Judith Slade

Overall, the 2012 Annual Meeting was a glorious event which provided wonderful momentum for the work to be done in 2012 and beyond.

Links:

FREE Partnerships

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