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Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Local leaders form initiative, aim to improve education

Milwaukee area leaders joined forces to create "Milwaukee Succeeds," an education-focused collaborative. Photo by Amanda Frank/[email protected]

Local leaders in business, education and philanthropy have joined together to improve the educational outlook for Milwaukee children in pre-K through high school, whether they attend public, private, choice or charter schools.

The Greater Milwaukee Foundation recently announced its “cradle to career” initiative, called “Milwaukee Succeeds.” The community foundation has been spearheading the educational effort since early 2011.

“Education is the most important factor that is going to change the cycle of poverty in Milwaukee,” said Rob Guilbert, vice president of marketing and communications at the foundation.

Though the initiative is still in its infancy, Guilbert said its long-term goals include ensuring all children are prepared to enter school and succeed academically, graduate high school ready to enter college or the workforce and use post-secondary education or training to help them succeed after high school.

Guilbert also said the program is designed to aid children outside of the classroom and make sure they are healthy, supported socially and emotionally and contribute responsibly to the Milwaukee community.

“The final goal is huge for us, because (a lack of health and safety) makes it difficult to combat the other issues,” he said.

Milwaukee Succeeds brings together a partnership of 40 local organizations led by John Schlifske, CEO of Northwestern Mutual; Michael Lovell, chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; and Jackie Herd-Barber, Greater Milwaukee Foundation board member and civic volunteer, Guilbert said.

As a major part of the Milwaukee community, representatives from Marquette were asked to attend the meetings.

Bill Henk, dean of the College of Education; Tricia Geraghty, vice president of marketing and communication; and Howard Fuller, director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning represented Marquette.

Henk said the forum in which the future of education is discussed was a real positive in his eyes.

“I love the mission of this initiative: ‘Let’s leave our own personal ideologies or politics at the door and focus on the education of the children,'” Henk said.

Lovell said representatives from the different educational groups had not previously communicated well as a whole. Through this initiative, institutions including the Milwaukee Area Technical College, the United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Milwaukee Public Schools now meet as a group to discuss shortcomings of Milwaukee education.

Lovell said the group setting eliminates finger-pointing and allows members of Milwaukee Succeeds to develop a plan to reach the goals of the program, which include retention and educational attainment for every student in Milwaukee.

“We know there are problems, but we don’t know where they are,” Lovell said. “Right now, we are in the process of gathering new, broad-based data to help us identify those issues.”

Once adequate data has been obtained, the initiative will focus on improving problem areas in K-12 education, so students will not be set back in college. One of the areas already earmarked is improved math preparation, which Lovell says will improve retention rates at area institutions, including those at UW-Milwaukee.

The task of fixing Milwaukee’s education system will not be easy, especially since it takes adequate funds to fix problems so widespread and multifaceted, Lovell said.

A $1 million donation made by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation helped launch Milwaukee Succeeds, and Guilbert said what the initiative needs now is the donation of time and involvement from representatives within the city’s education system.

Guilbert said student volunteers could be brought in as early as next year, after the initial collection and data analysis is complete.

“We will eventually be looking for students, especially those from UWM and Marquette, to act as mentors to these kids and to provide a support network for them,” Lovell said. “Once we identify the problems, I believe these college students will be part of the solution.”

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