Community Solutions Action Plan: Jacksonville, Florida PART ONE: COMMUNITY OVERVIEW According to the U.S.

Census Bureau, Jacksonville is the most populous city in Florida (almost 900,000 residents) and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States (840 square miles). Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) is the 5th largest school district in Florida and the 22nd largest in the nation, currently serving approximately122,000 students in 170 regular-attendance schools. Jacksonville is located in northeast Florida on the banks of the St. Johns River, about 25 miles south of the Georgia state line and about 340 miles north of Miami. Harbor improvements since the late 19th century have made Jacksonville a major military and civilian deep-water port. Its location on the St. Johns River, the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Atlantic Ocean enables two U.S. Navy bases and the Port of Jacksonville, Florida's third largest seaport. Significant factors in the local economy include services such as banking, insurance, healthcare and logistics. As with much of Florida, tourism is important to the Jacksonville area, particularly tourism related to golf. The PGA Tour, which organizes the main professional golf tournaments in the U.S., is headquartered in the suburb of Ponte Vedra Beach where it holds The Players Championship every year. Jacksonville is also the proud home of the National Football Leagues Jacksonville Jaguars, and it is the equally proud home of four institutions of higher education: the University of North Florida, Jacksonville University, Florida State College at Jacksonville, and Edward Waters College. In addition, the University of Florida at Gainesville is close enough to Jacksonville (approximately 60 miles away) to encourage a significant relationship among educators and change agents. An example is the recent partnership between Edward Waters College and the University of Floridas Promise Neighborhood Research Consortium, whose mission is to develop community-based research initiatives that explore the impact of evidence-based policies, programs, and practices in high-poverty communities. According to the U.S. Census Bureaus data for 2010, Duval County (synonymous with Jacksonville as a result of city-county consolidation in 1968) has a population of 864,263, 60.9% of whom are white, 29.5% are Black, and 7.6% are of Hispanic or Latino origin. One fourth (24.5%) of those residents are under the age of 18, and more than 7% are under the age of 5. A breakdown of the population by age and gender as of 2009 is provided in Table 1. Table 1: Duval County Population by Age and Gender Female Total % % Total % Total % Male Female Duval Florida 32,347 65,827 7.6 6.3 7.2 59,575 120,920 13.0 12.7 13.3 63,196 129,413 15 13.5 14.2 129,270 245,085 28.3 27.7 28.0 123,010 235,785 25.8 26.3 26 29,970 53,975 5.4 6.4 5.0 29,997 48,557 4.2 6.4 5.3

Age <5 5-14 15-24 25-44 45-64 65-74 >74

Male 33,480 61,345 66,217 124,815 112,775 24,005 18,580

6.0 12.1 12.8 25.1 26.4 8.6 9.0

Because of its large, diverse area, Jacksonville is divided into six health zones based on zip codes. This structure was established to increase statistical reliability of data, for focused program planning, for surveillance of health indicators, and to ensure confidentiality of data. In terms of demographics, Health Zone 1 (the urban core) contains the largest number of minority residents in all of Jacksonville, with a minority population of 83%. Health Zone 4 has the next highest minority population (32.6%), and Health Zones 3 and 6 have the lowest percent of minority residents. Census data indicate that zip codes in Health Zone 1 have the lowest average household income ($21,815) and the highest percent of the population living below the poverty level (26%). Jacksonvilles greatest strength lies in a recent understanding among its community members that the citys problems are everyones responsibility. We continue to see clear evidence of increasing collaboration and community involvement in educational issues and support for school system initiatives. Just after his inauguration in August of 2011, Jacksonvilles mayor demonstrated his intent to become a champion for public education by appointing the citys first education commissioner. Agencies such as the United Way of Northeast Florida, the Jacksonville Childrens Commission, and the Early Learning Coalition of Duval have established strong, effective programs that complement and supplement those offered by the public schools. Under leadership from the Duval County Public Schools, a team of partners from the City of Jacksonville, local businesses, academic institutions, nonprofits, parents, and other community members have approved a comprehensive charter that addresses the improvement of reading skills for students in grades PreK-12, with a critical focus on PreK-3. Teachers and administrators in Duval County Public Schools have begun to understand that they have help and support in their efforts to see that all children read on grade level by the end of third grade, earn a high school diploma, and are prepared for a successful, productive future. Among our greatest challenges are those related to the citys size and the diversity of its population. For example, while communication across and within agencies has certainly improved over the past decade, we have a great deal of room for improvement. Of particular difficulty is the coordination of efforts across agencies so that they support and complement each other instead of creating a duplication of services and initiatives. We also face an enormous challenge in making sure that critical information is provided efficiently to appropriate populations and in providing follow-up support to make certain that the target populations put the information to effective use. Our practices for sharing data and engaging in collaborative examination of data are rudimentary, and our systems for evaluating the effectiveness of programs and initiatives are too often underdeveloped or nonexistent. Challenges also include (1) finding a workable model for scaling up successful practices; (2) sustaining projects as their leaders, implementers, and funding sources change; and (3) finding resource-effective ways to attend to the needs of individuals as well as groups in Jacksonvilles disparate neighborhoods. Each of these challenges contributes to the more visible ones that are covered by the media and are on the minds of parents, educators, and community members across the city: the persistent reading achievement gap among children who live in different sections of the city and a consistently low graduation rate, both of which the Duval County Public Schools and its partners are working hard to improve. PART TWO: ASSURANCE #1, THE PROBLEM The State of Florida requires annual competency testing of students in grades 3-10 in reading as measured by the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). Results for the state and for Duval 2

