CONTENTS

Expect Success Project - Taking Assets Into Denver Public Schools

ACY Announces New Board of Directors

Evaluators Track ACY Pilot Project in Denver Public Schools

Assets in Action - Lincoln High Students Urge Parents to be Involved

Upcoming Asset Training for Educators

Reserve your space now for training workshops on infusing the strength-based framework of the 40 assets into schools and communities.

May 9th, August 6th
An Introduction to Asset Building in Schools training will be held

May 14th
Building Assets in Middle School Youth will be held

June 20th, August 20th
Building Assets in Colorado Communities will take place

Hands-on activities and reproducible training materials will give participants the tools they need to expand asset-building efforts in their schools and communities.

Or, let ACY come to you. The ACY training team is available to customize trainings to meet the unique needs of your school or community. Contact Stephanie Hoy, ACY's Director of Training and Community Services, for information on how ACY can help you identify your specific training needs and develop a training agenda to meet your asset-building goals: stephanie@ buildassets.org.

New Publication Highlights Asset Building in Schools

Assets for Colorado Youth has recently published a report that captures the voices of educators, students and family advocates as they describe their strategies and challenges to bringing the asset framework into schools.
The Educator's Forum of Asset Builders report is available free-of-charge from ACY by calling 1-888-KID-7871, or sending an e-mail to: acy@buildassets.org. The supply is limited; just one copy per person, please. Or, read it online: www.buildassets.org.

"ABCs of Asset Building" Packs School Resources into Single Kit

The ABCs of Asset-Building kit is a new resource from ACY designed specifically for elementary schools and youth-serving organizations working with youth and parents. Each kit contains practical tools, materials and ideas to help easily integrate the 40 assets into classrooms, schools, organizations serving youth. Additionally, all the pieces designed to be sent home to parents are bilingual in English/Spanish.

Pieces in the kit, such as Homework Helper letters and bulletin board ideas, may be copied or customized to fit teachers' needs.

The kits sell for $49.99, plus shipping and handling. To place your order, call 1-888-KID-7871, or e-mail: acy@buildassets.org.

Expect Success Project - Taking Assets Into Denver Public Schools

Last November, Denver Public Schools formally partnered with Assets for Colorado Youth (ACY) to incorporate developmental assets as a strategy for improving five DPS schools rated "low" or "unsatisfactory" on the Colorado Statewide Assessment Program (CSAP) tests. The Expect Success Project applies the asset framework to provide school staff, students and parents with common goals that focus on success for all students.

ACY champions positive youth development by building capacity, focusing on individual and community strengths and increasing developmental assets in youth. The developmental assets, identified by Search Institute, are a research-based set of opportunities, values and positive relationships that all young people need in their lives to succeed.

Said Superintendent Jerry Wartgow, "Parent support of the student's education is a critical component to student achievement. Parent engagement in schools leads to higher grades and test scores, better school attendance and improved student attitudes and behaviors. The Expect Success Project is working to build stronger relationships between teachers and parents, and uses the assets to define the roles that both have in supporting the young person."

María Guajardo Lucero, executive director of ACY, points out, "To engage parents meaningfully, schools need to be intentional about strengthening the home-school connection. The Expect Success Project promotes the importance of building assets in young people's lives as a way to strengthen the home-school connection."

Asset Teams are moving forward at Smedley and Castro elementary schools, Kepner and Horace Mann middle schools, and Abraham Lincoln High School to identify and implement ways to bolster student achievement, increase parent engagement and create a more caring school climate. ACY is providing training and technical assistance, and a team from the University of Denver is evaluating the schools' efforts.
At Horace Mann Middle School, ACY has trained the staff and a group of parents on the asset framework. "The asset framework can be a unifying force for change because it provides concrete, tangible roles and actions for all stakeholders." said Principal Jim Trevino.

In the training, "the staff really identified with the framework's concept that positive youth development requires a community-wide effort," said Trevino. The training prompted teachers to outline the roles that all teachers, students and parents need to fulfill to guarantee academic success. From their list, the staff designed a "Pledge of Support" and asked students and parents to sign it at parent-teacher conferences.
"Going through the exercise of defining the expectations for all three groups really empowered the teachers," said Trevino.

As the Expect Success project unfolds in Denver Public Schools, the outlook is brightening for student success in some historically underachieving schools.

