Our students are amazing!
We do not talk about Carver kids as being anything less wonderful and capable than the children growing up in the neighboring towns of Darien, New Canaan, Stamford, and Westport.
We avoid language like “disadvantaged,” “struggling,” and “at-risk,” which frame children and youth within a deficit lens and which places the onus on the individual student to “improve” or “progress” rather than on the systems that create disadvantage and struggle and that place children at risk. By speaking from a growth and abundance mindset, we remind our students (and ourselves) of the possibilities each student carries within themselves.
Each school in which we operate calls its Carver after-school and summer program by the unique name the school gives it. Our students are seen by their peers as being motivated, capable, success-oriented, and having the school spirit — because that’s who they are.
The other reason why each school names its own afterschool program is that our students are the heroes of their own stories.
Our work is about closing gaps of opportunity. Program design and philanthropy help to accomplish that goal. Carver has many heroes.
To be sure, we invest a great deal in our research. We have many dense reports on demographics, growth and performance metrics, and the like. We measure student outcomes through consecutive years as students stay with us to high school graduation and on to college and career.
In those reports you might find statements like this: Carver students are 0.09% American Indian; 3.34% Asian; 25.02% Black; 57.09% Hispanic; 1.30% Multiracial; 13.16% White; 20.48% ELL; 17.98% SPED. Overall, among all Carver programs, 69.05% of Carver students are Free/Reduced Lunch status. However, depending on the school served, that percentage is almost 100%.
But we prefer not to think of our students as a group or by demographic details, but as perfectly amazing individuals like Alana and William. And you’ll be amazed by Carver alumni!
Though Carver is 83-years old, we feel like these are still our early years.
The American Families Plan mirrors what we have believed all along. Our kids are capable of achieving the opportunities that are open to them. Many believe, including many of our most stalwart donors, that capitalism must be modified to do a better job of creating a healthier society, one that is more inclusive and creates more opportunities for more people.
The half dozen proposed education programs in this plan would constitute the largest federal investment in education in at least a half-century. Any one of them would be significant on its own. Taken together, if approved by Congress, they form a cradle-to-college plan that aims to reduce inequities. The proposed pre-K and community college investments are essential “bookends” to the existing K-12 system that are needed to set children on the right path and, later, prepare them for the world of work.
The opportunity to drastically improve American family life is suddenly right before us. And Carver kids are ready to take full advantage of this historic moment.