County (Jacksonville) for grades 3 and 4 are provided in Tables 2 and 3, respectively. As the data indicate, Duval consistently scores below the state by 2-4 percentage points at both grade levels. Table 2 Grade 3 FCAT Reading Scores, 2011 Administration: Percent of Students Receiving Minimum Acceptable Score of 3 or Higher 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 72% 66% 70% 68% 69% 69% Duval County 75% 69% 72% 71% 72% 72% Florida Table 3 Grade 4 FCAT Reading Scores, 2011 Administration: Percent of Students Receiving Minimum Acceptable Score of 3 or Higher 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 66% 66% 68% 72% 68% 67% Duval County 68% 68% 70% 74% 72% 71% Florida As the disaggregated data in Table 4 shows, Duval Countys White, Non-Hispanic students in Grade 3 score on par with students across the state in terms of the percent who earn an FCAT score of 3 or higher, a score that indicates that 83% of those students read on grade level or are more advanced. However, the data also indicates sharp differences when viewed according to students who receive lunch subsidies, who are English language learners, who have specific learning disabilities, and who are either African-American or Hispanic. Table 4 Grade 3 FCAT Reading Scores, 2011 Administration: Disaggregated Percent of Students Scoring 3 or Higher Total White, Black or Female Male English Free or Specific Students NonAfricanLanguage Reduced Learning Hispanic American Learner Lunch Disability 69% 83% 56% 74% 66% 25% 60% 36% 72% 83% 56% 76% 68% 39% 63% 27%

Duval Florida

Disaggregated results for students in Grade 4 are provided in Table 5. In addition to that data, please note that 25% of the 4th grade students who received free/reduced lunch benefits and 27% of 4th grade Black students earned an FCAT Reading score of 1 (the lowest possible score on the test), indicating critically low reading performance. That percent rises to an alarming 57% for English Language Learners (based on a population of approximately 10,000 ELL students in the district). Table 5 Grade 4 FCAT Reading Scores, 2011 Administration: Disaggregated Percent of Students Scoring 3 or Higher Total White, Black or Female Male English Free or Specific Students NonAfricanLanguage Reduced Learning Hispanic American Learner Lunch Disability 67% 80% 53% 70% 64% 23% 56% 24% 71% 81% 55% 74% 68% 38% 63% 28% 3

Duval Florida

Section 1002.69, Florida Statutes, requires the Florida Department of Education to adopt a statewide screening that provides objective data concerning each childs readiness for kindergarten and his/her progress in reaching Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) performance standards. The Florida Kindergarten Readiness Screener (FLKRS) fulfills the requirement, and resulting data are used to determine the readiness of all children entering public school kindergarten for the first time, to assess VPK performance, to inform classroom instruction, and to provide development progress information for parents. FLKRS data from the fall of 2011 is as follows. The data was collected during the first 30 instructional days of the school year. Table 6: Florida Kindergarten Readiness Screener (FLKRS), Fall 2011 Number Not Yet Demonstrating Emerging or Demonstrating Reported Readiness for Kindergarten Progressing Toward Readiness Readiness 9,619 13% 49% 38% Duval 9% 38% 53% Florida 187,044 For more than a decade, Duval County has consistently been among those school districts with the lowest graduation rates in the state, despite the growth that has occurred over the past several years as a result of focused attention from DCPS. Without widespread, collective intervention from all stakeholders, an extended trend line indicates an increasing gap between state and district graduation rates over time.

Comparison of Graduation Rates 2001-2010

90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Duval County Florida Linear (Duval County) Linear (Florida)

Table 7 provides attendance data for the regular school year for elementary students in Jacksonville. Table 7: Attendance for Public School Students in Jacksonville 2001-2010 Percent of Students Absent 21+ Days
2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10

Elementary

8.3%

7.8%

7.7%

7.7%

8.6%

8.8%

8.1%

8.1%

8.4%

8.5% 4

Schools 13.4% 16.7% 15.1% 17.2% 13.7% 15.5% 12.8% 12.7% 10.5% 5.9% Middle Schools 13.4% 15.8% 13.9% 4.5% 9.8% 15.3% 12.0% 9.9% 12.6% 6.0% High Schools Because of a lack of funding, DCPS was forced to suspend its summer school program in 2000. In 2010, however, 1,042 students in grades K-2 were enrolled in the Superintendents Summer Academy, which supports the maintenance of reading skills but is not tied to promotion. Also in 2010, DCPS summer school was expanded to include two programs for students with serious reading deficits. There were 828 students enrolled in Grade 3 Summer FCAT Recovery, a program that is required by the Florida DOE as a promotional opportunity for children who have scored at level 1 on the Reading Subtest of the FCAT. In addition, the Summer Reading and Math Course Recovery program enrolled 220 reading students in grades 3-5 who were not promoted on the basis of teacher judgment. In 2011, summer school for reading recovery was offered in 24 elementary schools, with a total enrollment of 5,549 students in grades K-5. As indicated in Table 8, absences during summer school in 2011 were higher for grades K (11%) and 1 (11%) than for grades 2 (9%) and 3 (7%). Table 8: Summer School Attendance for Public School Students in 2011, Grades K-3
Total SS Enrollment Male Fem Black White F/RL % of Summer School Enrollment Qualified for Free/Red Lunch Days Enrolled Days Absent

Grade K Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3

579 793 810 1659

328 545 441 948

327 383 349 705

362 552 480 1143

80 156 164 259

517 766 648 1335

89% 96% 80% 80%

17095 25182 23026 48927

1893 2860 2198 3547

Jacksonville provides a wide range of reading-related services and support to its families and children. It bears repeating that, initiated by DCPS and under the leadership of its reading specialists, a taskforce of educators and community representatives has just developed and adopted a project charter for a citywide reading initiative. Entitled Read It Forward, Jax, the plan addresses community engagement, communication among stakeholders, student attendance, summer reading instruction, and professional development as key elements in making sure that each one of Jacksonvilles public school students is able to read at or above grade level expectation. The plan emphasizes a coherent system of early care and education that aligns, integrates, and coordinates what happens from birth through third grade so children are ready to take on the learning tasks associated with fourth grade and beyond. Please visit the Read It Forward, Jax website at http://www.duvalschools.org/readitforwardjax/default.htm. The school district publishes a 127-page Comprehensive Student Support System document that outlines public school services and resources that address academic achievement at all grade levels. Examples of noteworthy services provided by the public school system and its city-wide partners are as follows: School-based reading and literacy coaches for all public schools that consistently fall below district and state standards for reading achievement (Duval County Public Schools); 5

