A celebration, of youth, community, and culture, brought together educators and volunteers on Thursday, May 23, to applaud students who had completed 10-week apprenticeships, all thanks to Citizen Schools, a non-profit that partners with middle schools across the United States to expand the learning day for children in low-income communities.
Read MoreJacky Bailey is a volunteer Citizen Teacher who joined Citizen Schools, after moving to the Bay Area from Australia, because she missed working with students and wanted to get to know her new community. When Bailey decided to teach an apprenticeship with Citizen Schools for the second time, she wanted to ensure her students could enact and advocate for change in the real world - and not just theoretically in the classroom.
Read MoreThe third case study from the Aspen Institute National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development discusses the role community partners can play in supporting children’s learning in collaboration with schools. “School-Community Partnerships” cites key examples of school-community partnerships, highlighting the Tacoma Whole Child Initiative in particular which (as many of you may remember from our visit there last November) takes a city-wide approach to this work, joining everyone from the mayor’s office to the local Boys and Girls Club in support of children’s learning.
Read MoreConnecting young people to successful and caring adults ensures that we are also meeting their developmental needs. Helping students develop essential non-cognitive skills will allow them to thrive in the more rigorous high school environment, as well as in college and the work-place.
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