The No. 1 indicator of whether an elementary school student will later attend college is not income, race or ZIP code, said Morris Price, executive director of City Year Denver. It’s whether or not a child is reading at a third-grade level by the third grade.
As a former college admissions counselor and previous director of the Daniels Fund scholarship program, Price was tired of meeting students who were fighting to catch up after years of falling further and further behind their peers. At City Year Denver, where a “whole school, whole child” model is used, he can intervene when it matters most.
City Year Denver, a local chapter of the national organization, puts young adults ages 18 to 25 into schools as mentors for students in grades 3 to 9. Mentors walk students to school, greet students at the door, help in classrooms, monitor playgrounds, tutor students and run after-school programs.
They look for warning signs a student is at risk of falling behind: poor attendance, disruptive behavior and course failure in math and English.
Most of the students the mentors work with are dealing with issues outside the classroom as well, but they’re not always so pronounced as “My dad’s in jail” or “My mom lost her job,” Price said.
Children also experience political and economic trauma. Perhaps both parents work and spend little time at home, or gentrification has forced the family from its longtime neighborhood, upsetting educational and social circles. Changes in immigration policy can bring third-graders to tears as they fear a parent’s deportation or are teased by peers who say they’re “going over the wall.”
Mentors identify students who are at risk of dropping out and intervene. Intervention could focus on encouraging a child to raise his or her hand in class or teaching a student new tools to boost learning.
“We’re aware that this is not just the school yard anymore,” Price said. “It’s what happens to that kid when they walk into school and when they walk out of school and everything in between.”
City Year Denver – Whole School, Whole Child
Address: 789 Sherman St., Suite 400, Denver 80203
In operation since: 2011, although the national nonprofit started in 1988 in Boston
Number of employees: 15 full-time employees in Denver, 75 corps members
Annual budget: $3.4 million
Percentage of funds that go directly to client services: 81 percent of revenue goes to programming
Number of people served last year: 4,000 students
