REBROADCAST: ‘Class of 2025′ first grade

In 2012, then Oregon governor John Kitzhaber announced a lofty goal: by 2025, the state would achieve a 100% high school graduation rate. That hasn’t happened — the state’s graduation rate is around 82% — but the goal sparked the creation of a 12-year reporting project at OPB called “Class of 2025.”

OPB journalists began talking to 27 students who were then in kindergarten at Earl Boyles Elementary School in Southeast Portland, and have followed most of them through to 2025. Back in 2014, “Think Out Loud” spent an hour with the first graders, their teachers and parents after an early pizza lunch at Earl Boyles. We listen back to that show.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller [narrating]: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. The David Douglas High School class of 2025 graduated yesterday. As you’ve probably heard by now, journalists from OPB have been following this class since they began kindergarten, 13 years ago. We started this project because of an audacious goal put forward by then Oregon governor John Kitzhaber. He said that by 2025, the state would achieve a 100% high school graduation rate. So a group of OPB journalists decided to follow the first class of students who were expected to hit that lofty goal.

In June of 2014, when the class was just finishing first grade, we recorded a live show in the Earl Boyles Elementary School library with students, parents, teachers and administrators. In honor of the class of 2025’s graduation, we’re going to listen back to that 11-year-old show today.

We started with Rob Manning. He is the reporter-turned editor who created this project. I asked him how he chose the Earl Boyles Elementary School in the David Douglas School District in Southeast Portland.

Rob Manning: It’s a bit of a long answer. I’ll try to make it short. David Douglas, I had actually worked with as a school district before on a previous series that I’d done called “Learning with Less” and it had been a relatively easy school district to work with, which is always a nice thing to have

Miller: But not always the case?

Manning: No, there have been other projects that are not that different from this that I’ve tried in other school districts where administrators have not been very supportive of it, because they don’t want a potentially negative light to be cast on their schools. And I feel like it, in some ways, speaks well of David Douglas that they said we’re willing to have you come in and do this project over the years, knowing that there may be some good news and some bad news that comes out of it.

Earl Boyles, specifically, I was interested in because it represents a number of things. One is that it has a lot of students that are often considered by education researchers as at risk. But it’s doing a lot of things that researchers say are the right things to do as well. I mean, we can look out the window and see that they’re building a preschool connected to the school, they’ve got an after school program, the Schools Uniting Neighborhood (SUN) school program is in existence here. So those things combined – both the student body and the efforts that are done at the school – made it I think a very interesting place to watch to see how this idea of a 100% graduation for a class of 2025 would work.

Miller: Amanda Peacher is here as well, the lead digital producer for this project, OPB’s public insight journalist. Amanda, one of your jobs was to get parents and families on board, because it’s one thing to have the school district say “yes, you can come in,” but you need to be able to talk to kindergartners and first graders, and make this ask that, can we potentially follow you for a long time? What was your pitch?

Amanda Peacher: Well, I’d say we called all of the families who were in the three classes of kindergartners who started at Earl Boyles last year. We made contact or tried to make contact with all of them. So 80 families [and] 28 said “yes,” you can follow my student and my student is excited about this from now until graduation, potentially. I think what I explained was that this was a journalism project and not a study, and that we would be telling a story, and this is an opportunity for parents, families and students to have a sense for what their educational experience was like from now until they graduated high school.

Miller: We have a number of parents in the audience here. All of you were contacted by Rob or Amanda. I’m wondering if anyone wants to just join in. Why did you say yes to this? Why did you say, yeah, you can talk to my son, my daughter, you can come into our homes? Anybody want to say why?

Let’s get a microphone to you. Hold on one second. What’s your name first of all?

Parent: My name is Lan and this is my first year for my daughter in this school. I’m really interested in a lot of stuff like teacher and the principal. Everybody is so close to the kids and they talk to them. It make me feel like they [are] me, they there for my kid. So I’m really happy. And I say, yes. I think it’s really success for the kids to learn more and get better. So that’s what I would say, yes.

Miller: Well, let’s hear from some of the kids. We have a lot of first graders here that are in the class of 2025, including Leyna. You have your hand up right now. What’s it been like to be a part of this project? I mean, right now you have a microphone in your face, but you seem so comfortable.

