650 West North Street    |    PO Box 111    |    Auburn, Indiana 46706  |  260.925.0311
 

Kindergarten-12th Grade - What We're Doing

Goal: DeKalb County students attain outstanding performance as measured by academic, career, and civic achievement.
 
What We’re Doing
Two kindergarten – 12th grade education strategies have been identified to help ensure every student grows as a contributing member of society.
 
  • Ensuring students are reading at grade level before leaving third grade.
Students who read at grade level at third grade are those most likely to graduate from high school and succeed in life. It is often said that “before third grade, children learn to read. After third grade, children read to learn.” We piloted a volunteer-based intervention program with second grade students at J.R. Watson in the spring of 2010. This intervention has been blended into the EXCEL afterschool program, a partnership between the YMCA of DeKalb County and DeKalb Central schools. 
 
Partnering with Allen County Education Partnership, a parent literacy enrichment workshop series was launched in Fall 2011, called DeKalb Reads. Parents of DeKalb Central and Garrett-Keyser-Butler kindergarten students striving to reach grade level learning are encouraged to attend the two-part workshop series. 
 
  • Increasing collaboration between schools and businesses.
Enhancing 9th grade careers classes and promoting project-based learning and internship opportunities: Today’s students, connected to iPods, game systems and cell phones, often wear more technology than some adults will use in a day. Despite their advanced technological abilities, students often spend their days disengaged and disinterested in today’s traditional high school classrooms. Two effective approaches for preparing students with the important critical thinking, communication and collaboration skills required for the 21st Century are offering students opportunities for (1) internships, working (unpaid) in organizations or businesses, and (2) “project learning,” solving real world problems through hands on experience. Internships and project learning not only help students gain practical experience, but have been shown to improve student achievement and retention of learning. For these reasons, we’re encouraging working professionals to make presentations about the relevance of high school subject areas and collaborate with schools in offering students opportunities for internships and project learning. Progress will be measured through the number of businesses collaborating with the schools.
 
Teacher mentoring: Great teachers help create great students. In fact, research shows that an inspiring and informed teacher is the most important school-related factor influencing student achievement. Exemplary teacher development programs allow new and experienced teachers time to spend with experienced leaders as mentors. For this reason, we are working to connect teachers with community and workplace leaders to advance the level of teachers’ knowledge and skills in their content areas. Progress will be measured through the number of teachers involved in professional mentoring opportunities.
 
The work of each Learning Link action team is to:
  • create evaluation tools for measuring progress;
  • collect specific baseline data against which to measure progress;
  • work together to ensure clear communication between and among the action teams, the steering committee and the community at large;
  • work to facilitate communication between and among the community’s sectors, organizations and entities; and
  • perform these duties while always objectively considering what is best for the overall vision of the community rather than the interests of any one segment of the community.