by William H. Woodwell Jr.

"Education is the most important thing we do."

That is how Mayor Bill Purcell of Nashville, Tenn., describes his city's commitment to strengthening local schools.

During a forum at the 2005 National Summit on Your City's Families, held this fall in San Antonio, Purcell talked about the connection between stronger cities and stronger schools. 

In Nashville, Purcell said, the city is working with the school board, parents and others to make sure schools have the public support and the resources they need to help students succeed. 

Purcell meets with the school board on a quarterly basis, has made more than 400 visits to Nashville schools since he became mayor, and, with the city controlling the school budget, has worked to make sure local schools are adequately funded.

"In every other business, you put in capital and you invest every single year," Purcell said. "The schools should be no different."

Nashville, of course, is not alone. In cities and towns across the country, mayors and councilmembers are working with school districts to strengthen education.

Among the reasons for the new partnerships are an increased emphasis on educational results and a growing understanding that voters hold municipalities accountable for the quality of local education, even if the city doesn't run the schools. 

During the Your City's Families Summit, participants heard from a number of cities that are engaged in innovative partnerships with their local schools. 

Milwaukee, Wis.: Partnership Emphasizes Professional Development for Teachers
During his campaign for office in 2004, Mayor Tom Barrett publicly embraced the work of a local partnership seeking to "enhance the quality of teaching and learning in Milwaukee Public Schools."

After using the work of the Milwaukee Partnership Academy as the basis for his own education platform, Mayor Barrett became an active participant in the effort once in office. 

The Milwaukee Partnership Academy was formed in 1999 with a specific goal: to ensure that every child in Milwaukee Public Schools is performing at or above grade level in reading, writing and mathematics.

At the time, according to the academy's executive director, Christine Anderson, municipal government was not directly involved in the initiative.

But Mayor Barrett changed all that, joining school, business and community leaders in a collaborative effort to help more children achieve academic success.

"He has really embraced the mission and the goals of the partnership," Anderson said.

The mayor's involvement, she added, has brought an important perspective to the table.

"These are global thinkers with the broader interests of the city at heart. Having the mayor involved helps people see that we are talking not only about education but about the economy, workforce issues, crime and other topics that affect the quality of our community," Anderson said.

Shortly after its launch, the academy initiated a literacy program that focuses on developing student skills in reading, writing, speaking and related areas.

The academy has placed literacy coaches in every school in the city to work with teachers on how best to strengthen student performance.

This professional development focus now has carried over to a "Math Lead Teacher" program that has placed math coaches in all Milwaukee schools.

The results of the academy's work can be seen in the marked improvement in literacy skills among Milwaukee students in recent years.

For example, while one of every two fourth graders in city schools were reading at grade level in 1999, today the figure is two out of three, Anderson said.  In addition, dropout rates in that time have dropped by 14 percent. 

"It is amazing what happens when everybody comes to the table," said Anderson.
She added that the academy will be looking for similar progress in math skills in the years ahead. 

Denver, Colo.: Afterschool Collaboration Teams City, Schools, United Way
The City of Denver works closely with local schools on a variety of projects, according to Maxine Quintana of the Mayor's Office for Education and Children.

Among the most visible of these is the Lights On After School Initiative, which teams the city and school district with Mile High United Way and the Denver Public Schools Foundation.

The city's goal in working with its partners is to make high-quality afterschool programs available to every school-aged child in Denver. 

With a $250,000 investment in Lights On After School, the Office for Education and Children leverages $1.6 million for afterschool programs in the city through the partnership.

The initiative awards grants to schools on a competitive basis and was able to fund every school that applied in 2004-05, according to Quintana.

"We have afterschool programs in almost every elementary and middle school in the city," she said. "That's a tribute to the power of this partnership."

But Lights On After School is not only about the quantity of programs; it's also about program quality.

The Office for Education and Children has worked closely with Denver Public Schools to develop quality standards for Lights On programs, as well as a training program for afterschool providers.

The partners also have developed accountability standards and have just completed the third year of an evaluation of several middle school sites.

Among the results: students who regularly attended comprehensive afterschool programs scored higher on standardized tests and had better school attendance and fewer behavioral problems than their nonparticipating peers. 

Hartford, Conn.: Commission Tackles the Challenge of Getting More Students to College
In January 2004, Hartford Mayor Eddie A. P?rez convened a special commission of school, community and higher education leaders. Its charge: to get more local students to go to college.

Specifically, the commission was asked to come up with a plan for increasing by 25 percent the number of students in Hartford schools who go on to higher education. 

The commission's first big challenge was getting good data on how many college-bound students there already were in Hartford.

Kelvin Rold?n, who serves as special assistant to the mayor and director of community initiatives, explained that school figures showed that as many as 77 percent of Hartford students said they intended to go to college.

However, the commission's analysis found that only 390 of the 790 graduating members of the Class of 2003 (49.4 percent) had actually gone on to college, and just 160 of these students were at four-year institutions.

"We realized pretty soon that the goal of increasing these numbers by 25 percent was fairly modest," Rold?n said. 

The members of the commission spent 90 days conducting research and engaging in discussions with students, parents, teachers and national experts.

Among its recommendations to the mayor were that Hartford schools needed to implement a college preparatory curriculum for all students and that students should receive "comprehensive college counseling."

One result of the recommendations is that each high school in the city now has a specialized college counselor.

In addition, students at all grade levels now participate in early college awareness activities that include visits to area college campuses by fifth-grade classes. 

Rold?n said the city has just started making these and other changes, but there are already some positive results. Early this fall, for example, the city reported a 15-percent increase in students applying for and being accepted at four-year colleges.

Conclusion
"Local elected officials around the country are demonstrating that local governments can make a positive difference in improving schools," reported Audrey Hutchinson and Denise Van Wyngaardt in their NLC 'lessons learned' report, "Stronger Schools, Stronger Cities" (available at www.nlc.org/iyef).

They know "they have an important stake in the success or failure of local schools" to support not only student success, but also "quality of life, economic development and a strong citizenry."