For DREAM co-Chief Executive Officer Eve Colavito, the maxim \u201cAll Kids Can. This Kid Can.\u201d is particularly meaningful. It is a guiding principle for how she leads DREAM and drives its mission forward, a core belief instilled from her childhood growing up in a family of educators, and a fact she\u2019s reminded of each day as a parent to three children.<\/p>\n
In the DREAM Q&A below, hear more from Eve on her personal connection to this maxim, how it informs her work, and her path as an educator and leader.<\/p>\n
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n DREAM: Can you tell us a little about your background, before you became co-CEO of DREAM?<\/strong> DREAM: You said you always knew you wanted to become a teacher. What was the driving force behind that?<\/strong> DREAM: What was it about DREAM and its mission that first stood out to you?<\/strong> Years later, when I was introduced to DREAM, there was this sense that this school was trying to be something more than a school. It was rooted in the East Harlem community. And I found myself really itching to get back to a place that felt more like a family, somewhere where we were all deeply connected to a purpose, where we were grounded in something bigger than ourselves. Knowing DREAM and Harlem RBI\u2019s history, meeting the people who worked here, and then seeing that the school was trying to do something different\u2014it all drew me in.<\/p>\n DREAM: You have such an extensive background in childhood education, but I would assume being a parent to three school-aged children (ages 17, 14, and 9) also affects your approach to what you do. Has being a parent changed or reinforced any of the ways you approach your work?<\/strong> DREAM: Your daughter Vivian has Angelman Syndrome, a neurogenetic condition that can cause developmental delays for children. How has what you\u2019ve learned through her educational pursuits informed your work at DREAM?<\/strong> After Vivian was born, when we started to have conversations with her therapists and her teachers, asking what kind of school she would thrive in, we knew it should be a place where you could leverage her assets and build on her strengths, while still giving her all the supports and interventions she needs academically. Vivian is a joyful ray of sunshine, and while she is non-verbal, she finds many other ways to communicate. Could we find a school that would see these strengths in her? When we went to shape what that program would look like, there were some things that stood out to me as necessary ingredients for inclusion programs that are also modeled here at DREAM.<\/p>\n First, I think one of the necessary ingredients is a strong community. You can\u2019t drop an inclusion program into a community that doesn\u2019t have a sense of belonging. The community has to see including kids with disabilities as part of the fight for equity in our country. It has to be more than \u2018admirable\u2019 for a place like DREAM to serve all kids \u2013 it has to be wonderful and necessary to fulfill our purpose. At DREAM, we have a set of leaders who believe deeply that all kids are our community’s responsibility. That we have a responsibility to meet kids where they are, and that we do not lower the bar, but in fact work extra hard to help them meet the bar.<\/p>\n The second thing is having highly skilled teachers that believe in what we\u2019re doing. It\u2019s one thing to have community, and then there\u2019s having the individuals who can execute. I think it\u2019s one of the reasons teachers come to work at DREAM\u2014we aim to be an inclusive environment where all kids belong. We end up attracting the kind of teacher that wants to put their all into finding out what assets you\u2019re going to leverage for every kid. Our teachers, just like Vivian\u2019s teachers, see each child\u2019s own unique ray of light.<\/p>\n The third thing I learned about creating successful inclusion models is that you need concrete tools and skills. I think that\u2019s the area we are now growing for DREAM. We have an incredible community, teachers who are committed, and strong data-driven practices\u2014and we\u2019re in the process of building the technical skills and tools to meet a more diverse range of learners. We don\u2019t yet have kids at DREAM who have as profound disabilities as Vivian has, but that\u2019s the next level of work we need to do. That\u2019s our next frontier.<\/p>\n DREAM: DREAM\u2019s population includes nearly 30% of students who have identified special needs, a number that is well above the New York City average. How has DREAM equipped itself with the tools needed to support this population?<\/strong> We\u2019re also very flexible and adaptable. If a child can\u2019t do something, we are going to gradually work toward goals and believe they can get there. We\u2019re willing to shift\u2014there is no one way at DREAM. We have a responsive curriculum that allows us to teach rigorous grade-level content while also meeting the needs of individual kids. The fact that we have two teachers in a classroom allows us to do that\u2014by design, we are set up to be a responsive environment. As teachers look at their lessons for the week, one of the things they\u2019re doing is thinking about who needs support, who needs something explained in a different way, who needs a resource, who will need 1-1 support. Our teachers are always thinking about their students as individuals.<\/p>\n At DREAM we also believe that an accelerated approach and diverse environments are good for everybody. When you have kids explaining their thinking in sophisticated ways, that’s good for everyone. When kids are thinking about something in different ways than you were thinking before, that\u2019s also good for everybody. Learning is not linear, and flexible thinking is one of the greatest assets to have as an adult.