The numbers don’t lie.

• 1,700 public schools
• 7,100 churches.

There are at least four and a half churches in the five boroughs of New York City for every one public school.

Actually that 4.5:1 ratio scratches the surface, as 7,100 is a partial number that only includes congregations that self-identify with a particular Christian tradition. A number that includes the spectrum of Christian churches is unavailable, nor is an ecumenical number representing all faiths.  Suffice to say, the real ratio is much larger.

Within those congregations, at any given gathering, 50-80% of the people in the pews are directly or indirectly connected to a school – positioned for impact if only their leaders would activate them for service.

The People are Motivated

People of faith are uniquely motivated to right the wrongs of educational injustice because of certain fundamental beliefs.

Loving neighbors, pursuing justice, educating children – these are mostly universal religious imperatives. When community and spiritual leaders nurture this motivation, exponential change is possible. 20/20 provides a framework to do exactly that.

Innovative partnerships uniquely positioned for impact

20/20 engages schools through partnerships with 75 community organizations including:

• Young Life
• World Vision
• Student Venture
• New York City Leadership Center
• Heart of a Champion
• SpeakLyfe Entertainment
• The Storefront Art Center
• Urban Youth Workers Institute
• Nyack College

Latinos are the fastest growing ethnic group in New York City, accounting for 32.6% of the 16-24 population and 34.1% of the under 16 population in New York City. Yet:

• 13.7% of Latino youths ages 16-24 are neither enrolled in school nor employed, what sociologists call “disconnected.”
• 44.4% have less than a High School diploma.
• Only 4.8% have a BA or higher.

On September 27, 20/20 Vision for Schools executive director Jeremy Del Rio was asked to explore the Latino achievement gap in New York City at the Movement Day conference convened by the New York City Leadership Center. His assignment included reviewing recent studies documenting the scope and impacts of the gap, as well as proposing community supported strategies aimed at improving educational outcomes for Latino students.

He also introduced one of 20/20′s best practice partners, Broader Bridges, which equips community partners and schools to offer job readiness solutions for disconnected youth.

You can download the powerpoint of his talk here, as well as the research reports he cites (pdf files) by clicking the images below.

For more information on Broader Bridges, including their “Reconnect” training series happening throughout the five boroughs, visit them online. It’s not too late to register for Saturday’s Reconnect Queens event at The Legacy Center in Glendale.

The Willow Creek Association’s Global Leadership Summit features 20/20 Vision for Schools this week. Summit speaker Michell Rhee (former Schools Chancellor of Washington, DC, and founder of Children First) will explore how educational inequity robs inner city children of the skills necessary to complete college, compete in an information economy, or even conduct an inductive Bible study.

The Summit asked 20/20 director Jeremy Del Rio to provide a case study demonstrating how churches and ministries can provide leadership around these issues. Below is the article Jeremy wrote for the for the conference notebook that will be distributed to the estimated audience of 100,000 ministry leaders. The Summit also features the “20/20 Vision for Schools: Transforming Public Education within a Single Generation of Students” workshop curriculum and the “Why Public Schools Matter to God (and Should Matter to You Too)” article among its Digital Resources.

See additional 20/20 resources provided to the Leadership Summit here.

_____________________

Leading Education Reform Where You Are: One Church’s Story

[Originally published by Willow Creek Association in the conference Notebook for the 2011 Global Leadership Summit. Download article pdf here.]

In September of 2008, Pastor Paul Curtis’ relationship with the public school system fit the profile of many New York City pastors. That is, he didn’t have one. Public schools seemed to him so resistant to help from churches that they were the last place he considered to begin making a difference.

Then he heard about 20/20 Vision for Schools and felt God stirring him toward a vision for people of faith to lead the effort to restore justice to public education – to level the playing field for all students regardless of neighborhood, race, or economic status. Staggering numbers made the problems feel intractable.

Despite 1,700 public schools, 1.1 million students, and a $21 billion annual budget, graduation rates in the city hovered near 50%, and reading and math proficiency lagged at or below 40%. But next to 7,100 self-described Evangelical, Pentecostal, and Charismatic churches in NYC, 1,700 schools didn’t feel so large.

“What might happen if five churches actually prayed for one neighborhood school?” Curtis reasoned. “Dare we expect God to answer?”

And what if God already positioned his church to be salt and light within those schools? Between students, parents, teachers, staff, and relatives, more than 85% of his attenders already had direct or indirect relationships with schools. Might they become answers to their own prayers, or the prayers of others?

He registered Crossroads Christian Church to adopt a school through 20/20 Vision for Schools. In spring 2010, Crossroads organized a prayer walk of four neighborhood schools. He leveraged his pulpit to launch a three-week sermon series the next Sunday, including a panel discussion with educators, administrators and students around the topic of educational justice in the public school system.

Several of Curtis’ church members took the challenge. The next month, the youth minister and five teens from the church volunteered at a local school event. Then the next fall, another of his members volunteered the church’s Storefront Art Center to lead a mural project in the refurbished schoolyard. The changing demographics of the neighborhood meant hundreds of immigrant children at the 1,200-student elementary school, and a parent from Crossroads proposed creating a welcoming environment by celebrating the diversity with a public art project.

Curtis and the school agreed. Eight months later, 450+ volunteers from eight community groups (including five churches) and five sponsors joined the principal, PTA, students, and staff to execute an 875-square foot mural for six weeks. They celebrated with a schoolyard block party on June 4, 2011, attended by 1,500 neighbors of every age, race, and religion.