Truancy Centers to improve attendance and promote academic achievement (partnership among Duval County Public Schools, the State Attorneys Office, the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office, and the City of Jacksonville); Extended day programs to supplement standards-based instruction and to provide a safe and structured environment before and after school for students of working parents (partnership between the Jacksonville Childrens Commission and DCPS); Jax Kids Book Club that annually gives a set of 13 books written by local literacy specialists about places in Jacksonville to approximately 10,000 four-year-old children, along with a parent guide that offers ways to use the books in developing childrens interest and skills in reading (Jacksonville Childrens Commission); Guiding Stars of Duval that provides a rating system to help families select a quality early learning setting for their children. The Guiding Stars of Duval also offers professional development to child care workers and owners to help them improve their services (Early Learning Coalition); Success By 6, a scholarship program to encourage parents/caregivers to enroll their children in high-performing pre-school programs. Success By 6 makes quality early learning opportunities available to children of low-income families through two-year grants that fully fund the cost of early learning and engage parents in helping their children grow strong and smart. Families eligible for the grants have an income between 135 200% of the federal poverty level-- too much money for federal subsidies and too little to afford quality early learning care. The Guiding Stars rating system is used to identify the highest quality centers for inclusion in the Success By 6 program. (United Way of Northeast Florida)

Areas for which key supports and services are missing and/or unavailable include the following: Effective methods for addressing cultural differences among immigrant and refugee families who do not value education or who do not recognize the importance of education for females, for example, and for whom the concept of compulsory attendance is meaningless; Ways to ensure that all stakeholders, from low-income parents to state legislators, understand the critical role that early child care plays in the development of sound reading skills; Models to encourage meaningful family engagement, particularly among low-income parents; Strategies for making certain that the assignment to a summer learning program is matched with a childs specific needs; Quality professional development in reading for all educators, regardless of whether they are teachers, child care workers, parents, summer camp providers, or other formal/informal instructors of reading; Reading interventions that are effective over a short period of time (e.g., six-weeks summer program); Methods to ensure recording of accurate attendance data for each child and the use of that data in making instructional decisions; Ways to improve school attendance among homeless children and children in PreK-K.

Factors that contribute to the performance gaps between children from low-income families and their economically advantaged peers include a wide variety of stakeholder issues. Too little attention, too little information about what works, ineffective use of available resources, and insufficient access to otherwise available resources are all in evidence among different stakeholder groups. However, the 6

primary factors are insufficient coordination among key stakeholders and actors, inadequate resources, and the mismatch between interventions and individual student needs. Of particular difficulty is the coordination of efforts across multiple agencies that may or may not communicate with each other on a regular basis. This lack of coordination too often leads to a duplication of services and initiatives and the ineffective use of resources that are available to us. In a city as large as Jacksonville, it is difficult to match interventions to individual childrens needs, and the city is no different from other large urban districts in terms of the budgetary shortfalls that result in inadequate resources. Both the City of Jacksonville and Duval County Public Schools have lost critical staff members and have been forced to eliminate or modify effective programs, supports, and services for children. For example, Jacksonvilles public school system struggles to cope with budget cuts from the Florida legislature that total more than $150 million over the past four years. PART TWO: ASSURANCE #2, DESIRED OUTCOMES The goals, targets, and milestones for Jacksonvilles CSAP are taken from the Read It Forward, Jax charter and from the Duval County Public Schools Strategic Plan. Since both documents are under development/revision at this time, the CSAP targets and milestones will undoubtedly change to reflect the communitys work. CSAP Goal: All Duval County Public School students will read on grade level or above by the end of third grade. 2013 Targets 1.0 By 2013, the percent of K-2 students who receive a score of 75% or higher on the third administration of the FAIR test will increase from baseline 2011 of 71% to 74%. Milestones 1.1 Bridging the Pre-K Gap: Through collaboration between the Early Learning Coalition, DCPS, and other supporting agencies, participants will work together to build/share common curricula, strategies for increasing overall student readiness, and necessary support for all eligible students prior to entering kindergarten. 1.2 Parent Academy of Literacy: Parents of children enrolled in VPK programs in Duval County will participate in ten three-hour learning sessions that will teach them specific methods for supporting and encouraging early literacy in their homes. 2.0 By 2013, the percent of third grade students who score at level 1 on the State-mandated reading test will decrease from 21% (baseline 2011) to no more than 19%. Milestones 2.1 All DCPS novice teachers of grades PreK-3will participate in embedded professional development on effective reading instruction. 2.2 All DCPS teachers of grades PreK-5 will receive intensive professional development training on using FAIR data to make sound instructional decisions. 2.3 Public/private partnership funding will provide books for students from lowincome families to take home for independent reading. Funds will also establish 7

classroom libraries in the most challenged public schools and provide hardware technology equipment to enable TV Textbooks in homes without internet access. 3.0 By 2013, the number of students in grades K-5 who are absent more than 20 days during the school year will decrease from baseline 2011 by a minimum of 5%. Milestones 3.1 DCPS, the Early Learning Coalition, and other Jacksonville partners will work together to identify a longitudinal system for collecting accurate daily attendance data for each student. 3.2 A community awareness plan will be developed and employed to ensure that all parents and other partners/stakeholders understand the critical importance of attendance in early learning programs, kindergarten, and elementary school. 4.0 By 2013, the district-wide promotion rate for children in grades K-5 will increase from a 2011 baseline of 96% to 96.5%. Milestones All 2013 milestones apply. 5.0 By 2013, the percent of positive responses on the DCPS Climate Survey regarding effective communication with community members/agencies will increase to at least 90% over 2011 baseline of 86%. Milestones 5.1 Read It Forward Community Literacy Learning Events: Through a variety of venues (e.g., Title I Parent University, neighborhood meetings, media coverage), partners will provide parents and other stakeholders with a deeper understanding of how they can play a more comprehensive role in increasing childrens performance in reading. 5.2 DCPS will hold Reading Conversations with PreK-3 parents four times each year to help them understand their childrens progress in reading. 5.3 A FAIR newsletter will be sent to parents of children in grades PreK-2 that will contain specific reading strategies for parents to use at home with their children. 6.0 By 2013, DCPS will develop a minimum of five additional Strategic Partnerships with prominent individual, organizations, and businesses in Jacksonville over baseline 2011. Milestones 6.1 DCPS will employ a Director for Community and Family Engagement. 7.0 By 2013, the achievement gap between subgroups of students as defined by NCLB will be reduced from 2011 baseline of 22 percentile points to no more than 18 percentile points. Milestones 7.1 DCPS will engage Lutheran Childrens Services and the school systems ELL teachers and administrators in strategy-building sessions to address the specific attendance and learning needs for refugee children. 7.2 DCPS will ensure that all Read It Forward, Jax communication is translated or otherwise made available for Jacksonvilles ELL parents. 2015 Targets 1.0 By 2015, the percent of K-2 students who receive a score of 75% or higher on the third administration of the FAIR test will increase to at least 77%. 2.0 By 2015, the percent of third grade students who score at level 1 on the State-mandated reading test will decrease to no more than 17%. 8

