The effort
to raise student performance in Oklahoma City Public Schools now goes beyond
the parents and teachers as folks take a break from the office and head back to
school.
News 9's
Chris McKinnon takes us Beyond the Bell as local businesses step into the
classroom.
It's rise
and shine time at Edwards Elementary School. This weekly assembly brings in
volunteers to reinforce the character-building lesson students focused on all
week. It's part of a larger push to get more local organizations into schools.
"It's so
important for them to see positive role models so they can emulate that…we want
them to be successful," said principal Ronda Hamilton.
Students
meet with a mentor once a week. With 30 years of education experience, Hamilton
knows mentoring works.
"They help
us with things that we, we might miss something and they have that one-on-one,"
said Hamilton. "Someone who just comes every week and they know that they
depend on them, just to say hi, how you doing, can pull them to the side, can
talk to them."
Local
companies believe it too. They play a part in helping these students reach
their highest achievement.
"We can
sort of take a community approach for dealing with some of these other issues
that these kids, yeah, in this area are dealing with," said Hamilton.
These
volunteers know their time improves their students' lives on multiple levels.
"It's the
idea that we're going to look at this community and identify the issues, the
barriers that kids are having to being successful," said Sandino Thompson,
mentor from Public Strategies.
"They're
also improving in reading, which is huge and we've seen those improvements that
we can quantify," said mentor with Sandridge Energy, Christal Bennett.
They're
laying a foundation for these students to succeed.
"The clock
is ticking. We gotta make something happen there," Hamilton said.
Right now
their businesses support more than half of OKC's public schools, but there is
still a huge need at the middle and high school levels.
Read
more about information on how your business, organization or church can
volunteer with OKCPS.
This weekly assembly brings in volunteers to reinforce the character-building lesson students focused on all week.