<\/p>\n DREAM: As DREAM continues to grow, what does the future of its special education work look like?<\/strong> We have stories of success to prove our model works, but I can also think of the kids whose needs we couldn\u2019t meet, and the next stage for DREAM is for us to find a way. My goal for DREAM is we one day have the resources and expertise for a fourth grader like Vivian to thrive. And I think if anyone is poised to do that it\u2019s us, given the mindsets, beliefs, and commitment of the people who work here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For DREAM co-Chief Executive Officer Eve Colavito, the maxim \u201cAll Kids Can. This Kid Can.\u201d is particularly meaningful. 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\nEve Colavito: I started my career as a teacher, which is what I always knew I was going to do. Shortly after, I realized I lacked some of the skills I needed to meet the needs of the kids in my classroom. So I decided to go back to school and get a degree in special education. I wasn\u2019t confident I would become a special education teacher, but I knew there was something I was missing in terms of the depth of knowledge I had about kids. I then used that learning to help found an inclusion program at a charter school in the Bronx before coming to DREAM. My first role here was Director of Curriculum and Instruction, then I was the second principal of our first elementary school, and I have continued to grow with the organization since then.<\/p>\n
\nEC: One, I come from a family of teachers. My grandmother went back to school in her 50s to become a teacher. My mom was a special education teacher. My dad was a teacher and then a principal, and then a district leader. My dad always lived and breathed his work. His students would be at our house, they were our babysitters. Education was just in the air everywhere. The second reason was Mrs. Joseph, my third grade teacher. She had a really remarkable way of being incredibly caring and holding us highly accountable. I remember how much I loved her, and I wanted to make her proud. I was a very good student, but I got in trouble one time, and I remember her distinctly holding me accountable. I was probably really embarrassed, but I also remember not wanting to let her down. I remember thinking, \u201cI wonder if I could ever be like Mrs. Joseph.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nEC: When I was a classroom teacher, I was part of a very small school that had a wonderful community\u2014families sent multiple kids there year after year, and the school felt like a family in many ways. There was a connection between leaders, teachers, and families that felt unique.<\/p>\n
\nEC: I parent in a lot of the ways I believe educators should teach\u2014I think kids need a combination of deep love and support, alongside really high expectations and a belief they can do anything. Becoming a parent reinforced that for me as an educator. As a parent, you know the ins and outs of your kids\u2014what time they woke up, what they ate, why that first period is hard for them, which subjects they\u2019re struggling with. You know all of these things, because you only have your kids. But when you\u2019re a teacher or a school leader, you have many kids in front of you every day. As a parent who\u2019s also an educator, you\u2019re carrying these two truths in your head all the time\u2014that every single person in front of me is an individual with a diverse set of needs affected by so much, and that you have a responsibility to teach all of them. It\u2019s really hard to carry these two things together\u2014the deep understanding of the individual and the mandate of the collective that education requires. Really excellent teachers do both. They can move through the work keeping both in mind all the time. And maybe I knew that before I became a parent, but I think the empathy I have for parents and the people who teach our kids every day became stronger.<\/p>\n
\nEC: I had studied special education. I learned how to teach kids with reading disorders. I learned about neurodivergent kids as a graduate student, and then I taught neurodivergent kids as a teacher and led a program for neurodivergent kids as director. And then Vivian was born with this rare condition. More than anything, what has been reinforced for me is how important it is to presume unlimited potential in every child.\u00a0 We have to think about kids with disabilities in really unique and individual ways, with an understanding that there is no one-size-fits-all for our kids who are neurodivergent, and that the spaces, environments, and tools they are given really have to match who they are.<\/p>\n
\nEC: The thing that DREAM excels at is represented first and foremost by our maxim All Kids Can. This Kid Can.\u2014the strong belief that every kid belongs and every kid can achieve. It\u2019s required as a foundation for what we do. When we meet a new child who presents with some difference, our approach is to learn about them, observe, gather data, figure out what their assets and strengths are, and leverage those things. We approach from a learning orientation and a strengths perspective. So many schools meet kids and look only at deficits\u2014what can they not do? Where are the gaps? But DREAM is so good at looking first at children\u2019s strengths.<\/p>\n
\nEC: I would like us to grow into a place that can meet the needs of kids with really diverse and profound needs. I have tons of examples of the dramatic impact that DREAM has had on a child\u2019s life\u2014I\u2019m thinking of all the kids I know who started at DREAM, were diagnosed with a disability, and their teachers were able to figure out exactly what they needed and meet that need. And many of those students are in college or heading off to college and are incredibly successful.<\/p>\n