Leyna: It feels like I’m happy.

Miller: Yeah, why is that?

Leyna: Because I like pizza.

[Laughter]

Miller: We should point out, yes, we had pizza this evening. What’s your favorite kind of pizza?

Leyna: Pepperoni.

[Noises in background]

Miller: Some people behind you totally agree. Austin, one of your classmates.

Austin 1: Are we gonna be able to go crazy?

Miller: How do you want to go crazy?

Austin 1: Crazy. Ahhhhh! [Laughs]

Miller: There will totally be a time to go crazy.

Austin 1: Yay!

Miller: Is that as crazy as you get?

Austin 1: [Laughs]

Miller: But before we get crazy, I want to know a little bit about what first grade has been like. What was your favorite part of first grade? You’re almost done with this year.

Austin 1: SUN class and recess.

Adult in background: SUN class and recess.

Miller: SUN class and recess. What’s your favorite thing to do during recess?

Austin 1: Play on the slide.

Miller: Yeah? What about in class? Do you have anything you like to do when you’re actually in class?

Austin 1: Drawing.

Miller: What do you like to draw?

Austin 1: I like to draw anything.

Miller: Anything. We have another Austin here as well. Two different Austins in this class.

Austin, do you remember the first time that you met Rob or Amanda, these reporters who were telling your story?

Austin 2: Yes.

Miller: What happened when you first met them?

Austin 2: I got excited.

Miller: Why is that?

Austin 2: Because I never met a OPB people before.

Miller: Had you watched shows on OPB before?

Austin 2: Not really.

Miller: But it was still exciting to meet them. They’re exciting people. Was it hard to talk in front of a microphone and to tell your story?

Austin 2: Yes.

Miller: But it seems like you got used to it.

Austin 2: Yeah.

Miller: What’s your favorite part of school this year?

Austin 2: I like math and writing.

Miller: Yeah. What did you learn in math this year?

Austin 2: Fraction. I mean, I learned geometry, and plus two and takeaway two.

Miller: Wow. What about you, Shelby, another member of the class of 2025? What was your favorite part of this year?

Shelby: That I got to go to school.

Miller: I understand that you have six brothers and sisters. Is that right? Did they give you advice about how to do well in first grade?

No? No advice? What about if you were going to give advice to somebody who is a kindergartner now, who’s going to go to first grade, what would you tell them? What about any other students? You’re really good at this now. You’ve mastered first grade, you’re about to go to second grade.

Let’s get a microphone over there. I’d love to hear your advice for kindergartners right now, what they should know when they’re getting ready to go to first grade. And what’s your name?

Anais: Anais.

Miller: So what advice would you give to kindergartners?

Anais: Give some respect. Keep safe. Always try.

Miller: That’s good advice.

Anais: And be ready.

Miller: And be ready. Be ready for what?

Anais: For class.

Miller: So what does it take to be ready for class? What do you have to do?

Anais: Learn.

Miller: Rob, I’m curious, how much time did you spend in this school over the course of the year? I remember that there were many times when you weren’t in the office with us. I assume you were in this school a lot of that time.

Manning: Yeah, I mean, there were weeks where I’d be here two or three days out of the week. There were many hours that I spent in this school. And over the last few weeks, I spent a little bit of time at another David Douglas school at Cherry Park Elementary, catching up with another one of the students from “Class of 2025” who is here for kindergarten and went over there for first grade. But I’ve spent, yeah, a lot of time … I mean, I also was here for regular class. I was here for recess. I was here for lunch. I was here when the first bell rang. I was here when the buses came at the end of the day. I was here after school for the SUN classes sometimes. And there’s a lot of stuff that goes on here sort of in the evenings, too, like they have a college night that was here like a month or two ago. There’s a lot going on. So I was here a lot, but I’m sure I missed a ton.

Miller: Well, let’s hear a little bit more from some of the students of the class of 2025. What is your name?

Kyle: Kyle, and my question is, how many are we gonna do of these? Like, are we gonna have the same thing again?

Miller: The same thing again – you mean in terms of this radio show?

Kyle: Yeah.

Miller: Well, I’m not sure. Rob, I mean, maybe this is actually a good time to give us the big picture of what the hope is for the project.