3.0

By 2015, the number of students in grades K-5 who are absent more than 20 days during the school year will decrease from 2013 by a minimum of 5%. 4.0 By 2015, the district-wide promotion rate for children in grades K-5 will increase from a 2011 baseline of 96% to at least 97%. 5.0 By 2015, 100% of the districts out-of-field reading teachers will complete the required reading competencies within the specified timeframe until they have achieved the K-12 Reading Endorsement. 6.0 By 2015, the percent of positive responses on the DCPS Climate Survey regarding effective communication with community members/agencies will increase to at least 92% over 2011 baseline of 86%. 7.0 By 2015, DCPS will develop a minimum of ten additional Strategic Partnerships with prominent individual, organizations, and businesses in Jacksonville over baseline 2011. 8.0 By 2015, the achievement gap between subgroups of students as defined by NCLB will be reduced from 2011 baseline of 22 percentile points to no more than 16 percentile points. 2017 Targets 1.0 By 2017, the percent of K-2 students who receive a score of 75% or higher on the third administration of the FAIR test will increase to at least 80%. 2.0 By 2017, the percent of third grade students who score at level 1 on the State-mandated reading test will decrease to no more than 15%. 3.0 By 2017, the number of students in grades K-5 who are absent more than 20 days during the school year will decrease from 2015 by a minimum of 5%. 4.0 By 2017, the district-wide promotion rate for children in grades K-5 will increase from a 2011 baseline of 96% to at least 97.5%. 5.0 By 2017, 100% of the districts out-of-field reading teachers will complete the required reading competencies within the specified timeframe until they have achieved the K-12 Reading Endorsement. 6.0 By 2017, the percent of positive responses on the DCPS Climate Survey regarding effective communication with community members/agencies will increase to at least 94% over 2011 baseline of 86%. 7.0 By 2017, DCPS will develop a minimum of fifteen additional Strategic Partnerships with prominent individual, organizations, and businesses in Jacksonville over baseline 2011. 8.0 By 2017, the achievement gap between subgroups of students as defined by NCLB will be reduced from 2011 baseline of 22 percentile points to no more than 14 percentile points. 2020 Targets 1.0 By 2020, the percent of K-2 students who receive a score of 75% or higher on the third administration of the FAIR test will increase to at least 83%. 2.0 By 2020, the percent of third grade students who score at level 1 on the State-mandated reading test will decrease from baseline of 21% in 2011to no more than 13%. 3.0 By 2020, the number of students in grades K-5 who are absent more than 20 days during the school year will decrease from 2017 by a minimum of 5%. 4.0 By 2020, the district-wide promotion rate for children in grades K-5 will increase from a 2011 baseline of 96% to at least 98%. 5.0 By 2020, 100% of the districts out-of-field reading teachers will complete the required reading competencies within the specified timeframe until they have achieved the K-12 Reading Endorsement. 6.0 By 2020, the percent of positive responses on the DCPS Climate Survey regarding effective 9

7.0 8.0

communication with community members/agencies will increase to at least 95% over 2011 baseline of 86%. By 2020, DCPS will develop a minimum of twenty additional Strategic Partnerships with prominent individual, organizations, and businesses in Jacksonville over baseline 2011. By 2020, the achievement gap between subgroups of students as defined by NCLB will be reduced from 2011 baseline of 22 percentile points to no more than 12 percentile points.

PART TWO: ASSURANCE #3, STRATEGY Having struggled to reduce an achievement gap in reading for far too many years, Jacksonville has developed a number of interventions, activities, programs, and initiatives to address the issues associated with reading skills development, particularly among children from low-income families. However, we have never before engaged a broad representation of the Jacksonville community in collaboration to design a formal charter that intends to involve the entire city-wide community in helping children learn to read. Read It Forward, Jax is the result of that ground-breaking effort. It is based on the research that drives the Annie E. Casey Foundations recommendations and call to action outlined in EARLY WARNING! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters and is supported by the research outlined in Double Jeopardy: How Third-grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation. At present, Read It Forward, Jax is a chartera definition of the problem, an overview of the commitment we expect from our city in resolving the problem, and a brief description of the ways in which we intend to take action as a community. The next stepthe step we are working on nowis to flesh out the charter with specifics so everyone knows exactly what the problem is, what can be done, what will be done, what resources are necessary, and what we expect the results to be within a specified timeframe. As the appended Management Plan shows, our planning structure is headed by four critical community leaders: Ed Pratt-Dannals, Superintendent of Schools; Connie Hodges, President of the United Way of Northeast Florida, Frank Denton, Editor of Jacksonvilles mainstream newspaper, the Florida TimesUnion, and Donnie Horner, Education Commissioner for the City of Jacksonville. We call this group of well-connected, education-savvy child advocates our Sustainability Team. It will be their job to make certain that Read It Forward Jax gains and sustains momentum, that the initiatives purpose and its results are persistently familiar to the community, and that fiscal support is identified through avenues such as grant programs, philanthropic partnerships, and business partnerships. The Management Plan further indicates the establishment of three broad-based Solutions Teams that will define the initiatives content through research to replicate and develop promising approaches and through data collection and analysis to identify those programs that should be strengthened, expanded, or brought to scale. The three Solutions Teams are (1) Summer Learning, (2) School Attendance, and (3) School Readiness. Their ultimate goal is to define a coordinated, sequenced plan that will lead to reading proficiency among all of Jacksonvilles children by the end of third grade. School Attendance 10

