Citizen Schools Hosts Inaugural ELT Summit

Last month, Citizen Schools brought together well over 100 people, including school leaders from twenty-two schools and eleven districts for  an inaugural Expanded Learning Time (ELT) Summit in Boston, MA. ELT practitioners, key supporters, and movement-builders from across the Citizen Schools’ national network came together to discuss and build momentum for the organization’s ELT work. Over the course of the two-day conference, school principals, teachers, board members, and Citizen Schools staff met to re-imagine the school day and explore how the opportunity for more time in the classroom can change the trajectory of student success. Paul Reville, Massachusetts’ Secretary of Education, gave a keynote address that posed challenging questions about the need for a “new delivery system” for education. A vibrant panel discussion moderated by Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institure was held on Friday, July 15th. Panelists included Fred Frelow of The Ford Foundation, Chris Gabrieli from the National Center for Time & Learning, and Diana De La Rosa of the Houston Independent School District.

By coming together to exchange ideas, attendees worked on establishing a community of practice to solve problems, share ideas, and celebrate student success in an effort to close the achievement and opportunity gap for middle school students.

The positive effects that the expanded learning day can have on students are exemplified in the overwhelming success of the Clarence Edwards Middle School in Boston. The school went from one of the city’s lowest-performing schools on the verge of closure to one of the city’s highest performing schools. Watch a moving video of the school’s transformation that was debuted at the summit here.

Click here for more on the ELT Summit.

Click here for an Education Week Op-Ed that shares highlights from the summit and was co-authored by Eric Schwarz, Citizen Schools co-founder and CEO, and Fred Frelow of the Ford Foundation.