Manning: Well, like you said earlier, the idea is that this is something that will last from now through high school. Kind of an answer to your question, Kyle – we’ll keep coming back and there’ll be times, like I’ve done over the last few weeks, where I’m in the school a lot and I’m talking to students, talking to teachers, visiting kids and families at their homes. And maybe once in a while, Dave and the rest of the “Think Out Loud” crew will come to Earl Boyles and we’ll do a show also.

We’ll see. I think if everybody’s happy with how it went, how it goes today, maybe we’ll do it more.

Miller: Yeah, the short answer is more questions and more pizza.

[Laughter]

Background voices: Pizza!

Miller: There is another, there. Let’s go to the back of the audience there.

Sharnissa Secrett: Hey, Rob, I’m a parent. Wanted to know, you spent a lot of time in our homes and getting to know us. Tell us some of the things, some of your observations so far and what you see as successes in continuing relationships with the families. So interested in your perspective and the work with the families thus far.

Manning: Well, thanks. Sharnissa Secrett is the mom of Josh, who is one of the children who will be featured in the documentary that we’re producing. As she said, I visited her at her house and the family a couple of times, as was true with other families. The thing that I think really struck me the most is that these are parents and families that really are trying hard. They believe in the potential of their kids and are doing a lot – and they have a lot going on. There’s work. There’s often more than one kid in the family, and there’s a lot of efforts and good intentions going on.

The thing that I think I was able to see was the things that happen at home and then the things that happen at school, you get a broader picture that way. It’s been very special and really an honor to be allowed to come in and see what’s happening inside the house, because I think it’s a very important piece of what’s happening.

Miller: Sharnissa, I’m curious, to turn it back to you – what has it been like for you to have an interviewer in your home, to be a part of parent-teacher conferences and to really share these intimate times?

Secrett: Um. I think that the information that is shared is important. And I think, um, it’s been easy because I basically had the conversations with Rob and Amanda about expectations and just being sure that they, um, honor family, right?

Josh: “Um, um.”

Miller: For folks who are listening at home and don’t know where the “ums” are coming from, that’s Josh. First grader, Josh.

Secrett: That’s my Phillip Joshua. How has it been? [Laughs]

Josh: “Um, um.”

Secrett: So, he’s telling me I shouldn’t say “um.” To be very, very clear, I think that the experience has been good because, again, like giving them the foundation before they even entered into the home, and knowing that they honor us and working with us has made it easy. And I think that just having that conversation and really saying hey, you really got to get to know us and be a part of the family so that people would be comfortable letting you in. I think the relationships with Rob and Amanda thus far, it’s really real. So I think that is what’s making this partnership and the relationship successful.

Miller: I have never seen someone try so hard to get close to the microphone. So Josh, we have to put you in front of the microphone to actually give us a little something. What’s this first grade been like for you, Josh?

Josh: Uh, good.

Miller: What was your favorite part of the year or something that really just stood out from the school year?

Josh: Having fun and being in Ms. McDonald’s class because she’s the best teacher in the school.

Miller: Yeah? What makes her such a good teacher?

Josh: That she helps people that is in trouble. And tell people when somebody’s hurting someone they have to go to the office and talk to Mrs. Guynes, because she’s a good she’s a good … hm, what’s it called … princinal … principal.

Miller: We have a hand up in the front. Leyna, you have your hand up.

Leyna: It’s fun to be in first grade to teach all the other kids.

Miller: Yeah, who do you get to teach?

Leyna: Kindergarteners and preschoolers.

Miller: So what do you teach them?

Leyna: Respectful things.

Miller: Yeah? What does that mean? How do you do that? How do you teach a preschooler to be respectful?

Leyna: You just have to teach them.

Miller: Do they learn? Do they listen to you?

Leyna: Sometimes.

Miller: Yeah? We have another hand up. What’s your name?

Kaylie: Kaylie.

Miller: Kaylie, what do you want to say?

Kaylie: I think the best part about first grade is that you get to help other kids with math and reading.

Miller: Do you help other kids with math and reading?

Kaylie: Yeah.

Miller: What kind of things do you help them with?

Kaylie: With words and with math problems.

Miller: So if you’re helping them, you must know the math and reading really well yourself.

Kaylie: Yeah.

Miller: What’s your favorite subject?

