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Kids Count: Muncie family says involvement is key to high educational success

By Stephanie Wiechmann

Posted April 20, 2022

High school senior Zachariah Jones is headed to Ball State University next year, planning to study music education. He is the fourth of nine children, and the third to attend college. (Stephanie Wiechmann/IPR News)

According to the newest Kids Count Data Book released Tuesday, Indiana is in bottom third of rankings for health. The state does better in education, though – ranking 17 in the country.

One large family in Muncie says participation and attention to learning have been important, especially in weathering the pandemic.

According to a Muncie community activist, Eldred Jones has done what society says she shouldn’t be able to do – raise nine high-achieving Black children in Indiana. Her fourth child, Zachariah, is a college-bound senior at Muncie Central High School. And he says his mom has always insisted he and his siblings be involved.

“Every summer program that was possible and there, my Mom was like, ‘Hey, y’all going to be in it this summer. Y’all going to be doing this. Y’all going to be doing something. I’m not going to have y’all just sit around. Y’all are going to be involved in something,'” he told a crowd of educators and child advocates in Muncie on Wednesday. “And that’s one of the great things that she instilled in us – that it was always good to be involved in something. It was always good to be a part of something that kept us out of trouble.”

Zachariah and his five younger siblings attend school in Delaware County. Like all counties, it has its good and bad numbers in this year’s Kids Count data book.

Delaware County has the sixth highest rate of out-of-school suspensions, and children who are Black or of two or more races see more of those suspensions.

But the same categories of children also saw a proficiency increase on state 3rd grade reading tests during the pandemic, where those rates in the state overall dropped.

Eldred Jones says with many different-aged kids in school at the same time, she could really see the attentiveness of local teachers.

“I compliment them, because my kids are pretty much on-track. My two younger ones – their reading – they’ve improved so much, and they kept through that, even during the times they were out of school.”

And both she and Zachariah say showing up to cheer on their family at school activities is also key to their success.

“Some nights, I was at a football game half the time, and then scooted over to Muncie Central to volleyball for the other half of that. So, it’s just a lot of gas,” she laughs, and her son joins in. “But it’s important, and that’s something my mom made sure, for me, that you look up and see familiar faces.”

Muncie Community Schools CEO Lee Ann Kwiatkowski says the district’s “new crisis” is chronic absenteeism. She says as of this week, 38 percent of students have missed 10 or more days. And nearly 12 percent more almost fall into that category.