RARE Newsletter : Special edition
Year of Celebration: Our Best Year Ever!
Mentoring & Tutoring
News For & About the RARE Family : Hammond Middle School : June 2016
Message from Gwendolyn H. Lewis, CCNA, Founder/Executive Director
RARE 2016 Ends on A High Note! “The Year in Review”
CCNA
CCNA Supports Parents and Students!
Under its Parent Engagement Program and in partnership with
Gardener Parenting Consultants, Allen Etiquette and DeborahJerome,
CCNA provides parent education programs designed to improve
academic, social, and emotional outcomes for students. This year,
Gardener Parenting Consultants, led by Sheila Gardner (right) and
Carol Muleta offered two exciting workshops; 1. “Forum on Understanding the Student Conduct”Handbook: The Role Students, Parents,
and Staff Play in Keeping Order.
In this forum for parents and students, a panel of ACPS administrators answered questions and discussed expectations, responsibilities and rights as defined by the ACPS Student Conduct Handbook; 2.
“Can We Talk: Building Parent Child Communication”, an interactive
workshop for parents and their children was designed to support
and enhance parent-child communications specific to the needs of
adolescents. In this workshop, former RARE Director, Deborah Mills
“A good education includes lessons in how to interact with people
properly. Many foreign cultures place great emphasis on this part
of personal development from birth. Will your child be ready to
compete?” —Fannie Allen, The Allen Protocol and Leadership Institute
(Deborah Jerome), worked with students to help uncover barriers to
communication. Parents and students had a wonderful time doing
fun activities while learning techniques to build a relationship based
on mutual respect and trust.
All of the parent education partners are passionate about what
they do and look forward to supporting students and parents in the
upcoming 2016–2017 school year.
RARE is a program of the Concerned Citizens Network of Alexandria (CCNA), a nonprofit organization in Alexandria, VA, whose mission is to
empower a comprehensive community wide effort to increase student achievement and to reduce the dropout rate in Alexandria City Public Schools.
For more information on the program, please visit www.ccnalexandria.org.
Reach & Rise for Excellence
is making progress at Hammond Middle
School through our Reach & Rise for
Excellence (RARE) after school mentoring and tutoring program. This has been our best year ever. We
made a thoughtful effort to continually improve our
program to eliminate our drop-out rate and widening
achievement gap.
More and more mentors, tutors and community
stakeholders stepped forward to be a part of the
RARE experience. The program was so effective the
vast majority of our students passed their math SOL
tests and brought their grades up two and three letter grades.
Excellent support from our partners allowed us
to hire experienced math teachers, most of whom
work at Hammond. Our mentors, volunteers, tutors
and teachers are, for the most part, math teachers
and volunteer engineers from the Patent and Trade
Office and/or in the IT technology fields. With
their help, we incorporated 21st century “STEM to
STREAM” disciplines, adding reading and art to the
curriculum.
Throughout the year, the RARE Experience allowed our students to explore and experience hands
on practice creating more and more need to win, and
to be part of the excitement. Incentives such as con-
tinuous praise, recognition, gift cards, gift packages,
pizza parties and even computer tablets gave them
the motivation to push hard to succeed.
Additionally, we embedded math in each of the
various subjects and wrap around support activities
provided by our partners and community nonprofit
members. For example, Financial Literacy, sponsored
by SunTrust Bank, required them to calculate interest
rates, to appreciate the value of saving and the importance of good credit. Similarly, their regular field
trips to the Pentagon City Microsoft Office broadened
their learning experience and gave them a unique
appreication for the workforce.
Their technology classes in coding included the
use of math and their reading exercises and writing
required them to think mathematically whether
shopping at the store or saving to buy a bike. All of
these activities kept them engaged and focused on
learning.
Yes, we are making progress but we need help!
As a nonprofit, CCNA needs continuous funding to
continue providing sustained services and support for
so many deserving young students. To help, feel free
to volunteer, mentor, tutor and donate. Please join
our network of concerned citizens to help develop
our next generation of leaders for our wonderful
community.
RARE Newsletter, Special Edition, June 2016. Donate, volunteer, support.
Parents Recommend RARE Program
Silvia Navarrete (below) and Aberash Kebede were
among the parents who attended the RARE Parent
Orientation held at Francis C. Hammond Middle
School on October 22, 2015,
where pizza was
served to families
before meeting
the program staff
and discussing
program expectations.
Kebede said,
“Now I can sleep
at night knowing my daughter
is in the RARE
program.” The
single mother
of two girls, one
who just graduated from George Mason, pointed out that she was
“bothered” that she could not help her youngster
daughter Yabesera with her homework and she was
worried about her education because she could see
her struggling. However, lately Kebede’s noticed that
Did you know that volunteers from our community are tutors at RARE? Just like our education
professionals, they spend one-on-one time with
RARE students, helping the students improve
their math and language arts skills. This was our
most successful year for volunteer recruitment.