What we have in place for expansion: DCPS has recently adopted an Early Warning and Response System that is used for early identification and longitudinal tracking of students in grades 6-12 who exhibit the characteristics that predict future academic difficulty. Resources will be used to examine the feasibility of expanding the system to include the early identification of elementary school students (perhaps as early as age 4) who indicate probable need for supplemental reading assistance based on the systems predictive characteristics. Attention will also be given to expanding elements in the United Ways research-based Achievers for Life program, which emphasizes the importance of community interaction to support educational achievement for at-risk students. Particular attention will be paid to identifying effective parent involvement models. What we want to import/replicate: Jacksonville is very interested in Baltimores Attendance Works program. At present, DCPS reports only average daily attendance and has no formal definition for chronic absenteeism at the elementary grades. We understand the importance of collecting and reporting accurate daily attendance data and the need for community-wide appreciation of the vital importance of regular school attendance, as well as the value of regular attendance in early learning/PreK programs. What we must invent/develop: Jacksonville is in need of effective strategies to increase parent awareness of the research that associates chronic absenteeism with school failure. Our intent is to design a focus group/neighborhood attendance advocate approach that will (1) determine the reasons why children of low-income families are typically absent from Pre-K-K, in particular, and to use appropriate resources to address those concerns in the citys high-poverty areas. The focus group process will help us deal with two attendance problems: first, it will help inform parents about the link between attendance and childrens academic and social development; second, it will help enable educators to identify (and then address) the real reasons for chronic absenteeism among children from low-income familiesinstead of just guessing at them. Former focus group participants from each neighborhood will then be responsible for door-to-door interviews of their neighbors to gather further information about the underlying reasons for absenteeism and to help pass on the word about the importance of school/pre-school attendance for childrens future. School Readiness What we have in place for expansion: City partners (including the University of North Floridas Florida Institute of Education) and the Early Learning Coalition have established the Guiding Stars of Duval. This system gives families data-driven information to help them select a quality early learning setting for their children, and it offers professional development for child care workers and owners to help them improve their services. The centers are assessed objectively and reliably every three years to determine their Guiding Star Rating. The rating system works in tandem with local initiatives such as the Success By 6 grant program sponsored by United Way, a two-year scholarship program for threeyear-old children that provides access to early education for working families in high-performing early learning centers. In spite of those efforts, an estimated 20-25% of Jacksonvilles four-year-olds do not enroll in an early learning program at all, and many continue to choose an early learning setting based on its location alone.

11

The Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition is responsible for planning and implementing programs to ensure that children are born healthy and enter school ready to learn. Healthy Start provides services such as emotional support and counseling, case management, home visits, substance abuse counseling, healthy eating classes and materials, and child safety classes. The Coalition was recently approved for funding under the federal Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program to establish a Nurse-Family Partnership program in Jacksonvilles Health Zone 1. The Coalition also provides training new fathers (Boot Camp for New Dads), as well as a prenatal education and mentoring program (the Birthing Project). To help parents and caregivers make the most of teaching and nurturing their child, the United Way of Northeast Florida offers free, interactive workshops as part of the national Born Learning public engagement campaign. These workshops help parents, grandparents, and other caregivers explore ways to enhance their children's development. All parents are eligible to participate, including those who have been court ordered to attend a parenting class, parents with disabilities, and those with low literacy levels. The program provides information on the stages of development, nutrition, attachment, early literacy, and the importance of fathers in their childrens development. Additional child development topics such as discipline, effective communication, and how children learn are also offered through Born Learning. Expansion plans will address specific needs in Health Zone 1. Our city is also proud of and intends to expand the Jax Kids Book Club, managed by the Jacksonville Childrens Commission and funded through public-private partnerships. The goal is to encourage families to instill literacy as a core value in the home and increase family awareness of the importance of reading with their children every day. Each Book Club member receives a reusable book bag filled with a set of twelve locally-written, age-appropriate books with topics based on various historical, geographical and cultural aspects in Jacksonville. Examples of titles are as follows: We Say, Go, Jaguars! Were Going to the Jacksonville Museums! We Salute Our Military! Were Going to the Jacksonville Zoo! Im Going to Kindergarten!

Approximately 11,000 new members join the program each year, and they come from all areas of Jacksonville, The requirements to join the program are simply that a child is four years-old, lives in Duval County, and will enter kindergarten the following school year. Since the program's inception in 2004, more than 75,000 four-year-olds have participated in the book club and have collectively received nearly one million free books. The Jax Kids Book Club is currently sponsored by Florida BLUE/Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, CSX Transportation, Jacksonville Jaguars, LLC, JM Family Enterprises/Southeast Toyota Distributors, LLC, Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust, Inc./River City Marketplace, The Boeing Company, The Early Learning Coalition of Duval, The GATE Foundation and Regency Centers. What we want to import/replicate: In conjunction with the New Town Success Zone (Jacksonvilles Promise Neighborhood), an Early Head Start site was established in 2010 by the Jacksonville Urban League on the campus of Edward Waters College (Health Zone 1).We are searching for effective models 12

