EDUCATION

With 38% of Gulfton’s population under 18 and 91% of residents speaking a language other than English at home, Gulfton/Sharpstown is home to over 25 schools. One of the key barriers to effective learning for Newcomers is language and communication.

Strategy

To address and ultimately transform the newcomer educational experience, Connect Community is playing an active role as: convener of school partners and organizations; incubator of school- and out of school-based initiatives; and advocate for newcomer-focused policies.

Our strategy is that to maximize impact we must prioritize a few key levers for newcomers; and all efforts must be in service to the school leaders who educate children in traditional ISD, charter, and independent schools within our Impact Zone.

Two priority areas are:

Grow the community of school leaders & partners to facilitate bottom-up opportunities for collaboration & impact

Our School Leader Community of Practice has more than 13 leaders who meet monthly to (1) build relationships, (2) elevate and resolve key and often timely challenges facing their schools and (3) learn best practices from each other.

Pilot and scale new educational programs & supports to address pandemic learning loss and strengthen educational outcomes, focusing on rapid language acquisition.

Picture Dictionaries: Piloted in one school’s newcomer classroom; early results were so promising that the dictionaries were provided schoolwide; now hoping to scale to other community schools.
Essential Guide to Schools: There are significant gaps in newcomer family knowledge of education in the United States including laws, governance, and requirements. To address this information disparity, we created a series of brief videos translated into multiple languages covering enrollment, attendance, grade advancement, assessment, etc. The series can be found on the Connect Community YouTube page in English, Dari, Pashto, Spanish and Swahili.
Translation Corps: In 2023, nine Gulfton schools with a total emerging bilingual (EB) population of 5,941 students, sought Connect’s assistance to create communication pathways between students, teachers and families. The Translator AmeriCorps program was launched with six translators at six area schools; the program has since doubled in size to 12 translators working in nine schools and two community centers. Our translators speak the languages of the biggest in-need populations of Gulfton and Sharpstown: Spanish, Pashto, Dari, Arabic, and Urdu. We serve an average of 500 students and 250 parents every month. Our assistance helps students with everything from grades to social life to transportation, makes communication between schools and parents possible, and contributes to a welcoming atmosphere for newcomers in American schools.
Postsecondary Pathways: This group is creating new place-based postsecondary pathways to expand and diversify the number of options available to children post high school. Our partner, Px Project, uses the culinary arts to help young adults explore their identities, learn transferable skills, and open doors to their future.

DATA

Attendance

With an overall attendance rate of 93.7%, over 800 students miss school each day. In comparison, Emergent Bilingual students (94.9%,) and Newcomer students (95.4%,) show higher attendance and more consistent stronger throughout the year.

Reading Growth

During the 2023-24 school year, 48% of all students, 56% of Emergent Bilingual students, and 50% of Newcomer students made more progress in reading than students at similar standing points.

PROGRESS

500+ Students and 200 Parents Served Monthly by Connect Community’s Dedicated in Classroom Translators

School Leaders & Support Staff Meet Monthly to Strategize Unique Tailored Solutions for the Neighborhood

Newcomers’ Essential Guide to Schools” Now Streaming in 5 Languages

FUNDERS & GRANTS:

Bloomberg Philanthropies
Area Schools
Harris County Precinct 4

TOTAL INVESTMENT:

$900,000

INITIATIVES

Community Translator Corps

Early Learning Center & Adult Training Center

8 Million Stories

reVision

Baker Ripley Gulfton Learning Center

Px Project

RESOURCES

Small Steps Nurturing Center Preschool Application

NEWS & EVENTS

Kinder Institute Urban Edge Article

Kinder Institute Urban Edge Article 2