ABC Today designation a credit to this community

Cape Girardeau continues to be an innovation center for helping students succeed in school and life.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri recently announced that Jefferson Elementary School in Cape Girardeau has been named an ABC Today school, the inaugural school to receive the designation.

The ABC Initiative, an acronym for Attendance, Behavior and Classroom success in reading and math, has been in place locally for "littles" involved in Big Brothers Big Sisters for eight years.

ABC Today takes the program to the next level. All of the students from kindergarten through fourth grade, about 300, will be tracked in the three quantitative core areas of the ABC Initiative. It is a simple yet an important way for the school to get a snapshot of the data collected and watch for trend lines. The achievements of students who are succeeding will be celebrated. Likewise, the school can track students who are struggling in one or more areas and seek to help that young person get on the right track. Big Brothers Big Sisters representatives told us this is accomplished while following federal privacy laws.

The initial group who met to help launch ABC Today in Jefferson included school officials, and people representing LaCroix Church, the United Way Read to Succeed program, Bank of Missouri and Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Ashley Beggs and Becky James-Hatter, representatives for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri, shared with us how this community has rallied around Big Brothers Big Sisters and that Cape Girardeau has been an innovation center for success. Part of this is attributed to Jefferson Elementary officials and others from the Cape Girardeau Public School District.

"We totally had their buy-in," Beggs said to Southeast Missourian reporter Ruth Campbell. "We made that collective decision together of where we wanted to start this."

For Cape Girardeau to be at the forefront of this innovative effort says a lot about those who volunteer their time, engage in this community and show a passion for helping students succeed.

We look forward to seeing the results of the ABC Today effort in Jefferson.