We had a number of days when every student had
one-on-one help from a professional or a volunteer. Volunteers are recruited for RARE through
our memberships in the Alexandria Mentoring
Project and Volunteer Alexandria. Do you know
an adult who would enjoy helping a child learn,
once a week for 90 minutes? Tell them about
RARE tutors, and tell them to get in touch!
“she does her math now,” after joining RARE. “I think
it’s going to help her, I’m happy so far.”
Kebede would encourage other parents to attend
the RARE Parent Workshops because “there is good
information and even I learn myself.” Also, “we have
to know what’s going on with education so we can
help our kids.”
Navarrete said that not only is RARE helping
her daughter, Jahaira, “she seems more excited about
math, and basically she has the mindset that no matter
what, she has to practice her schoolwork.” Jahaira is
now seen on weekends logging on to math programs
used at RARE. “This program has given her confidence to find answers and to have a better understanding of math problems that I couldn’t explain before.”
Jahaira has a younger brother in elementary
school, and Navarrete said she would like to see a
program like RARE expanded to all age groups. “We
want our children to excel in the math and literacy
arts being offered.”
One reason Navarrete attends the RARE parents
workshops, she said, is because it is a good opportunity to network with other parents. Also, if her
daughter sees her taking family time to attend the
workshops, “she’ll see that I have and interest and
she’ll have an interest and take the program seriously.” By Pierrette P. Hall, Principal, Hammond Middle School
The RARE Program Is Making A Difference—Test Scores Are Up!
Our administration, staff, parents, and students have
just undergone a number of rigorous and stressful
weeks leading up the completion of the school’s
Standard of Learning (SOL) test.
The SOL tests are an assessment that tells whether
a school is meeting the benchmark for the Virginia
Department of Education’s expectation for student
learning and achievement in K-12 English, mathematics, science, history/social studies.” The tests
are not only an important measurement for school
accreditation but also for students to receive enough
verified credits to earn a high school diploma; students must both pass required classes and SOLs.
In the past, public schools, such as Hammond,
faced a warning status for not meeting state expectations. We are especially tasked to demonstrate “intense
focus on instruction” and “remediation and intervention in deficit areas.” In this vein, we are thankful for
the presence of enrichment programs such as Reach
and Rise for Excellence (RARE) on our campus.
In 2009, in reaction to news reports of failing
grades and low SOL scores in Alexandria City Public
high schools, a few community leaders established
The Concerned Citizens Network of Alexandria
(CCNA). RARE, their flagship program, is an excellent after school tutoring and mentoring program
that serves our 6th – 8th grade students.
RARE’s structured curriculum targets math and
technology as the focus, the program includes pre-
vention, intervention,
and developmental
instruction to address
“the whole child” with
enrichment activities
designed to improve the students’ general communication, social teamwork, and leadership skills. Specific
program features include math literacy, online learning, self-paced curriculum, and a low staff-to-student
ratio. RARE has not only helped in improving overall
math scores, the program has also promoted parent
involvement and improved school culture.
As an administrative leader, I am tasked with the
duty of maintaining a serious academic environment,
yet fostering an exciting, spirited school atmosphere.
The RARE program reflects our five-point strategy to:
1) study the flaws of past practices and to analyze the
future impact of decisions to assist in continuously
fostering a new vision for school improvement; 2)
provide a safe, clean, and welcoming environment
for learning; 3) hire and retain qualified, passionate teachers; 4) foster a learning environment that
promotes positive relationships and mutual respect
amongst student, staff and parents; and 5) make every
stakeholder feel valued, to serve in their position with
integrity and character.
In summary, the RARE Program is a great partner for the Hammond Family. We look forward to
next year.
To our staff, mentors and volunteers,
a simple thank-you for a job well done.
—Bill Corbett, [email protected]
CCNA Board of Directors Gwen Day-Fuller, Board Chair; CAPT Bernard Jackson,
USN (Ret), Vice Chair; The Honorable Gwen Hubbard Lewis, Founder; The Honorable
Ferdinand T. Day, Member Emeritus; Herve Aitken, Esq, Member; The Honorable William
D. “Bill” Euille, Member; Janice Lee Howard, Esq., Member; Reverend Pamela Lyons,
Member; Jena Roscoe, Member; Pastor Howard-John Wesley, Member; Patricia
Funderburk-Ware, Advisor; COL RET Jim Paige, Advisor.
Reach & Rise for Excellence
Mentors/Tutors
Bill Corbett
Herve Aitken
Ruben Anderson
Andrew Beard
Yuuna Kaparti
Evelyn Kempe
Mary Kolank
Erin McGrath
Leah Swanson
Valerie Wright
Staff
Misti Washington
Jeanette Chisholm
Lillian Curry
Brandon Edwards
Jeffrey Gaskins
Kelly Hopkins
Adrienne Washington
“SunTrust is pleased to work with CCNA and the RARE program.
Together, we can make a difference in our community.”
—Muriel Garr (left, first row), Vice President, Community
Development Manager, SunTrust Banks, Inc.
Reach & Rise for Excellence