News You Can Use

ACY Welcomes Board Members

ACY welcomes six community leaders to its Board of Directors:

• Steve Del Castillo, Director of the Office of Research and Collaborative Program Development with the Denver Area Boy Scouts of America
  
• Ken Grimes, Program Director for Denver 4-H Youth Programs
  
• Glenna Kelly, Theater Program Coordinator with Kaiser Permanente.
  
• Johanna Maes, Director of the University of Colorado's Pre-Collegiate Program.
  
• Carol Miyagishima, a private consultant and Director of the Ethnic Living and Learning Committee for the Chancellor at the University of Colorado.
  
• Cecilia K. Sanchez de Ortiz, Site Consultant for the Annie E Casey Foundation's Making Connections Denver Initiative.
  

We look forward to benefiting from the expertise these board members will lend to the asset movement in Colorado.

Evaluators Track ACY Pilot Project in DPS

A research team from the University of Denver is conducting an evaluation of the Expect Success Project to determine whether the six-month infusion of training and technical assistance from Assets for Colorado Youth into five Denver Public Schools leads to positive improvements. Dr. Nick Cutforth, associate professor at the College of Education at DU, leads the evaluation team.
The overall goal of the Expect Success Project is to build capacity for improved relationships between parents and school staff in order to increase parent involvement and student achievement. Strategies to achieve this goal include training parents and school staff in the developmental assets, and formulating strategic plans that help schools to better engage parents, students and community organizations in efforts to improve academic achievement.
The DU evaluation team is documenting the plans and goals developed by each school and evaluating how effective the efforts are in achieving those goals. Some of the quantitative indicators the team is using to gauge outcomes include participation at activities, utilization of the messages and impacts on student attendance, homework completion and grades. The qualitative indicators include parent involvement and relationships with their child, and teachers' perceptions of student attitudes and school-parent relations.
The evaluation results will help gauge the impact of the Expect Success Project and inform Denver Public Schools about the success of different strategies for engaging parents in their children's education.

Lincoln High Students Urge Parents to Be Involved

The framework of 40 assets is not a pre-packaged program or curriculum. Instead, it provides a philosophy and a common language for positive change. Schools and communities apply the framework in unique ways that are appropriate to their individual settings.

ACY's Expect Success Project allows Asset Teams at each of the five participating Denver schools to strategize and champion the efforts that they believe are best suited to their particular school community. At Abraham Lincoln High School, the 10-member Asset Team, led by Principal Kathy Callum, includes staff members and parents. The group is working to better involve all parents in the school, to increase capacity for asset building in its staff and to strengthen communication throughout its community of feeder schools.

Lincoln's 1,500-strong student population is predominately Latino (78.6%), with smaller populations of Whites (11%), Asians (6.7%) and other ethnic groups (3.7%).

Some of the parents on Lincoln's Asset Team also serve on the school's bilingual Parent Advisory Committee (PAC). When the parents from PAC received an asset training from ACY, a handful of students attended with their parents. After the students heard the asset message and learned what adults can do to strengthen the lives of young people, they wanted to help spread the message. The students worked with Bilingual Teacher Martha Montijo to recruit other students and secure a youth role in an asset presentation for parents from Lincoln and two of its feeder schools: Castro Elementary and Kepner Middle School.
The eight Lincoln students were a highlight of the Saturday morning parent event in February that drew more than 100 participants. The students took turns describing why parents needed to build assets in their children. One young man, Marco, advised, "You need to make sure that your son or daughter is at school, because I know a lot of students are hanging out at McDonalds and Burger King during the day instead of going to class."

As part of the presentation, the students passed out flyers to all the parents encouraging them to call the school at least twice a month to find out if their child is in class. The flyers also listed the names of staff who spoke Spanish and who could help Spanish-speaking parents when they called. The students and the Asset Team members hope this strategy will help Lincoln to raise its low average attendance rate of 80 percent.

The students also helped draft a pledge that the parent participants were encouraged to sign, asking parents to commit to:

• Talking to high school staff every 2 weeks about their child's progress
  
• Talking to their child daily about the child's interests, dreams and goals
  
• Attending school functions that their child was interested in or
• Getting to know their child's friends and helping their child to build positive relationships.
  

Principal Kathy Callum said, "The event was a great way to let parents hear how important their involvement is from the students' perspectives. We were excited about the number of parents that attended, and have had a lot of follow-up from the parents."