Kaylie: I don’t have a favorite one.

Miller: Do other kids help you? It sounds like you’re really helpful for the younger kids. Do any of the older kids help you?

Kaylie: Yeah.

Miller: We have another hand up here in the front. What’s your name again?

Anais: Anais.

Miller: Anais, what’s your favorite part of first grade?

Anais: My favorite part of first grade in math.

Miller: A lot of future mathematicians here. You know what? Sometimes people say they hate math. So, what do you like about it? You have to try to convince people who are afraid of math or that they don’t like it, why should they love it?

Anais: Because it gets you smart.

Miller: That’s a good reason.

Miller [narrating]: Ericka Guynes was a principal at the time. She knew how to hype up her students.

Ericka Guynes: Hey, Bulldogs, do we have something we want to say? [Guynes and students in unison] “Bulldogs, Bulldogs, woo, woo, woo!” That’s our cheer and that’s what we do for our assembly. So thank you for having us back.

Miller: Now, the last time you and I talked, you were in our studio. I wasn’t in school. Now that the school year is almost over, as you look back on it, what has this year been like?

Guynes: Wow, it’s been amazing. We’ve had a lot of growth in our area, as far as we’re actually building our preschool. So we’re moving forward with construction in our early childhood wing. You can look outside and see that.

Miller: Yeah, as Rob said, it’s literally a part of this elementary school. So students here have been able to watch it take shape. What’s that been like for them?

Guynes: It’s been fabulous. At the end of our hallway, there’s a window. And at the end of the day, when the sun comes through it, you can see their little handprints and their noses up against the window. It’s like having Bob the Builder right in the backyard. So it’s been fabulous. They come in and they watch the construction. Families are able to see it and it’s been a group effort for all of us here.

Miller: We will talk more about the preschool and then the early learning effort in just a few minutes. But I’m just curious, taking a step back, we talked a little bit earlier about the state’s plans. It’s a 20-20-40 plan or 40-20-20 … in any case, 40-40-20, right?

Guynes: Correct.

Miller: [Laughs] Which involves other things, but in the high school point, it’s a 100% graduation by 2025. When you first heard that audacious state goal, what went through your mind?

Guynes: I think we’re getting ready to meet that goal by meeting our families as partners earlier and having our preschool an opportunity to partner with some of our families. Even our families were mentioning about partnership earlier on. We have the opportunity to change how children and families are accessing education. And I think we are going to meet it. I feel very confident that our kids coming to us will be prepared if we partner earlier and sooner.

Miller: What do you mean by partner? What does it actually mean in practice?

Guynes: In practice, what that means is we have 3- and 4-year-olds attending our preschool here. We’ll have 90 slots next year. It means partnering with our families as early as birth, families in the community, and having a community hubspace and places here, on site, for our families to access resources if needed.

Miller: Swati Adarkar is here as well, President and CEO of the Children’s Institute, which is spearheading the Early Works program here at Earl Boyles Elementary School. Welcome to the show.

Swati Adarkar: Thank you.

Miller: What exactly is Early Works?

Adarkar: Early Works is a way to help us all imagine what education could look like in the future if we really followed the research on what was needed to get to 40-40-20. What that means, as Ericka pointed out, is starting education in partnership with the parent, education community and other partners to create opportunities for learning. We know that learning starts at birth and that that parent-child relationship is just the first teaching moment, and it continues. If we can’t all be on that journey together well before kindergarten, we can’t address some of those persistent gaps.

Miller: Are those partnerships the norm right now? I mean that Principal Guynes was talking about? I mean, around the state.

Adarkar: It’s not as extensive as we need to be able to meet those goals, but it’s a movement that’s building. The Children’s Institute has been so excited about this partnership with Earl Boyles, David Douglas and the other community partners, because we feel like if we don’t roll up our sleeves and actually create some examples and models on the ground, it’s really hard to imagine a whole new way of doing things. So we couldn’t be more inspired by seeing the effort taking place here.

Miller: Now, you both sort of stressed how important it is to start early. It seems like an obvious point perhaps, but why is early intervention so important? Why not just try really hard once you get to kindergarten or first grade?

Adarkar: Sure. It’s one of those things where common sense is really backed by enormous amounts of research. I think, if you’re a parent, you see those bells going off as you interact with your child, those positive interactions, that wires the brain for learning.

