Student Achievement
St. Louis City/County
Area Resources for Community and Human Services
Core Result: Children Succeeding in School
Benchmark: MAP Scores
February 2002
Objectives:
To improve the overall performance of elementary school students on standardized tests by reducing the percentage of students scoring at the bottom two levels on the mathematics and communication arts MAP tests by 5 percentage points each year. Beginning in 1999 and by the end of the 2002 school year, the students attending Caring Communities Schools will reach floor standards for district full accreditation.
Target population:
Low performing students in the following schools: Ashland, Bryan Hill, Columbia, Ford, Jefferson, Laclede, Lowell, Mann, Meramec, Shenandoah, Shepard, Sigel, Walbridge and Walnut Park.
Strategies:
ARCHS/Caring Communities school sites have long employed a strategy of academic enrichment along with comprehensive social service and clinical interventions. The process begins with the identification, by school staff, of students at risk of academic underachievement and the referral of those students to Caring Communities staff on-site.
A thorough assessment is conducted to first determine the likely causes of failure and, guided by that determination, to prescribe primary and secondary interventions. We know that academic failures are frequently associated with behavior anomalies, health problems, substance abuse within the family and any number of poverty-related conditions.
The citizen councils that determine the mix of services locally have consistently expressed their desire to have a comprehensive service delivery model implemented. In compliance with that desire, ARCHS/Caring Communities, has partnered with Hopewell Center, BJC Behavioral Health, St. Louis Public Schools and the Division of Family Services to provide a single point of contact and a coordinated delivery mechanism for social and clinical service delivery to children and families.
Results:
At the current rate of progress, the combined performance of Caring Communities Schools, in Math and Communication Arts, will meet the established standard in 2002.
Funding:
Caring Communities funds leveraged support, both directly and indirectly, through integration of other ARCHS initiatives, through the schools and through a number of private contributors. Several Caring Communities clusters overlap the service areas of the Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative.
The Health Initiative operates in all of the Caring Communities schools and the Caring Communities Preemployment Training component compliments the efforts of ARCHS Welfare to Work Initiative. In addition, we have leveraged the services of DFS, the St. Louis Department of Health and the 21st Century Learning Center into many of our sites related to this core result.
