Wisconsin's Weekend Morning News
Sunday Sip - Milwaukee College Prep
[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to Sunday's SIP. This is Steve's community. I am joined today by two really smart guys. We're going to talk about a lot of great things. But one of the things we're talking about is Milwaukee College Prep, Al Keith, the fourth joining us, and Colestin Morgan, who is Executive Director of the City Forward Collective, talking about education and our kids, which I am very passionate about. I'm going to start with you, Colestin, and explain what the opportunity gap is. I hear this term a lot, and how it affects students in Milwaukee, particularly in the underserved communities. Yeah, so when we talk about opportunity gaps, we're talking about the disparities and outcomes for students, in particular, students of color when compared to their peers. And here in Milwaukee, we struggle with one of the largest opportunity gaps of any city in the country. We've got work to do to ensure that all of our kids, but especially our kids who are Black or Hispanic or from lower income backgrounds, have access to the education they need. So one of the ways you're addressing that is with charter schools. In Milwaukee, I'll start with you, Al. How do you address that opportunity gap? Give me some specific examples. Yeah, and so just speaking of the opportunity gap, we talk about what access and what opportunities are presented to our kids. And so it's very well known, the power of literacy. So in Milwaukee College Prep, we focus a lot of dedication, time, energy on literacy. Folks on early literacy for our younger scholars make sure they're learning how to not only access the content in front of them, but have opportunity to have that upward mobility through society as well. Colestin, what do you think? Opportunity gap, how do we address that? So one of the great things about our city's education system is that parents have lots of choices. They've got choices of different types of schools, including public charter schools like Milwaukee College Prep. We think it's really important 'cause we know every child is different and every child needs something different. And so the work that schools like MCP do to ensure that every kid is getting exactly what they need, the skills and supports that they need is incredibly important. Colestin Morgan, Jr. and Al Keith, the fourth joining us on the Sunday SIP. This is for you Al. How are charter schools supporting those students who may be behind grade level, facing some struggles, facing significant academic challenges? How are you approaching that problem? Targeted supports. We make sure that we take a look at how do we support not just a grade level or just a classroom, but how do we make sure that we support every single child in that classroom? And so some of that means wrapping around targeted interventions, targeted mentoring, tutoring. And so we really look at the whole child and look at what is it they need to be successful and we provide them. Colestin, what do you think? Same question. You know, I think, again, the work that Al is doing, the work that MCP and other schools across our city are doing is incredibly important to make sure that every child, we're looking at their individual strengths, their individual assets, and their individual challenges and making sure they get exactly the targeted supports that they need. We hear this term about equity, right? Access to education, so important. We've got to make sure that we're reaching all the kids, not some of the kids who really want to be there, but some of the kids who maybe are struggling. When you're looking at that question of equity, Al, how do the charter schools in Milwaukee ensure that equity is, therefore, enrollment services for everybody? Absolutely. And so the biggest tagline that I can give you right now is free public and open to all. Milwaukee College Prep has a completely blind and open enrollment process. That's first come first serve. We don't screen, we don't test. And many of the high quality schools in the city, charter schools follow the same process as well. Colestin, I love the fact that one of your missions is to improve education in Milwaukee and in Milwaukee area. So how do you measure that success? You're looking at charter schools, narrowing that opportunity gap. Are there any success stories or things you can point to that say, you know what? That's how it should be done. Yeah, so we certainly start by looking at the facts and the data, right? All of our students, whatever school they attend, if they're receiving public dollars, they have to take assessments at the end of the year that help us understand how students are performing. And we see year after year that students that are enrolling in our schools of choice, including our public charter schools like Milwaukee College Prep, are performing at higher and higher levels, closing those opportunity gaps. There's certainly more work to be done, but we try to start with the data and the facts, and we know that when parents have those choices, they're empowered to make those choices, when schools can make the decisions that are best for their kids, that's where we see the biggest growth happening. What do you hear from parents? What are they saying? They love it. I get calls, I get emails, I get stopped out in public all the time by parents, just can't stop raving about all that we've done for their kids, their families. And how do we expand that outreach, beyond what we're currently serving? - And the polling and the researcher matches up with the stories that Alice telling. We know that parents in our city, overwhelmingly, I think 60% in a poll we put out this summer support 60% of the Marquette Law poll, but we find similar numbers as well. Support having a robust set of options so that they can find the right fit for their kids, including schools like Milwaukee College Prep. - And as we all know, having that parents support, that parent buy in, along with the students, along with their children, makes this process a lot easier. So we're looking at all those groups, parents, community leaders, local businesses. What do they do to support the impact of charter schools in bridging that opportunity gap? - So I like to use my development and fundraising chief's term of time, treasure and talent. So we partner with the community to come in and obviously see what we do. Come be a part of what we do. We bring in the community. We bring in local businesses. We bring in families to not only see what we do, but also partner with them to figure out how do we better serve the community? How do we better serve our kids? - Absolutely. I think, you know, seeing, being invested, you know, taking the time to love our kids enough to love the schools and the adults in the building that are serving them is incredibly important. As is making sure that all of our schools have the resources that they need to succeed. And that's something that we in our advocacy work do every day. - And I wanted to save a minute to talk about this because it's not just about talking about its action plans are important. So how can our listeners help Milwaukee College Prep? Obviously the Director of City Forward Collective, improving education in our community, how you go first? - The most immediate step is log into our website. Go to mkeprep.com/support and check out our take us to end event information there. And so every year we have an annual fundraiser. That's a lot of fun. It's a really good time. But to celebrate obviously the amazing work that our team at MCP does. But it's a great opportunity to ground our community and the importance of the work and the resources we need. - Likewise, you can find information about City Forward Collective on our website, cityforwardcollective.org. Take a look at some of our policy research. We try to lift up good examples of schools like Milwaukee College Prep. You can find some data and information and ways to support us financially as well there. - Colestin Morgan Jr. Al-Kith IV. Soon to be a fifth on the way out here. - That's right. - Good luck with all of that. Great conversation, great work, leading hopefully to great educational opportunities for all of the kids out there. Thanks for joining the Sunday SIP. - Thank you.