What we know now, so solidly, is that lifelong health outcomes and educational attainment is really set in those earliest years during the rapid period of brain development. And the brain development takes place in the context of positive relationships. So if we can’t support parents, caregivers and other providers to have that quality interaction with children very early on, what we see are very significant achievement gaps at kindergarten. And the K-12 system has been working harder and harder to try to narrow those gaps, when in truth there’s very little cost effective progress that you can make to remediate. It’s far more efficient, humane and better for our investment as a state of scarce resources to do what the evidence has made so clear, which is to invest early in high quality early education.

Miller: So looking at the evidence, talking about the evidence, what kinds of programs specifically are most helpful, especially if you’re assuming that you always are gonna have limited resources?

Adarkar: Ericka highlighted a few of them. Focus on reading, oral language and early literacy is absolutely key, not just because reading is the only important subject, but reading is the gateway to all subjects. By the time you’re a fourth grader, you’re reading to learn. If you’re still struggling to be a reader, you can’t move on to those more complicated texts. That’s why third grade is such a pivotal point for predicting high school graduation. So what you’ll see happening in the state and across the country is a real movement to focus on third grade reading as our best benchmark and predictor for that 100% high school graduation.

Back to the strategies. High quality preschool for age 3 and 4 – that’s whole child development. We’re not imagining kids just sitting at a desk, this is age appropriate learning, play interaction, all those sorts of things that spark curiosity and imagination. And in the very earliest years, it’s that partnership of what happens at home and helping to support parents with that early literacy, as well as summer.

What we know about low income kids is you can do everything during the school year, but if you don’t enrich activities, particularly around learning, kids have huge losses during the summer. So all the work that teachers and families do during the school year needs to be buttressed by that summer. That’s happening here at Earl Boyles. There’s a fantastic partnership with Portland Reading Results, Children’s Book Bank, SMART and the county’s Early Kindergarten Transition Program to do everything it can to sort of shore up and give that summer boost. The data that we’re collecting is really showing that that’s making a difference.

Miller: I’m curious, from either our first graders here or parents, summer is gonna be here just in a few weeks. In terms of the summer break, do you have any enrichment plans of the kind that Swati is talking about so that your kids will sort of not lose what they’ve already learned, and maybe even come back to second grade knowing more in terms of reading and writing? Do you have any enrichment plans like she’s talking about?

Who wants to jump in here? Let’s get a mic. Hold on one second.

Parent: Ideally, I would like to say that they will be reading like 20-30 minutes a day. Chances are it’s probably not gonna happen. [Laughs] But normally, I plan out a few things for them to do over the summer. And the first couple of weeks they’re doing it, but after the next couple of weeks go by, not so much.

Austin reads all the time, so he’s not so hard to encourage to read. My other one, he’s a little bit more difficult.

Miller: Well, that gets this big question: how do you push for all of these, as you’re describing, the necessary improvements in early learning? We haven’t even talked about the Common Core, but a more rigorous curriculum, instead of standards all across the country. How do you do all that and still let kids be kids, and play, and use their imagination, and experiment, and have fun?

Guynes: Well, I think that that’s the magic of a good teacher in the classroom and that’s the magic of a parent, really, as their first educator. I mean, you could look at a phone book and if you have good instructional skills, you can get a great lesson out of it and you can have fun with it. I mean, truly, you can make anything a negative experience. It’s the spin on it that gets you to depth.

I think that, to address the Common Core, it is standards, but also it’s a way of approaching teaching. I mean, it’s going to depth, it’s looking at that critical thinking. It’s a change, it’s a shift in instruction and it’s difficult. I agree with that, but I also think kids are up for it. Like you heard Austin talking about geometry today. These kids are brilliant, if given the opportunity.

Miller: Austin, we heard from your mom that you’re a big reader. What are you reading these days? What are you enjoying reading?

Austin 2: Books, but that they’re fake.

Miller: They’re fake?

Adult in background: Fiction

Austin 2: Fiction.

Miller: Oh, they’re fiction.

Austin 2: And I like reading fiction books because they’re always fun.

Miller: Fun stories. Leyna, what about you? What are you reading these days?

Leyna: I read some things that are cool.