to improve and expand Title I Pre-Kindergarten programs offered by the public schools, particularly in low-income neighborhoods, using scientifically-proven programs as models for reform. The citys intent is to open a Head Start Program on the campus of the newly restructured James Weldon Johnson Academic and Learning Center (ACT), a former DCPS middle school that re-opened this school year as a community-linked school offering full-service school advantages to families and hands-on learning opportunities for Edward Waters College students who plan to enter the field of education. This new Head Start program will be the first one offered on a Jacksonville public school campus and will give low-income parents the advantage of one stop shopping by providing free services (e.g., behavioral help for children, individual and family counseling, parenting classes, basic needs assistance, mental health resources, and access to community resources) for parents and children in the same building as the childrens early learning program is held. The city expects that the location of a full service school in the same building with a Head Start program will encourage parents to enroll their children in a quality early learning program and will help make it easier for children to attend on a regular basis. The Academic Learning Center is located in Jacksonvilles Health Zone 1. What we must invent/develop: One of the primary undertakings of Read It Forward, Jax will be to address the communication gap between Duval County Public Schools and state-sponsored Pre-K programs to ensure curricular articulation and shared teaching strategies that will promote academic excellence and affective health. This initiative will include the creation of common professional development opportunities to emphasize the importance shared expectations for all teachers of preschool children. We also understand the critical need to broaden our partnerships to include the Florida legislature as part of our initiative. Our focus will be to help them understand and protect/promote sound, research-based early learning and school readiness issues under legislative consideration. Considerable thought and planning will be given to the development of an ongoing venue for communication between Jacksonville (or coalitions of Florida cities) and the Florida Legislature. The venues design will promote proactive and comprehensive communication with a shared, research-driven vision to ensure that all children learn and succeed. Summer Learning What we have in place for expansion: As noted earlier in the CSAP, Duval County Public Schools was unable to offer remedial/recovery summer school for almost a decade due to a lack of funding from the Florida Department of Education. In 2009, however, DCPS initiated the Superintendents Summer Academy, a hands-on summer program for students in its most challenged schools who are in need of reading maintenance over the summer months. In recognition of the continuous increase in student achievement after their participation in the summer program, in 2011 the Wallace Foundation formed a partnership with DCPS and the Jacksonville Childrens Commission to expand and strengthen the Superintendents Summer Academy. The program will be increased from six sites in 2011 to eight sites in 2012. Summer programs for recovery were resumed in 2010, during which time DCPS reinstated two summer programs for recovery: one for students who score at level one on the reading subtest of the FCAT (a program mandated by the Florida Department of Education) and one for those students who fail a grade because of teacher judgment. Summer school programs for recovery will continue in 2012, and the 13

initiative will carry with it the mandate that children who do not demonstrate reading readiness in grades K-3 must attend the summer reading program for all 29 days in order to be promoted to the next grade for the 2012-13 school year. In addition, the school system will continue to offer ESOL Summer Maintenance for its English Language Learners. It is a non-promotional program for the purpose of maintaining English skills learned during the regular school year. It is open to any child who was enrolled in DCPS during the school year prior to the last day of school. If an ELL student is retained, he or she is provided with appropriate language support during the regular summer school program for recovery. Changes in services are under expansion to serve Jacksonvilles refugee children, in particular. While most Florida cities receive refugees primarily from Cuba and Haiti, Jacksonville is a primary resettlement site for refugees that arrive through the conventional Department of State system. As such, Jacksonville receives diverse refugees including Burmese, Bhutanese, Afghans, Iraqis, Somalians, and Romanian Gypsies, all of whom speak distinctly different languages and come from cultures that may not understand the value of formal education for their children. Jacksonville currently serves more than 30 different immigrant and refugee cultures in its ELL programapproximately 10,000 children. The Jacksonville Childrens Commission has planned, developed, and implemented a variety of afterschool and summer camp programs that offer a mix of activities focusing on learning, recreation, and cultural opportunities for children from high-poverty families. In 2010 the Childrens Commission issued its Out-of-School Time Re-Design plan for system building that was developed by a redesign group consisting of twenty public school administrators, funding partners, and education advocates. Because of the Mayors commitment to outside-school learning and the city leaders focus on strategies for crime reduction, the Commission was able to offer 92 summer camp programs in 2010. The following changes are proposed in the redesign plans Phase 1, which was first implemented in 2011-12. Realization of a summer school/summer camp program that is partially funded by the Wallace Foundation and that is the citys first example of a program for which funding is blended between DCPS and community agencies; Adoption of local standards based on the Florida Afterschool Network (FAN) standards for quality summer and after-school programs; Provision of focused, sustained professional development for summer school/after-school leaders and youth workers to ensure quality interaction and engagement with children; and Implementation of evidence-based programs in all summer school sites.

Expectation is that Redesign Phase 2 will noticeably improve and expand upon Phase 1 as a result of technical and fiscal support that was recently committed from the Wallace Foundation to support the citys summer school and after school programs. What we want to import/replicate: We are in need of a student tracking data system that would help decision makers redeploy resources to meet student needs as the student/family population shifts over time. The Childrens Commission recently received GIS data-mapping services from the Kirwan Institute, the cost of which was funded by the Jessie Ball duPont Foundation. This series of maps will provide decision-makers with information to enable expansion into areas with targeted needs that go 14

beyond socio-economic status. For example, Map C-7 in the series provides a visual representation of the percentage of students who were retained in grade (school year 2008-09) and the percentage of students in respective schools who attended after-school programs for 30 days or more. The overlay of both data sets allows leaders to determine the degree to which non-promotion rates in after-school programs coincide with participation rates. (Map C-7 is attached for reference.) CSAP leaders are considering the potential use of a similar system to track absences and engagement in reading support programs. We are also considering the use of population mapping to develop a longitudinal tracking system for children who attend early learning programs, with the overall intent to determine their relative success once they enter kindergarten and progress through school. In addition, the system may be helpful in asset mapping and in the identification of outliers, positive deviance, trends, and anomalies that will inform our work. What we must invent/develop: While Jacksonville has a multitude of summer schools and camps, the city lacks experiential, hands-on programs that will engage students through enrichment activities and experiences that are too often unavailable to children of poverty and are critical to their cultural and social development: e.g., cultural and educational field trips, arts, music, dance, storybook hour, and gardening. The Planning Teams will address the development of a career awareness program that will help children understand what the future can hold for them, to set high expectations for themselves, and to understand what they will need to do to reach their dreams. The teams will also develop a system for ensuring that each child is enrolled in the summer program that best addresses his or her needs, whether those needs are for reading support, for maintenance of skills, for acceleration and enhancement of learning, or for physical or social development.

