About
Posted on May 18, 2007
Announced in January 2008, 20/20 Vision for Schools is an adopt-a-school initiative spearheaded by the interdenominational Coalition of Urban Youth Workers, a growing association of greater New York faith-based and community youth agencies committed to comprehensive public education reform.
AN URGENT MANDATE
20/20 Vision begins with the idea that New York City public schools can and must be transformed within a single generation of students, so that first graders in September 2008 — who are the graduating high school class of 2020 — reverse decades-long, chronic under-performance.
OUR PROMISE TO CHILDREN
New York City makes a promise to children that, “If you stay in school, you can become what you want to be.” Yet decades of educational failure contradict this claim. Even after attempted radical reform under Mayor Bloomberg’s administration, approximately 60% of public school students still do not read at grade level and 70% cannot meet math standards.
In a school system with 1.2 million students (the tenth largest city in America), that means that populations larger than the cities of Seattle, Boston, and Washington DC (all but a few handfuls of the great American cities, in fact) fall short every day in our schools. It further means that public school graduates cannot complete job applications or college entrance essays, compete in an information economy, or manage their household finances.
20/20 Vision mobilizes grass-roots community partners to reject status quo failure and fight for our students’ future. 20/20 Partners agree that this incoming generation of students is the generation where we begin to make good on our promise to educate our children effectively.
THE STRATEGY
The strategy of 20/20 is to solicit 10% of the city’s 7,100 churches (710) to adopt 50% of its 1,400 schools (700) by 2010 for holistic engagement, service, and advocacy. More short-term, 20/20 is recruiting 10% of that goal, or 71 churches, to officially launch in September 2008.
WHY CHURCHES?
Communities of faith are strategically significant to school reform for three reasons:
1) Empirical data suggests that between 50% and 80% of every faith community has a direct relationship with a school. Every Saturday or Sunday, teachers, custodians, principals, administrators, students, parents, grandparents, mentors, tutors, coaches, aunts, uncles, local merchants and more fill pews at churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques. 20/20 Vision mobilizes them to affect change within their sphere of influence, one school at a time.
2) By definition communities of faith are future-focused and action oriented. 20/20 Vision taps this inherent strength to mobilize volunteers, funding, and advocacy for a whatever-it-takes approach to service and transformation.
3) Community churches have vested interests in seeing neighborhood stability and sustainable success. 20/20 Vision equips them to be agents of change.
THE ADOPTION MATRIX
The methodology of 20/20 is to change churches’ perspectives on both students and schools from an adversarial one entrenched over decades of hostility and mutual mistrust to one of partnership and service.
Engaging the School
The horizontal axis on the Adoption Matrix represents the congregation’s engagement with a school. Adoption begins by identifying a specific neighborhood school for intentional and consistent prayer. Prayer is the starting point (a) because churches preach a God that answers prayer and (b) it sensitizes their heart and minds to the needs of the school. But prayer is hardly the end-all of school adoption. 20/20 equips congregation to become answers to their own prayers. Adoption continues as congregations overcome generational mistrust by cultivating personal relationships at the school and building a “resume of trust.”
Beyond relationships are meaningful acts of service, where congregations offer tangible value to the school. Next is a ministry of presence, where churches meet ongoing needs by volunteering as coaches, lunchroom monitors, or tutors; sponsoring extra-curricular activities; or coordinating after school leadership clubs. Finally comes the credibility to speak into policy decisions both at the school and systemic level. A church holistically engaged in this way is a 20/20 church.
Engaging the Student
20/20 Churches make a commitment not only to the schools, but also to nurturing student leaders who can be change agents within and for their own generation. The Matrix’s vertical axis captures this commitment.
With increased standardized testing, the schools are unapologetic that their goal is passing students. Passing is insufficient. At a minimum, we want to see students equipped to steward their lives – that is, equipped to choose their professions, where they live, and how they engage their communities. Even more ambitious, we want student leaders who recognize that personal success is entrusted for the benefit of our communities.
Moving the Matrix
What moves a congregation along the 20/20 Matrix is the embrace of the school reform mission by its members. When every congregant sees their individual responsibility to educating our children, then they will use their influence in whatever vocation to effect change for our schools.
For more on the 20/20 Vision plan, visit www.2020Schools.net or read “20/20 Vision for Schools: Transforming Public Education within a Single Generation of Students.”