Miller: Yeah, like what?

Leyna: Like things that are fiction and true.

Miller: Both fiction and true. Good stories?

Leyna: Yeah.

Miller: Austin, you have your hand up too. What’s been your favorite book recently?

Austin 1: Chapter books.

Miller: Yeah, big books. Is there a good story that you can give us a short version of?

Austin 1: “Bad Kitty.”

Miller: What happens in “Bad Kitty?” I feel like I’m the only one in this room who hasn’t read that book.

[Laughter]

Austin 1: It’s about this cat. It doesn’t like anything except sleeping and eating.

Miller: That sounds like my cat. [Laughs] Anais, what are you reading right now?

Anais: I read fiction books.

Miller: Yeah? What’s one of the good stories you’ve read recently?

Anais: “Bad David”

Miller: “Bad David?” I thought I heard that wrong.

Background adult voice: No, you heard it correctly. [Laughs]

Miller: I heard it correctly. OK. “Bad Kitty,” straight to “Bad David.”

[Laughter]

So we’re just talking about how it’s important for you all to keep reading and learning over the summer vacation. Is that something you want to do? I mean, school’s about to finish up. It could be a time when you could just run around … and Austin, you said, when are we gonna get to go crazy? I think of summer vacation as a time to do that. But do you also want to keep learning?

Student: I actually read “Cat in the Hat,” too.

Miller: Oh, you did. “Cat in the Hat.” What are your plans for the summer? What do you want to do this summer?

Student: I want to go to the beach.

Miller: Yeah? What are you going to do at the beach?

Student: Collect seashells.

Miller: Nice. Austin, what about you? What are your plans for the summer?

Austin 2: Camping and going to the beach.

Miller: Shelby, do you have any big summer plans?

Shelby: Putting up a new pool.

Miller: You’re gonna go to the pool? Nice.

And Austin, waiting very patiently, your plans for the summer?

Austin 1: Going camping and trying to keep my dog from running away when we go camping.

[Laughter]

Miller: Does he like to do that?

Austin 1: She likes to run! And when there’s people, she loves meeting new people. And when she was at the store not on a leash, she’ll try to run around and lick everybody’s face.

Miller: Can you hold on to her leash tight enough so that she doesn’t do that?

Austin 1: Uh-huh

Miller: Principal Guynes, what is the biggest challenge? You said you’re hopeful right now that the state … that you’re moving towards 100% graduation for this class. And just as a reminder, it’s 68%. Your eyebrows tell me that you don’t need the reminder of what the graduation rate right now is statewide. What are the challenges?

Guynes: Well, I think the challenges right now, if we look at our kindergarten readiness scores, our students are coming in two years behind, currently. So I think, trying to close that gap before they even get into school is going to be really important. And that’s, as Swati mentioned, the strategies such as preschool for all of our kids, connecting with our families, making sure that we have those positive relationships, because parents can’t do it on their own and schools can’t do it on their own. I really firmly believe that that partnership is key.

So as far as challenges, I think it’s just keeping that open line of communication with staff and with parents, because people are all here for the right reasons. I think it’s just a matter of keeping that momentum going and building that synergy to keep moving for people.

Miller: We’ve been focusing so far on the zero to first grade component of this. But obviously this goes deeper and if we’re going to talk about 2025, we’re talking about high school graduation.

Don Grotting is here. He is the superintendent of this school district. Thanks very much for coming to Earl Boyles and joining us for the show.

Don Grotting: And thank you for coming to David Douglas and Earl Boyles.

Miller: Well, from the sort of district-wide perspective, what do you see as the big challenges?

Grotting: Well, I think the big challenge is to make sure that we begin getting that quality early childhood education to these students. To be honest, we’re spending millions and millions of dollars on interventions after the third grade and we’re not doing a very good job of closing that achievement gap. We know that if we can get to these students and their families as early as possible, we can make a difference.

We’re doing this here at Earl Boyles … As a superintendent David Douglas, my next job is how do I expand this to every one of my elementary schools? But really, looking at the big vision, how can Oregon begin providing this early childhood education for all of the children of Oregon? And it’s happening in small pockets, everywhere from Forest Grove, McMinnville, Pendleton. We’re starting to see pockets of that. But having school boards and other administrators to have the courage to dedicate some of those resources beyond the K-12 system to the lower grades is very difficult in a time of limited resources.