PART TWO: ASSURANCE #4, CONNECTING FOR SYNERGY Education advocates in Jacksonville are increasingly aware of the need for the citys wide variety of programs and activities to fit together, support each other, and build upon each other if we are to make a positive change in childrens growthregardless of whether that growth is physical, mental, or emotional. Toward that end, Jacksonvilles CSAP is based on the city-adopted comprehensive reading initiative, Read It Forward, Jax. The initiative was developed under the initiative and leadership of Duval County Public Schools, and it has at its heart the intent that all city stakeholders must play their indispensable roles as co-producers of good outcomes for our children. City leaders expect the initiative to become the blueprint that guides and informs all other reading programs in the city, providing goals, objectives, milestones, and research for sound, cohesive growth. It is a clear example of commitment from the community to work with the school system as a city-wide team to connect and support initiatives across Jacksonville in a united effort to improve our childrens chance for a productive future. An equally important example of community focus and connection across initiatives is evident in the New Town Success Zone (NTSZ), Jacksonvilles Promise Neighborhood. We have applied for federal funding under the Promise Neighborhoods planning program twice, but we have not been granted funding despite scoring less than a point from the cutoff score during the first application period. 15

However, we have continued to move forward with our plans under the leadership of Edward Waters College, and we have made some noteworthy strides in improving the quality of life in Health Zone 1. Community partners (e.g., Boys and Girls Club, Jacksonville Sheriffs Office, Habijax, the Jacksonville Childrens Commission, the Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition, a network of local hospitals, United Way of Northeast Florida, and the University of Florida, among others) are committed to their work in the schools and community, and they recently saw an indication of their impact when Floridas school accountability grades were released at the end of the 2010-11 school year. Raines High School, which has earned a Florida accountability grade of F for four out of the past five years (FY 2006FY2010) and was subject to closure by the Florida Department of Education, earned a grade of D for 2011 and was saved from state sanction. Please see the CSAP attachments for further examples of synergistic connections through the New Town Success Zone efforts. PART TWO: ASSURANCE #5, DATA Academic, behavioral, attendance, and demographic information for Jacksonvilles public school students is stored primarily in the Duval County Public Schools Genesis data warehouse. Data sharing agreements have been forged between DCPS and local agencies that include the United Way, the Childrens Commission, and the Early Learning Coalition. However, we understand that shared data is critical to an informed city, and discussion continues to address related problems and potential solutions. Of particular concern is the lack of reciprocal data analysis based on shared objectives. Without mutual examination of data, it will continue to be difficult to establish common solutions or refine our common problem-solving process. At present, Duval County Public Schools is piloting Social Solutions Efforts to Outcomes (ETO) software at Jackson High School to determine its suitability as a shared data system. It is deployable in the Software as a Service (SaaS) model as a secure, configurable, scalable application that can be modified by client-level administrators to meet our stakeholders need to capture and review rapid-time data through reporting systems such as Crystal Reports, Live Office for synching data with Microsoft Office products such as Excel, and the Web Intelligence (Web-I) report editor and writer. The Jackson High School pilot will provide the Planning Team with sufficient information to determine whether the ETO portal is robust enough to meet the citys needs and to what degree it will provide the projects partners with a resource to accomplish the following: Register children and adults for a variety of programs and track their individual participation and performance in each program; Track services that are provided for children and families through multiple providers; Facilitate referrals across organizations; Aggregate common service data across individuals to track group results; Benchmark performance among and across partner providers for accountability; and Create and publish key reporting dashboard reports to appropriate stakeholders.

PART TWO: ASSURANCE #6, SUCCESS AND SUSTAINABILITY

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Public accountability will be the basis for success and sustainability of the CSAP. We have carefully selected a Sustainability Team to represent four key constituencies: the Duval County Public Schools (Ed Pratt-Dannals, Superintendent), the United Way of Northeast Florida (Connie Hodges, President), Jacksonvilles media (Frank Denton, Editor of the Florida Times-Union), and the Office of the Mayor (Donnie Horner, Education Commissioner for the City of Jacksonville). Each of these highly visible, influential people will ensure that the CSAPs purposes are achieved and that progress toward achieving them is well-documented for the public and within each leaders specific sphere of responsibility. For example, Mr. Pratt-Dannals will be responsible and accountable to the Duval County School Board (who are elected officials) and to the public for CSAP progress; Ms. Hodges will be accountable to the national United Way leadership, who have a vested interest in the Campaign for Grade Level Reading; Dr. Denton has accepted responsibility for reporting progress to the community at large through the Florida Times-Union and other media connections; and Dr. Horner will be directly accountable to the Mayor of Jacksonville and the City Council, all of whom are responsible to the public electorate. Dr. Denton was selected from among all of the media representatives in Jacksonville because of his dedication to public awareness of the need for educational reform. Over approximately a years time, he was responsible for a comprehensive series of articles that focused childrens issues on Health Zone 1, entitled Hope: Raising Our Children. As the attached Management Chart indicates, the CSAP initiatives co-leaders are Katherine Leroy, Chief Academic Officer for DCPS, and Jan Morse, Director of Childhood and Youth Services for United Way of Northeast Florida. Ms. Leroy reports directly to Mr. Pratt-Dannals and oversees district leadership staff are responsible for monitoring, supporting, and improving PreK-12 reading education. Leroy and Morse will guide three CSAP Solution Teams, each of which will have a broad-based community membership and which will conduct on-going planning in the areas of summer learning, attendance, and early learning. The Solution Teams will meet as often as is necessary to move the initiative forward, but they will meet at least twice each month to address a predetermined agenda. The chairpersons of each group will each provide a monthly progress report to Ms. Morse and Ms. Leroy to inform their bi-monthly reports to the Sustainability Team. In addition to the progress report, Morse and Leroy will present the Sustainability Team with (and elicit their support for) plans for an ongoing community awareness campaign: town meetings, parent outreach activities, focus groups, media events, and newsletters, for example. Every other month, progress reports will also be provided to the public through forums that include televised School Board and City Council meetings. Partner agencies will implement self-assessment processes and data reporting as required by the project. Because sustainability hinges on improvement in student success as perceived by the community, concentrated efforts will be placed on marketing and on reporting program outcomes in formats that address stakeholders level of interest and personal agenda. For example, a report designed for presentation to the City Council may differ in content and/or format from one developed for use by parents. However, both reports will address improvements in program quality and will be based on the same relevant, reliable data. As an additional component of Jacksonvilles plan for public accountability and progress tracking, we will explore the employment of the Jacksonville Community Council Inc. (JCCI) as an accountability and public engagement partner. JCCI is a 501 (c) (3) organization with more than three decades of 17

