School-community partnerships help Cedar Rapids students improve grades, attendance

CEDAR RAPIDS — Community partners are working with Cedar Rapids students to help them improve their grades and school attendance and reduce the number of student disciplinary referrals and suspensions.

The Cedar Rapids Community School District began tracking data last year on how community partnerships help students and what other help might be needed.

Justin Blietz, a culture and climate transformation director for the district, said the data is showing that community partners are serving the right students and are beginning to narrow the gap between students served and the district average in disciplinary referrals and attendance.

The Youth Peace Project, a program of Kids First Law Center, decreased participants’ major disciplinary referrals by 44 percent. It provides services to students using restorative practices to resolve conflict between students or between students and staff.

Restorative justice is a way to restore relationships with dialogue when harm has occurred. Participants then identify a solution and create a path forward.

Beyond the Bell, which provides after-school mentoring and academic support to students, reduced participant suspensions by 88 percent.

Empowering Youths of Iowa, which helps high school students improve grades, decreased failing grades of participants from 44 percent to 30 percent.

Data also indicates Black, brown and biracial students participating in the African American Achievement Program have a higher sense of belonging than their peers, Blietz said.

And Leaders Believers Achievers Foundation program participants have improved their school attendance.

The Leaders Believers Achievers Foundation is a local nonprofit that started as an after-school basketball program and is dedicated to fostering youth leadership. Today, it also is an in-school and after-school program that connects students to mentors.

This year, community partners are serving 1,151 students — or 7 percent of the district’s enrollment. The partnerships cost $757 per student. Fifty-nine percent of students involved in community partnerships are non-white, and 23 percent are students with Individualized Education Plans.

Funding for community partnerships comes from varied sources, including funds for students at risk of academic failure or in danger of dropping out.

Partners include sponsors, donors, volunteers and strategic, collaborative partners in two categories: equity partners and mental health partners.

Other community partners are:

The data is helping the district and community partners plan for and adapt to meet students’ needs in real time, Blietz said.

District officials and community partners also are working together to better understand barriers to learning.

Stephanie Neff, community partnerships supervisor, said community partners often have a “big vision” for what they want to achieve. Narrowing down that vision can help the district pinpoint data that shows whether that community partner is making an impact, she said.

The district formalized its community partnership process in 2017 because building principals were being inundated with requests to offer services to students. In 2018, the district began aligning proposals with student needs.

The district now is accepting requests for proposals from partners to help with summer learning loss recovery.

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