Clifton Community Partnership

Other article:
Focusing on What's Important
May 30, 2008
Source: Community Partnership Update/May 2008

If seeing is believing, then teachers at Druid Hills High School (DHHS) must trust what they’ve seen in the classroom: students who have trouble seeing the blackboard, often show disinterest in learning and end up with sub-par grades.

Dr. Betheda Gramling, a math teacher serving on the DHHS council and her colleague, Anna Box, were worried that too many of their students were having difficulty seeing in the classroom. They wondered if these students might be part of a larger issue and whether poor vision might be causing students to underperform at school.

The See Clearly program started when these teachers noticed students squinting at the blackboard in class. So the council turned to Dr. Linda Spencer, an Emory nursing professor, and Dr. Martha Rogers, a pediatrician at Emory’s School of Nursing, to investigate whether student nurses could organize and perform vision screenings at the high school. “We decided to start by screening all ninth-graders,” said Dr. Rogers, DHHS council member and director of Emory’s Center for Child Wellbeing.

Students in the School of Nursing program are required to complete 500 community service hours as part of their coursework. Several students in the Public Health Nursing Leadership program assisted in screening 240 high school freshmen last fall.

“Of the 240 high school students screened, 32 percent had some level of vision impairment,” said Dr. Rogers. “Many of these children said they had glasses but left them home the day of the screening or they felt their glasses were out-of-date.” The school sent letters home with students that suggested further exams, and counselors are following up to make sure that parents are aware of their student’s needs.

“DHHS hopes to continue the See Clearly program in the future through a strong partnership with Emory,” said Dr. Rogers.

This partnership is one example of experimental learning from Emory students in health-related fields to get hands-on experience. The DHHS council continues to explore additional ways to work together with the University. Last fall, Emory students provided one-on-one tutoring and SAT preparation to DHHS juniors and seniors.