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Alignment Collaborative for Education - ACE

Education

Alignment hosts HBCU Admissions Panel on Thursday, February 24, 6:30 pm

Alignment Collaborative for Education - HBCU Admissions Panel

Visit with Howard, Morehouse, Spelman and Tuskegee

Alignment and U-46 are excited to announce their first HBCU College and University panel scheduled for Thursday, February 24, from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. The panel will feature students, alumni, and admissions representatives from Howard University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Tuskegee University.  Students will learn more about HBCU admissions, course offerings and college life as they visit with representatives from these four post-secondary institutions.

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Freshman Experience Launches Live in Classrooms

Alignment Collaborative for Education: 2022 Freshman Experience

Alignment and U-46 are excited to announce that the Freshman Experience launched live on January 14, 2022! The eight-week curriculum is designed to help students develop the social and emotional skills needed for success in high school, their future careers, and everyday life.

While the pilot of this program took place remotely during the 2020-2021 school year, Larkin High School and Streamwood High School approached Alignment about offering the program live to their freshmen AVID students.  Alignment is utilizing the help of four wonderful interns from local universities (Elgin Community College, Judson University, and Northern Illinois University) to use their current experiences and post-secondary successes to model the behaviors and skills exemplified in the curriculum.  Adding this more personal element to the curriculum has students engaged and practicing the social and emotional skill sets taught such as teaming, conflict resolution, appreciation of diversity, power of voice, etc.

Alignment is looking forward to the last few weeks of the program and watching the students learn more about themselves and each other.  

Mobile Story Walk Project Receives Recognition

As part of Story Walk® Week, the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services (ABOS) recognized exceptional Story Walks from around the country. Alignment is honored to have been involved in our community’s mobile Story Walk project, which was selected as 1 of 49 to be featured nationwide, chosen from a total of 469 nominations. Congratulations to our partners Elgin Partnership for Early Learning, Gail Borden Public Library, and Kane County Health Department, for this well-deserved recognition. Alignment is grateful for funding received through the Kane County Health Department’s “Fit for Kids” grant which allowed us to bring these beautiful learning tools to our community.

Alignment Invites Students and Parents to University Forums

Alignment Collaborative for Education invites students and parents to university forums featuring 12 different universities for the Fall Semester. Each forum offers parents and students the opportunity to visit virtually with university admission staff along with a Q&A session.

Learn about the admissions application process, financial aid and scholarship offerings. Available for students and parents.

September 30, 2021
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
DePaul University, Judson University,
Northern Illinois University, University of llinois at Urbana/Champaign
Register Here

October 13, 2021
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Illinois State University, Roosevelt University,
University of Illinois, Chicago University of Iowa
Register Here

October 28,2021
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Aurora University, Loyola University,
Purdue University, Southern Illinois University
Register Here

Sponsored by the Alignment Collaborative for Education and School District U-46
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StoryWalks Bring Books Outside in Elgin

StoryWalks
Lauryn Ellis, 3, of Elgin reacts to a page while taking a StoryWalk with her mom Felicia at Lords Park in Elgin on Thursday. The Elgin Partnership for Early Learning and Alignment Collaborative for Education have used a grant to make bilingual StoryWalks they can deploy around town. The StoryWalks are deconstructed picture books on signs and kids walk from one page to the next. One side of the sign is English and the other Spanish. (Rick West | Daily Herald Staff Photographer)

A new program in Elgin makes it possible for kids to enjoy the outdoors and read a book at the same time.

The Elgin Partnership for Early Learning (EPEL) and Alignment Collaborative for Education hosted their first StoryWalk on Thursday at Lords Park. The StoryWalk features a picture book broken down by pages and mounted on metal frames along a path. Kids walk from page to page to read the story. The book is offered in English on one side and Spanish on the other.

“The thing I like about a StoryWalk is that it’s an innovative way to explore literature and not just your regular book,” said Amber Peters, executive director of EPEL. “It gets you out in nature, which I think is important for kids because you learn through being outside and in the community.”

EPEL is a nonprofit organization working to ensure children have access to quality early care and education in Elgin and the surrounding neighborhoods. It partners with other area stakeholders to provide resources, early childhood initiatives, information, and support for families and providers for children under 5 years of age.

Four stories were chosen by the Gail Borden Public Library to use on the StoryWalks, each with about 18 pages. Peters said the library chose stories that were culturally and linguistically responsive and inclusive, while offering readers colorful pages to interact with while building critical kindergarten reading skills and boosting brain development.

Reaching young kids before they start their formal schooling is important, said Kathleen Cox, director of early learning for Elgin Area School District U-46. She also sits on EPEL’s board.

“Eighty-five percent of a child’s brain development happens before their fifth birthday, so the more work the school district does partnering with child care providers to get the same message out about language development and social skills, the stronger all of our kids are going to be when they come in to school.”

Copyright issues prevented EPEL from using reproductions of the pages, so they bought a couple of copies of each book and broke them down, laminated the pages and mounted them on boards that are inserted in the frames that can be stuck in the grass. The program is funded by a collaborative partner grant written to Making Kane County Fit for Kids, Kiwanis of Elgin, and Elgin Township.

The plan is to have story walks where their audience is already gathered, be it block parties, city events, or, like Thursday, near a Gail Borden story time at Lords Park Zoo. Peters said people can reserve the StoryWalk materials for family parties or school events. “They’re for the community to use,” she said.

Peters said StoryWalks is a perfect fit for EPEL’s “learning on the go” model.

“These movable story walks allow us to relocate them to different locations during the year,” she said. “Anywhere you go, there’s opportunity to learn. It’s just a matter of you engaging the child.”

By Rick West
Original story appeared in the Daily Herald 8/6/2021 5:08 PM


Alignment’s Goals in Support of U-46 Equity Plan

Alignment - Equity Plan word cloud

For the 2021-22 school year, Alignment has three specific organizational goals that shape its program priorities and resource implementation in support of School District U-46’s Equity Plan to include:

Goal 1: Provide a central role in facilitating community leaders and organizations coming together to address common community challenges at the local, state, and national levels.

Goal 2: Encourage community organizations to convene together as collaborations where the strengths of the various organizations are maximized to address current and future challenges facing communities.

Goal 3: Retain and grow Alignment’s leadership capacity and volunteer expertise in the community utilizing team structures to identify and deploy leaders that represent the community and school’s composition specifically related to race, culture, career preparation, and geographical location.

These three goal statements direct how Alignment supports the students and families of U-46 to enhance learning experiences for all children and youth of the greater Elgin community.  Central to being able to provide that support is the ability of Alignment to bring together organizations and individuals that are diverse and understand the community’s challenges, which impact the ability of the community currently and in the future to achieve greater equity. 

Examples include how we address the preparation of our community’s early education and elementary age children best utilizing resources at the local to national levels.  It also directs Alignment’s work with these organizations and the community’s mental health professionals to ensure that children and youth benefit from a safe and supportive environment during school and while in after school programs.  These programs must model a trauma informed care culture that works with children, youth and their families to foster resiliency especially in the areas of our community that have the largest equity gaps and underserved populations. 

As the community works to ensure a future workforce prepared to successfully live and work in the community, that preparation must begin as early as the elementary grades escalating that work with middle and high school students.  The work must prepare them for academic and career success leading to financial security, but it also must develop within them the necessary social and emotional competencies to be contributing members of the community embracing diversity, inclusion, and shared progress.