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Helping Students With Remote Learning — By Also Aiding Their Parents With Wraparound Services: How One Texas Community Center Is Helping Families Facing Impossible Choices

Bekah McNeel

September 28, 2020 |

The 74 |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, San Antonio, Texas

In San Antonio, the Guadalupe Community Center is providing a free “day school” for children of working-class families in the city’s poorest zip code. The center serves around 30 K-12 students where they can safely attend virtual classes. The center also provides families with “clothing, food, counseling, and help with utilities.” The center runs 40 other similar programs throughout the city.

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Some Christian schools are finally grappling with their racist past and segregated present

Bekah McNeel

August 26, 2020 |

The Hechinger Report |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States

There is a race problem within Christian schools. More than half of non-Catholic Christian schools reported that 80 percent of their students are white. At a time of heightened racial tensions in America, some evangelicals are trying to change that. Hiring more staff of color, changing requirements that excluded black and brown students, and having difficult conversations, are some steps some schools are taking. “The world expects more from Christians,” Gross said, “And they should.”

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Texas's Missing Students: Weeks After Closures, Schools in San Antonio Still Couldn't Locate Thousands of Kids. How One Band Director Finally Tracked Down His Musicians

Bekah McNeel

June 30, 2020 |

The 74 |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Texas

As thousands of students across the country stopped showing up to remote classes, schools scrambled to make contact. One Texas Band Director built on his relationships to localize his students. “He had relationships with students — his own and those between bandmates — forged long before the closures. When his personal connections played out, he called in reinforcements section by section, woodwinds finding woodwinds, brass finding brass.” The effort worked so well some teachers were asking him for help to localize other students.

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4.5 Million Young People Nationwide Are Not Working or in School. How Cities Are Working to Get Them Back on Track — & Avoid the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Bekah McNeel

August 13, 2019 |

The 74 |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Antonio, California

There is a certain population of youth aged 16-24 that are neither in school nor working because of some derailment (oftentimes burdensome responsibilities) along the way. A national organization called Nxt Level helps people get back on track with their goals through a specialized team that helps an individual with things like getting a GED, mental health or legal resources, job training, and food programs. They even work with local businesses to give the kids a chance and hire them upon their completion of the program. Nxt Level now has centers in Baltimore, San Francisco, Washington, DC, and more.

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Young Life at the Border

Bekah McNeel

April 22, 2019 |

Christianity Today |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, El Paso, Texas

For undocumented youth who commute between El Paso, Texas and Juárez, Mexico for school, finding a community to connect with and feel safe in is especially challenging. The Christian youth organization Young Life is there to fill that gap in immigrant students' lives by offering emotional and spiritual guidance as well as a support system that deals with any and all issues that arise, whether citizenship-related or not. The group has mentored hundreds of high school students whose lives straddle the border over the years, and many of those credit the group with helping them make sense of their "messy" lives.

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Schools in Impoverished, Isolated Brownsville, Texas, Are Thriving: Here's Why

Bekah McNeel

March 04, 2019 |

The 74 |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Brownsville, Texas

In 2013 and 2016, Brownsville, Texas was ranked the poorest city in the U.S. That hasn't stopped students in the border district from outperforming their wealthier Texan peers. Leaders credit data-based interventions, effective principals, family engagement, and effective use of state and federal dollars for the district's remarkable success. "People love silver-bullet stories," Seth Rau, government and community relations coordinator for San Antonio's Independent School District, said. "It's not a turnaround story. It's a story of continuous improvement."

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Dallas Hits on Successful School Turnaround Model With ACE, but It Comes at a Steep Price. Could a Wider Expansion Across Texas Now Be Its Best Bet to Survive?

Bekah McNeel

December 11, 2018 |

The 74 |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Dallas, Texas

Several Dallas-based ACE (Accelerating Campus Excellence) schools focus on social-emotional learning and restorative justice education. High performing teachers participate in professional learning communities and receive support from extra counselors and strategic administrators. At ACE schools like Blanton Elementary and Titche Elementary, previously among the lowest performing in the city, students are now outperforming their affluent peers on standardized tests.

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Demystifying The College Experience

Bekah McNeel

December 06, 2018 |

Texas Public Radio (KSTX) |

Multi-Media |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, El Paso, Texas

The University of Texas at El Paso, among other universities such as Princeton or Georgia State, are making concerted efforts to ensure the success of their first generation or low-income students in a student body that is 80% Hispanic. They use outreach efforts to connect with parents and get them familiar with the college environment, offer summer orientations to get new students familiar with campus resources, and simplify their application process to reduce the paperwork and offer support in the process. For many first generation students, their family's support is key to their success in college.

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Students Most Likely To Succeed

Bekah McNeel

October 26, 2018 |

Texas Public Radio (KSTX) |

Multi-Media |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, San Antonio, Texas

In areas of high poverty, students in San Antonio, Texas are highly encouraged and supported to take the next step after high school to go on to challenging universities and gain a degree. Their efforts, which include talking about college as early as kindergarten and one-on-one year-long guidance to identify strengths and choose the right college, are particularly targeted at students who will not only be the first one in their family to attend college, but the first in their family to leave the state. Students share that they feel prepared, challenged, and optimistic about their time away from home.

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Getting low-income kids into jobs by getting them into career-themed high schools

Bekah McNeel

July 16, 2018 |

The Hechinger Report |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Antonio, Texas

In San Antonio, career-themed schools are at the center “of a growing push to more closely match the skills students gather in high school with workforce needs.” The Center for Applied Science and Technology (CAST), described as akin to “an outpost of Google,” works with industry partners to connect students with local jobs and ensure lessons are up to date, all while emphasizing socioeconomic integration through an approach called “diversity by design.”

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