Now, Curtis is hooked. Welcoming neighbors from the Middle East, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia, by empowering their academic success no longer feels overwhelming.

It feels, and looks, like Jesus.

- Jeremy Del Rio, Esq. co-founded and directs 20/20 Vision for Schools. Free how-to resources and practical next-steps, including the PS 102 mural case study, online here: 2020schools.org/wcagls11. Visit the PS 102 Mural website here to track the project from beginning to end.

1. Stop viewing students as consumers of education, buying a product from teachers
2. Instead empower them as owners of their lives, investing in their education as a means to a life worth living
3. As owners, nurture a culture of leadership among the student body of public schools
4. Develop a 10% pipeline of student leaders within any given school because when 10% of a community changes its values, the rest of the population generally follows

Because of this foundational commitment to student leadership development, it was 20/20′s privilege to sponsor Reload 1.2.3 on June 12, the first ever multi-site multi-state student ministry conference. (1 conference. 2 States. 3 sites.)  Specifically, 20/20 Vision contributed three core components to Reload 1.2.3′s one-of-a-kind program.  

First, 20/20 inspired and shaped Reload’s Plus-1 program strategy, requiring every adult involved in the program at all three venues, from musicians and singers to trainers and general session speakers, to integrate a “Plus-1″ protege into their content delivery.  With live music and workshops at all three venues, this strategy created a platform for more than 50 Plus-1 student leaders to provide meaningful leadership at a premiere training event for more than 500 youth workers.  More importantly, Plus-1s demonstrated what empowered student leaders look like, rather than adults simply talking about student leadership as a value, and created a common reference point for more than 500 leaders who can influence a shift towards more authentic student leadership in organizations throughout greater New York.

Second, 20/20 shaped the “Student-Led Student Ministry: Pipe Dream or Possible?” workshop which featured four accomplished student leaders as experts on what student-led change looks like and how to achieve it. The workshop description follows, along with a slideshow that captured visually the impacts of their student leadership.

It’s trendy for youth ministers to say, “Youth ministry is not about ministering to youth, but about empowering youth to minister,” but what does youth-led youth ministry actually look like? Experience youth ministry by young people as NYC students discuss recent student-led ministry models including God Belongs in My City, Kickin’ It Old Skool, Generation Xcel, and World Vision’s Youth Empowerment Project.

(Student Led Student Ministry: Possible from Jeremy Del Rio on Vimeo.)

Finally, Reload 1.2.3 provided a platform for the 20/20 Vision Workshop to be taught live at three venues simultaneously, thanks to our instructors Edwin Pacheco (associate pastor Gateway City Church and director Youth Rock), Walter Sotelo (director New York Gospel Outreach), and Rohin Beach (youth pastor St. Luke’s Baptist Church of Paterson). Here’s that workshop description:

Adults promise children that if they stay in school they will be equipped to succeed in life, but we have failed to make good on that promise for generations — with high school graduation rates in some cities hovering at or below 30%. Come explore how urban youth ministries are transforming public education within a single generation of students by activating congregations, adopting schools, and becoming answers to prayer.

Download video of the Vision Workshop, along with its PowerPoint and lecture notes, here.

Thanks Urban Youth Workers Institute for being an incredible partner and affirming that empowered student leaders are key to reaching their generation.

Video 1

Christ Tabernacle members donate backpacks for every student at Bushwick’s PS 151. Recap and highlights:

Operation Backpack 2009 from Christ Tabernacle on Vimeo.

Video 2

PS 151 Principal Jeanette Sosa thanks the members of Christ Tabernacle for their generosity.

Operation Backpack: Principal of PS 151 Jeanette Sosa from Christ Tabernacle on Vimeo.

Even the “best and brightest” gathered at this year’s TED conference are exploring how to engage public education reform.

Accepting his 2008 TED Prize, author Dave Eggers asks the TED community to personally, creatively engage with local public schools. With spellbinding eagerness, he talks about how his 826 Valencia tutoring center inspired others around the world to open.

About Dave Eggers:

Writing is only his day job: Dave Eggers moonlights as a publisher, philanthropist and advocate for students and teachers.

Dave Eggers’ first book, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Since then he’s written two more novels and launched an independent publishing house, which publishes books, a quarterly literary journal (McSweeney’s), a DVD-based review of short films (Wholpin), a monthly magazine (The Believer) and the Voice of Witness project.

Meanwhile, Eggers has established himself as a philanthropist and teacher-at-large. In 1998 he launched 826 Valencia, a San Francisco-based writing and tutoring lab for young people, which has since opened six more chapters across the United States. He has extended his advocacy of students by supporting their educators, instituting a monthly grant for exceptional Bay Area teachers. His TED Prize wish is for more poeple to follow him into getting involved in your local school — and talk about it — through the website Once Upon a School.

“Many writers, having written a first best-seller, might see it as a nice way to start a career. He started a movement instead.” – Time

“Mommy, can you take us to see the good people?” My son chimed in, “Yes, Mommy! Please, I want to see the good people.” So I promised them that I would take them and I did.

Here’s the backstory to the mother’s testimony of the “good people.” The video captures how one church (Christ Tabernacle) embraced its call to engage public schools last fall. Their 20/20 Vision relationship with this school and others is still evolving.