Message from Our Director

 

Greetings Colleagues:

 

The After School Experience Conference is fast upon us. The theme of the event is "From Many We Are One" celebrating the diversity in services and programs through Extended School Day/School Violence Prevention, 21^st Century Community Learning Centers, Advantage After School, Youth Development/Delinquency Prevention, Special Delinquency Prevention Programs, Safe Alternatives for Family Enrichment, School-Age Child Care, New York City Out-of-School Time and New York City Beacon Centers. As we know, March brings us St. Patrick's Day and Women's History Month. Let's examine how a movement can generate exponential results.

 

When the Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845, close to a million Catholic Irish began to pour into America. Despised for their religious beliefs and accents, the immigrants had trouble finding work. However, the Irish found their strength through organizing politically and eventually became an important swing vote known as the "green machine" for political hopefuls.

 

Women, no longer content to bask in the shadow of men with no social and economic equality, bonding together have transformed the face of history setting in place a new look where respect and equity are foundational.  

 

We can learn a great deal from Irish immigrants and women in America drawing a parallel of their movements and that of the after school. We must acknowledge our power in unity and take a stand together. Together, we can provide services to the more than 14.3 million children who are alone and unsupervised in the hours after school. Together, our collective passion, commitment and hard work as individuals, agencies and the community-at-large makes us unstoppable. Make us powerful - beyond belief.

 

Shalom,

Network participants start by assembling an action team that links their program agenda to school improvement goals. Made up of teachers, administrators, and parents, the team is responsible for writing annual plans for family and community involvement, implementing and evaluating activities, and integrating activities conducted by groups and individual teachers into a comprehensive partnership program for the school.

Action plans focus on six platforms for school-community engagement:

1. Parenting
2. Communicating
3. Volunteering
4. Learning at Home
5. Decision Making
6. Collaborating with the Community

In this Educational Leadership article, Joyce L. Epstein and Karen Clark Salinas give examples of programs that have successfully addressed these themes and used community strength to build student (and community) proficiency in areas like reading, math, writing, and career and college preparation. The authors share several anecdotes from the field that support growing a strong, inclusive school community. Read More...

They found that in order to support their focus on academics, the studied schools consistently nurture a culture of trust that is shared mutually among administrators, teachers, students and parents. The study consisted of 16 New York schools: 10 consistently higher-performing schools compared with six schools serving similar populations but achieving only average results. Poverty levels in at least half of the higher-performing schools met or exceeded the state's average. Per pupil expenditures were close to the state average, and the schools represented a variety of sizes, communities, geographic regions and student populations. In this way, the study was able to look at schools that achieve, based on more than just resources and demographics. Read More...