Site Visits Paint Vivid Pictures for Legislators

From an early age we are taught that a picture is worth a thousand words. At RIASPA, one of our chief goals is to promote high-quality afterschool and summer programs to policymakers. We spend a great deal of time at the State House explaining the importance of afterschool and summer learning to legislators, and describing the high-quality programs that exist throughout our state. While these meetings are helpful, it is difficult to fully describe the impact that high-quality afterschool and summer programs have in the lives of Rhode Island’s children and youth. 

How, then, to connect legislators to programs in action? RIASPA’s solution was to offer legislators a picture of afterschool programs by inviting them to site visits in their districts. Since November, RIASPA has conducted these monthly site visits in Cranston West Warwick, and Providence. The visits give legislators the opportunity to see programming for themselves, and to observe the benefits of community partnerships that high-quality programs typically foster. 

Each visit includes an opportunity for legislators to interact with students, usually during snack time. Following snack, legislators tour several program offerings and observe the students and programming in action. At the Cranston site visit in November, Representatives Charlene Lima and Robert Jacquard were able to observe the “Reading with Henry” program as well as a program run by Traveling Theatre. Each of these program offerings allowed legislators to observe the youth development principles employed that make afterschool and summer programming so important to the development of children and youth. Following the program tour, legislators sat down for a conversation with parents, who explained why afterschool programming is so important to their family and what cuts in afterschool realistically mean for them. These snapshots of programming are invaluable, and last far longer in the legislators’ minds than a meeting conducted in the State House.

“Middle school students often feel forgotten or unimportant, so to have a 'fancy person' come talk to them, listen to them, and go back and advocate for them, means a lot,” said Aimee Falso, Director of the Deering Middle School 21^st Century Community Learning Center Program. “There are many extraordinary moments that occur everyday after school, and we were honored to have Representative Patricia Serpa spend time with us to see that.”

Legislators have also found these site visits to be useful. Representative Edith Ajello felt her tour of the AfterZone at Roger Williams Middle School in Providence helped her to understand how engaging experiential, hands-on learning can be for students. She was also surprised at how important the programs were to parents, who did not have to worry about whether or not their children were safe.

RIASPA will continue legislative site visits throughout the 2010 session, targeting one city or town each month. (Future site visits are planned in Pawtucket and Newport.) RIASPA’s goal is to tour one site in all 39 of Rhode Island’s cities and towns. If you would like to host a site visit, please contact Adam Greenman at adam.greenman@afterschoolri.org.

Rhode Island Summer Learning Demonstration Project (2009)

In partnership with the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, RIASPA is pleased to announce the five programs selected for the 2009 Rhode Island Summer Learning Demonstration Project. These five programs were selected for their innovative approaches to summer learning. The goal of the project is to mitigate summer learning loss of underserved learners through the provision of programming that connects the best aspects of in-school summer programs with the best aspects of community based enrichment and experiential summer learning. The programs will:

·       Implement effective ways to link summer programming with public schools to create a seamless system of education that addresses summer learning loss through the use of high-quality, engaging, experiential summer programs

·       Design programs that integrate learning with engaging, experiential, project-based activities in ways different from regular school day.

The programs promise to be innovative, fun, engaging, and educational. The five programs will serve 750 students in grades 4-8 in Pawtucket, Providence, Woonsocket, and Central Falls. The programs are:

SCOPE 21st Century Community Learning Center/Central Falls School District (Second summer)

Calcutt Middle School’s “COOL” Summer 2009 Program is a collaboration of certified teachers and community based partners with a career exploration theme integrating reading, writing, math, science instruction and experiential learning activities. Calcutt’s “COOL” Summer 2009 Program’s full day design will incorporate learning by aligning and focusing on enriching, hands-on, experiential learning activities to improve proficiency with state assessment tests, increase students’ awareness of career exploration, enhance students’ social and emotional competencies, introduce students to journaling, portfolio development and community service learning projects. Calcutt’s “COOL” Summer 2009 Program will be a true “Community of Outstanding Learners” program where teachers and community based partners and youth workers will receive joint professional development in designing curriculum addressing grade level expectations, weekly planning sessions, ongoing coaching; and best practices in youth development training. The program will be project driven with a focus on Career Exploration running Monday through Friday, 8AM to 1PM, beginning July 7 and ending August 7, 2009, and will serve 150 students. 

Connecting for Children and Families, Woonsocket

Chillin’ and Skillin’ will provide 80-100 4^th-6^th graders from Kevin K. Coleman Elementary school five weeks to explore Woonsocket’s rich arts, health and fitness and environmental resources while promoting math and literacy skills. Learning will happen at neighborhood parks, community centers, along the banks of the Blackstone River, and at community organizations. The program will be working with Traveling Theatre Company, Kids First Nutrition, RiverzEdge Arts, Ultimate Martial Arts, the YMCA of Greater Woonsocket, Family Karate, and John H. Chaffee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor Commission. The program’s Instructional Director/Coach works during the school year as Coleman’s literacy coach, will work with all staff and each of the community partners to integrate math and literacy lessons into the students’ community-based adventures.