expertise in citizen engagement, facilitation, consensus building, independent research, and public policy advocacy and more than two decades of experience with community indicators to assess the quality of life in Jacksonville and Northeast Florida. JCCI was conceived by leaders of the Jacksonville community and established in 1975 to serve as a nonpartisan entity that could maintain citizen involvement in local government and community affairs and as a catalyst for community decisions. In the role of trusted, neutral convener, JCCI will bring stakeholders, resource experts, citizens, service providers and public officials together to examine and find solutions for the communitys reading issues. JCCI will seek and present extensive community feedback, making certain that traditionally unheard voices are represented in the decision-making process for CSAP implementation. In seeking community input, JCCI will explore the experiences and perspectives of essential groups who are affected by student failure, as well as those who could contribute to solutions, through a series of focus group sessions on professional development policies and practices, obstacles to student success, and parent and community involvement within the three focus areas of the CSAP. As is typical of JCCI initiatives, the process will be supported by a protocol that continuously revisits, reviews and revises strategies for success. JCCI has received national recognition as a model for citizen engagement. Suzanne Morse of the Pew Partnership for Civic Change has stated, In my judgment, this is the preeminent non-partisan civic organization in the country. New and re-directed public, private, philanthropic dollars: In 2011, the Wallace Foundation made a four-year grant award of approximately $300,000 to the City of Jacksonville under the Building Out-Of-School Time (OST) Systems program. The primary purposes of the project are to establish accountability standards that are based on the Florida Afterschool Network (FAN) standards for quality after-school programs; and to provide professional development for city OST leaders and implementers. Also in 2011, the Wallace Foundation granted another $300,000 to Duval County Public Schools to expand and enhance the Superintendents Summer Academy. Those funds will be used to provide active learning experiences (e.g., visits to the zoo or museums) that students in Jacksonvilles most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods may not have had an opportunity to enjoy. Funds will also be used to provide extended time that students will be able to participate in the Academy. The Jacksonville Childrens Commission and the Jacksonville Journey will contribute an estimated $2,000,000 per year to fund the summer camp program sponsored by the Childrens Commission. Grant development assistance will be provided by Duval County Public Schools and the United Way of Northeast Florida. DCPS will assign a grant writer specifically to address community outreach activities. This grant writer will serve as recorder for CSAP Solution Team meetings to cultivate background knowledge about CSAP plans, challenges, and achievements in preparation for informed grants development.

PART THREE: OVERVIEW OF CSAP DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

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The impetus for Jacksonvilles application for membership in the All America Cities Campaign for Grade Level Reading was the result of suggestion and encouragement from The National League of Cities, a group that has worked extensively with the Jacksonville Childrens Commissions after school and summer programs, recently citing Jacksonville as one of 27 cities in the nation that does outsideschool programs right. Linda Lanier, CEO for the Jacksonville Childrens Commission, suggested the idea to the Jacksonville Early Literacy Partnership (JELP), an informal group of educational leaders who convene on an as-needed basis to discuss common concerns and to share resources in addressing those concerns. JELP is not a recognized organization; it is simply a group of hard-working people who know from years of experience that they can depend on each other to understand local issues and that the members can (and will) get things done. In light of the citys commitment to Read It Forward, Jax, JELP suggested that Ms. Lanier approach Jacksonvilles newly-elected mayor Alvin Brown to determine his interest in applying for the 2012 All America City awards. On October 13, the mayor submitted a letter of intent to apply, citing a long history of mayoral support for education initiatives in Jacksonville and citing his plans to build upon the foundation established by past city leaders. In the letter he promises to use the convening power of my office to bring all parties together to create a communitywide plan to move the needle on factors that lead to third grade reading success. Upon submission of Mayor Browns letter of intent, Ms. Lanier convened a leadership team to determine direction for the application process. The leaders who responded included United Ways President, Connie Hodges; Duval County Public Schools Director of PreK-12 reading, Jacqueline Bowen; the Early Learning Coalitions CEO, Susan Main; and the leader of the University of North Florida-based Florida Institute of Education, Cheryl Fountain. The leadership team defined a system of small teams to address summer learning, attendance, and early learning for development of the CSAP. The teams began their meetings in early January and continued through first of March 2012. During this time, parent outreach meetings and surveys were conducted to provide the community with an opportunity for input concerning the application. The work teams results were presented to the initiatives leadership, and members of the work teams and leaders noted commonalities, interconnections, and mutual benefits from the CSAPs direction. The group designed and confirmed membership in the CSAP management plan, and the application was drafted and approved prior to submission. Our stakeholders understand that Duval County Public Schools, despite whole-hearted commitment and formidable effort, cannot solve the reading problem without help from the community. Key stakeholders are already mobilized by the understanding that Jacksonvilles future as a profitable city depends on the quality of its youththeir intellectual development, their social proficiency, and their healthy interest in helping the city grow and prosper. Our stakeholders have been committed to helping public school educators for some time, and we have worked hard to provide that help as individual businesses, parents, teachers, and public and private agencies. Until now, however, we have lacked an understandable, practical, and unifying structure for working as a team toward common, measurable objectives and unambiguous milestones.

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Jacksonvilles residents have high hopes for an opportunity to broaden and enrich our local partnerships by working in association with the communities that are selected as All America Cities. We submit this Community Solutions Action Plan in support of that hope.

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