Jason Davis, a
community school advocate based in Portland is keeping a blog journal about his
time here at the 2012 National Forum.
Day two- we’re
alive and kicking, unless it’s right after lunch and in front of a projector
screen. This morning opened with an interesting presentation about executive function
by Ellen Galinsky, president and co-founder of Families and Work Institute. She
describes executive function as a set of cognitive abilities that control other
behaviors, or as shown by the ability to concentrate when things are difficult
or challenging. We watched the classic Stanford marshmallow experiment where
kids are left alone in a room with a marshmallow and told that if, when someone
returns, the marshmallow is still there they will receive another one, and so
on. Laughter filled banquet hall. If you’ve never seen it, I’m sure you’ll
appreciate the related TED
talk.
For the
first mini-plenary session I attended Expanded and Engaging Learning
Opportunities with Lucy Friedman, Jamie Lopez, Jennifer Peck, and Hillary
Salmons. Expanded learning time is essentially extending the school day so that
hands-on opportunities are offered after school in coordination with the
pedagogical focus of the school day. Kids, families, and partners are all given
ownership in the decision making process for designing the activities. Hillary
Salmons of Providence After School Alliance had a great ‘from then to now’
story to tell. She follows the guide of “Do high-end design now, back into it, and
you’ll be okay”. Eight years ago
Providence began the AfterZone summer program, has recently moved toward an
extended learning day with a focus on middle schools because of the high 9th
grade dropout rate. The schools tell the same story we all know: high poverty
rate, low performance, and high need for English language learning. They
followed the TASCS program, paired teachers and community organizers, poured in
as much professional development as they could, and followed form of blending
practice and learning. Though things did not easily fall into place, students
seemed to really respond to applying the skills they learned during the school
day to fun activities after school. STEM related activities tend to be popular
across all the programs presented. Parents were finding that they had more to
talk about with their kids. Teachers were even getting into the activities
because they spend so much of their time on the lessons, but never get to enjoy
the application. PASA has aligned the after school activities to state
standards and now count them as elective credits toward graduation. They also
found that because the TASCS program is so much smaller than a district, there
is faster turnaround when someone wants to do something with the kids, so the
schools started to lean on the organization to get things done.
At lunch I had the pleasure of catching up with Glen Biggs
from Alignment Nashville. During my graduate work in Nashville it was
impossible not to cross paths with this organization. They provide around 23
programs for any Metro Nashville Public School with corresponding needs, and
now with the lead of Assistant Superintendent, Tony Biggs, they are expanding the
community school model to twelve schools in the district. This organization
does great work, and is worth keeping your eye on.
After lunch I caught Building Community through
Service-Learning with Susan A. Abravanel from Youth Service America. I’ve long
seen service-learning as a win-win situation for everyone involved. Students
are going out into the community, learning about local needs and addressing
them, and then bringing the experiences back to the classroom to critically
reflect on and learn from them; and it happens to be something colleges look
for in an applicant. Teachers can fairly easily incorporate these lessons into
their content. Partnering community building organizations receive support and
exposure for their cause. And with the proper results, community partners build
their reputation by lending resources to the program. Susan poignantly mentioned
that the research shows that projects must be of significant duration for
everyone to get something out of it. YSA puts this around at least one semester
of 70 hours. In the end we’re improving student achievement, building stronger
communities, and preparing kids for the workforce. Perhaps most importantly,
kids are given a voice and the power to do something that has meaning.
The last session of the day I attended Bringing Health
Services to Your Community School. I’ve long read and heard about the benefits
of having a health center paired up with a community school program. Samantha Blackburn and Susan Yee did a great
job of addressing the surrounding issues. As with most community school
initiatives, it all comes down to funding and community needs. And as one would
imagine, you start with a needs assessment, engaging community members and
partners, and thereby getting the word out that this center is on its way. By
engaging students in walking through the process, the organizer better
understands the needs of the primary recipient and students gain a valuable
experience. The results of the assessment determine how far into the community
the services will extend, what kind of facilities are needed, and most
importantly, what the program is going to cost. Coincidentally, HERSA released
a capital grants opportunity just yesterday with a $500k cap, so get your grant
writing pens out. There are, of course,
many steps and issues along the way, but I have to be honest in saying that it
seems much more feasible than I had expected.
As for Friday’s events, there are once again too many
interesting talks to be able to attend all the ones I want to see. Portland’s SUN Community School initiative will be presenting on their successful
multi-jurisdictional partnership setup. There look to be some interesting
technology talks about community mapping and data dashboards. And in the late
afternoon we’ll be getting together in role alike break out sessions to hear
from others in the same position as ourselves.
