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A file photo of Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert. (Martin Griff | For NJ.com)
By Afsheen Shamsi
Studies show that a child born in poverty hears 30 million fewer words in the first years of life. It makes sense that if you are struggling to put food on the table, you may not have as much time to talk to or read to your child. This leads to disparities not only in vocabulary, but also in school readiness, long-term educational and health outcomes, future earnings and family stability decades later. This is because with every interaction a child has in their early years, their neural network is strengthened. The 30 million-word deficit results in these children starting school at a disadvantage when compared to their peers. This is commonly referred to as the Achievement or Opportunity Gap. Time has shown that the gap widens as these children go through school and can result in children dropping out of high school.
In Princeton, this is particularly visible where there is a tremendous disparity of wealth. In a single school system, you have children from privileged backgrounds who start school with an advantage and children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds who begin with a distinct disadvantage.
The Princeton Public Schools have been working to address this problem and have seen some success. They invested in a full-day pre-school program targeting children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Last year, they shared their first year of data from the program and the results are encouraging. This year, they are investing in a dual-language immersion program that has also been shown to bridge the opportunity gap. Superintendent Steve Cochrane is also implementing the 1000 book campaign in collaboration with local schools and libraries to expose children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to 1000 books prior to kindergarten.
These are all steps in the right direction that will benefit our children. However, imagine harnessing the collective power of Princeton schools, non-profits, businesses, corporations, and government to focus on this issue. The Stanford Social Innovation Review shares the story of Strive, a non-profit based out of Cincinnati, Ohio that addresses the opportunity gap through collective impact.
Strive chose to not invest in any new programs. Instead they utilized the existing infrastructure of schools, non-profits, businesses and governments. They coordinated all of the work of these organizations to develop a cradle to career roadmap. During its first five years Strive noted positive improvements in 40 of the 53 educational outcomes it measured. There has been approximately a 10% increase in kindergarten readiness, high school graduation rates and college enrollment.
Rather than work in isolation to solve one off problems, Strive led the way so that organizations viewed each other as partners as opposed to competitors in this effort. They developed 15 different Student Success Networks based on the type of activity each organization was engaged in such as tutoring or early childhood education. Each SSN initially met with coaches and facilitators on a bi-weekly basis to develop a shared vocabulary and a common system to evaluate outcomes. They invested a significant amount of time, over the course of three years, aligning and coordinating their efforts, communicating their progress and learning from each other. As the results indicate, there is a significant return on investment.
Princeton has multiple schools, government agencies, and non-profits addressing different issues that economically disadvantaged families face ranging from hunger to academic issues. We are also fortunate to have the support of many local businesses and corporations. Harnessing the collective power of all of these organizations could lead the way to addressing the opportunity gap in Princeton in a more holistic way.
Mayor Liz Lempert is one of three mayors in New Jersey who has taken up President Obama's challenge to build a My Brother's Keeper (MBK) Community in Princeton. According to the White House, the MBK Community Challenge encourages communities to implement a coherent cradle-to-college-and-career strategy for improving the life outcomes of all young people to ensure that they can reach their full potential, regardless of the circumstances into which they are born. The effort is still in its initial stages. It will require buy-in from local organizations and a sustained focus over an extended period of time to be successful.
It is this writer's hope that Princeton will become a model community for others across the nation in successfully addressing the opportunity gap. We have the intellectual firepower, the resources and the infrastructure to successfully engage in a collective impact initiative. Now we just need to come together as a community to ensure that every Princeton child realizes their potential and is on the pathway to success.
Afsheen Shamsi is a former Princeton Public Schools Board Member and currently serves on the board of the ACLU-NJ.
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