Miller: Does it mean spending more money on education? Is there any way around that? Could you create what you’re talking about, what all three of you are talking about, without spending more money?

Grotting: I think it would be very difficult because, just like here at Earl Boyles, it takes a qualified teacher. So, all of our teachers in our preschool, they’re going to be certified teachers. Going back to what I believe Principal Guynes and Swati said before, my K-1 teachers are working as hard as they can to get those kids ready for the third grade and to be at third grade reading benchmark. I don’t think they can work any harder than they’re working, but when you’re having children come into your system that are already two years behind, it’s almost an impossible task. And we know that those children that are not at the third grade reading benchmark at the end of the third grade, they are 75% more likely not to graduate from our high schools.

Miller: That gets back to what Swati was saying before.

You said, ideally, you’d look statewide, but just looking at David Douglas, what would it take to start to replicate what we have here, what you’re building here in all of the elementary schools in the system?

Grotting: Well, I think David Douglas is a little bit unique in that our district, we’re a growing district and we are at capacity. We do not have one available classroom in this district. So we’re building this wing through the efforts of business and private donations, and a school board who’s courageous enough to go out for a bond.

But I do believe that there are other school districts around the state that may have the space, so you would not need that capital infrastructure. But there still would be some programming costs, all the way from curriculum training. And teaching preschool kids is far different than teaching K-5 kids at an elementary school

Miller: Superintendent Grotting, thanks very much. That’s Don Grotting. He’s a superintendent of the David Douglas School District.

[Applause]

Let’s go back to our audience. What’s your name?

Debra Rabedeau: I’m Debra Rabedeau. Just another comment going back to plans for the summer vacation. One of the ideas that we’ve had with our children – and I think the summertime would be a really good time to implement it – is to consider places around the world that you might like to visit. And in doing so, we’ll each pick a spot and we’ll each do research together as a family on it. We’ll draw pictures, we’ll read books, we’ll get recipes, we’ll cook and we’ll learn together about these really cool places that might inspire us.

Miller: So a virtual summer visit to some place in the world.

We got some more hands up. What’s your name?

Meghan Gabriel: Hi, Meghan Gabriel. I’m with Metropolitan Family Service SUN program here at Earl Boyles. One of the things that we do in the summer is actually offer enrichment opportunities for the kids during the summer. Swati mentioned we have some great partnerships with the SMART program, with Reading Results and we actually have certified teachers in the classroom with the kids. So they’re kind of getting this trifecta of literacy in the summer: individualized tutoring, books to go home and then actually one-on-one time with an adult reading, while they’re here as well. So I would say the SUN program is a great opportunity for students in the summer. [Laughs]

Miller: Let’s go back to one of our first graders in the front row. What’s going on?

Student: Why do you got to ask questions to every peoples? Why you got to ask them questions?

[Laughter]

Miller: Why do I have to ask so many questions? Oh, well, it’s my job. [Laughs] It’s a fair question. But yeah, that’s how we make the radio. A lot of questions, but we have some more.

We have a question from the audience or a comment from the audience.

Audience Member: My name is Alicia and my question is actually for Ericka and for Don. And you talk about early education and getting involved early with your kids so they’re not coming in two years behind in kindergarten. My question is, what are you doing with the students that aren’t behind and have actually excelled above and beyond to keep them engaged in their learning, so they’re not bored in a classroom if they’re at a higher level than an actual first grade classroom? What are your plans to keep them engaged?

Guynes: That is a great question. And we’ve experienced that, because now that we’ve had kids in preschool, the transition from preschool to kindergarten … We have a student this year that’s transitioning up and we’re able to know that he is performing, already as a preschool 4-year old, at a second grade level. So we are going to be looking at some great advancements. But we look at all aspects. Is he socially ready for that?

We are actually able to look at appropriate placement earlier, so we can start them on the right track. That is a great question. Yes.

[Applause]

Miller: And we have some more hands up here. Go ahead.

Teacher: I’m one of the teachers here. I think the other thing is that Ericka holds us all accountable for every single kid’s progression, no matter where they’re at. She expects us to show growth with every kid. So wherever they’re at, we’ve got to meet them there and bring them up.