Providence After School Alliance

PASA will design its summer program as an extension of the Providence Public School District’s (PPSD) summer remediation program. This year PASA and the district will align their program schedule so the school department’s remediation program and PASA’s afternoon experiential learning and recreation program are scheduled together and school faculty will join PASA’s program providers to jointly run science, math and literacy programs. The program will focus on intensive project–based learning in the sciences, math and the arts, co-taught by school-day teachers and community based providers. In addition, students will have an opportunity to participate in more traditional recreational activities that still build upon the themes of science, arts and math. Literacy components will be woven throughout all programming to ensure a well-rounded summer learning experience. The AfterZone summer program offers an opportunity for students to progress at their own rate while enhancing fundamental academic skills and increasing the quality of experiential learning. Through the proposed partnership, PASA will explore new and innovative programming and joint-teaching strategies that can be replicated during the school year in school-day/AfterZone partnerships. In addition, PASA hopes to build stronger links among community providers who have expertise, educational tools and resources and school faculty in the hopes these community providers may be invited to serve as guest presenters in school-day classrooms during the school year. The program will run four days a week for four weeks and serve 300 youth.

Pawtucket School Department Child Opportunity Zone (Second summer)

Expanding on the work started with a grant in 2008, the project will continue to develop a fully integrated summer program model for Pawtucket’s three middle schools, Slater, Jenks, and Goff. Each school will implement a five-week summer program for 50 students (150 total). The program will take place Monday-Friday for at least 4.5 hours per day. The program in each school will be led by teachers and community partners around a specific theme. In developing the themes, teachers from various disciplines will work with the District’s curriculum director and the literacy and math coaches to produce the curriculum materials. This information will be used to document what works and what does not, and all will be complied in a curriculum binder for future program implementation. The program will be open to all students.  Students who are one to two years behind grade level will be identified and personally invited and encouraged to attend the program. At the end of each summer program, the students will produce a product that will demonstrate proficiencies and is portfolio-worthy. This program provides the District and the COZ/21^st CLC with the opportunity to continue to build on its work and to continue its collaboration between the COZ, the schools, and community partners and to work as one to improve outcomes for students. By participating and producing a product, students will have the opportunity to collaborate with each other, think critically about a topic, explore it in depth, develop and investigate probing questions, and report on it both orally and in writing. This will be an invaluable opportunity for students entering 7^thand 8^th grades to begin thinking about the high-school graduation requirements and to use summer to incorporate these skills into their learning experience.  

Boys and Girls Club of Pawtucket

The Summer Learning Program will enroll 60 Pawtucket Students, approximately 30 each from Nathanael Greene and Flora S. Curtis Elementary Schools. Students will be placed in four groups of 15. The full camp will run for four weeks, with two-week sessions each at Camp Sun ‘n’ Fun and Camp Ramsbottom. Camp will run five days a week from June 29 – July 24. Out of each two-week session, students will spend one day on a field trip. Each camper group of 15 students will be led by a teacher from the Pawtucket School Department, with youth development/adventure counselors assisting in the camp activities. The focus of the four-week experience will be adventure/nature based. Students will read books (one each session) identified by teachers and take part in camp activities that relate to what they are reading about. Teachers will read, reflect, and journal with kids at the beginning and end of each day. Each group will create one newsletter per session to allow for more concrete reflection and the improvement of writing skills.

The five funded programs are a critical component of the Rhode Island Summer Learning Demonstration Project. Over the past year and a half, the Rhode Island Summer Learning Working Group has been working to identify best practices around summer learning. RIASPA is managing and convening the Working Group, providing technical assistance and evaluation through consultants, and working on a policy level through legislation to form a legislative task force on summer learning.      

The purpose of the Supporting Student Success (S3) project was to work with a State Leadership Team and Advisors to analyze the possibilities around integration of high quality ELOs such as afterschool programs, summer learning, and extended day programs, into a comprehensive approach to education. On a national level the S3 project was a shared collaboration among the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), and the National Governor’s Association (NGA), with funding from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Additional support for this project in Rhode Island was provided by the United Way of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Justice Commission and the Rhode Island Foundation. Rhode Island, through the Rhode Island Afterschool Plus Alliance, was one of six states that received the grant. The other states include Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Colorado, Iowa, and Ohio.

This report is intended to be used as an agenda for action (both near, mid- and long-term), as well as a case study for other states seeking to do similar work. We envision this as a working document to inform the next phase of our work. You will see therefore that the structure of the report includes a description of "work underway" and specific next steps for each recommended strategy.