Miller: Austin, you have your hand up again.

Austin 2: Can I go and color?

Miller: [Laughs] Oh, yes, you can go and color. But before you do, I just have a question. I’m wondering what your hopes are for second grade?

Austin 2: I want to be like my brother. But I don’t want …

[Aww’s from audience]

Miller: What’s your brother like?

Austin 2: Sometimes he likes to play.

Miller: He likes to play. Are you like your brother already?

Austin 2: Kinda.

Miller: All right, you can go color, absolutely.

Austin 2: Yay!

Miller: Leyna?

Leyna: Actually, I have a baby sister that’s really fun to play with and I love her. So that’s why I wanted to say about her.

Miller: All right. What are your hopes for second grade? What do you, what do you want second grade to be like?

Leyna: I want second grade to be fun like my baby sister.

[Laughter]

Miller: Do you think it will be?

Leyna: I think.

Miller: Swati, going back to these questions of money, which we’re talking about public policy and they’re they’re key – how are you able to pay for all of the new programs that you’re talking about?

Adarkar: So, going back to that investment question, there are many states that have prioritized preschool and invested in them. You might be surprised to hear states like Oklahoma and Georgia are way, way ahead of giving a preschool experience that’s publicly-funded. So the model that’s being developed at Earl Boyles is highly unusual. Partners are doing everything they can to blend and braid public funding. That is not the path to the future, in terms of the funding to scale and for Don to reach all of his kids. Because the work that’s gone in to create the model … in education we’re not given the chance to innovate.

What’s fabulous about this is having dollars, not an infusion of private dollars, but public dollars being put to an innovation to be able to create a template, to show what we could do if we actually thought about scale. To do that, we’d have to bring Oregon into the picture in terms of really investing in early learning. Our state preschool program is an expansion of Head Start, which serves just kids below the federal poverty line – and we’re only reaching half of those kids.

Oregon ranks in the bottom quartile for really giving access to high quality preschool, so we have a long way to go. We have a fabulous governor who’s really strong on his vision on these issues and we feel that that gives us a really great chance, as a state, to back that research and promise with some real investments. The state is gonna be investing in full-day kindergarten, which is a key bridge to early learning. We think that partnering with preschool investments and building that strategy over time, you can’t get there overnight. But Oregon needs to think robustly of getting there quickly, because every dollar not invested early is more money post-preschool on remediation.

Miller: That same theme, once again.

I’m curious – we’ve had a lot of ideas here from adults about the way to improve schools. From our first graders here, if you ran a school, what would be different? Any ideas here? All right. How would school be different if you were in charge?

Student: I will change the school by doing lunch first and then recess.

Miller: You’d have lunch first, OK.

Kaylie, how would you change school if you were in charge?

Kaylie: I would let the kids with problems be with a special kind of teacher

Miller: So they could get help. Is that the way it is right now?

Kaylie: For some kids.

Miller: But you’d want more help, more special help for some kids. [Audience clapping] A lot of adults like your idea.

We have some second graders here, too – some wise old second graders. Kyle, if you were running the school, how would it be different?

Kyle: I would do two recesses. So some kids can get pulled out of recess to do some work, then get back into recess. I would like two recesses, so we’ll have enough time to play and other kids … they might have five minutes, then they’ll have another chance and still have recess.

Miller: And Daisy Jane, what about you? If you were running the school?

Daisy Jane: If I was running the school, I would make sure that every student had a good education so they would be able to graduate.

[Audience applause]

Miller: Since the whole point of this project is it’s the “Class of 2025” and we’re talking about the first graders, we all want them to graduate from high school. Daisy Jane, what advice would you give them so that they can all do well in school?

Daisy Jane: The advice that I would give them would be to never give up. And to do their best.

Miller: And Kyle, what about you? Advice to the first graders who are about to come to second grade.

Kyle: So … what?

Miller: What advice would you give to first graders right now? Because now that you’ve mastered second grade, you can look back. What would you tell first graders?

Kyle: Always try and you have to never give up, because the work might be hard, but you’ll try your hardest to get it done.

Miller [narrating]: Those were some of the voices of the first graders at Earl Boyles Elementary School in the David Douglas School District, back in June of 2014. Those students graduated from high school this week. Congratulations.

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