Each day after school, a group of students at Mt. Vernon Community School willingly attend an additional hour of class. They are learning and they are having fun and, hopefully, their test scores this year will reflect their hard work and the efforts of those who are working with them.
The program is a cooperative venture among The Campagna Center, Mt. Vernon Community School, the Alexandria Education Partnership, the Tutoring Consortium and the Tenant and Worker Support Committee. It is funded by the U. S. Department of Education as part of the 21st Century Community Learning Center initiative.
"We are working with students who have either been retained or conditionally promoted in an effort to raise their test scores and help them to perform on the appropriate grade level," said Michele Brandon, the director of the program at Mt. Vernon. "This is the first year of our grant so we don't know how this is going to effect test scores yet. The students are enthusiastic and the teachers are doing a wonderful job, so we are very hopeful."
There are 160 students enrolled in the program and 27 teachers are working with them, for a classroom ratio of six to one. Each student spends two hours a week in the program. Teachers design their own curriculum, based on specific Virginia Standards of Learning criteria.
"The teachers have developed really innovative curriculum," Brandon said. "One teacher is working on reading and math standards of learning through nutrition. She has the kids write down recipes and then works with them to measure ingredients and make the healthy snack."
ACCORDING TO information provided by the U. S. Department of Education, the 21st Century Community Learning Center program is a key component of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. It is an opportunity for students and their families to learn new skills and discover new abilities after the school day has ended.
Congress has appropriated $993.5 million for afterschool programs for this year. However, Bush has recommended cutting the program by 40 percent in the new budget that was submitted to Congress earlier this week.
"The president's recommended funding level falls critically short of the promise made in the No Child Left Behind Act," said Katherine Morrison, executive director of the Campagna Center. "That Act calls for $2 billion in federal funding for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative in FY2005 to keep kids safe, help them improve academically and support working families.
"The president's request that Congress appropriate half of the authorized amount, $1 billion, is not nearly enough to meet the needs of America's children and families. It means that millions of children and their parents will have to find another way to juggle work, school, learning and safety."
IN ADDITION TO classroom work, the program at Mt. Vernon Community School includes parenting classes. "After a bit of a slow start, we are doing very well," said John Liss, executive director of the Tenant and Worker Support Committee. "We are working with parents to explain to them why it is important for them to allow their children to participate in this program and to attend the support sessions that we are offering for them.
"While there isn't 100 percent attendance, we have gotten dozens of parents to come to meetings and learn more about how to help their children succeed in school."
Parents are learning about how to help with homework, how to read and understand report cards, how to make the most of parent-teacher conferences and how to understand the workings of the public school system.
"We present these workshops in English and Spanish because many of our parents are only Spanish speaking," Brandon said.
The grant is a one-year grant but is potentially renewable for two additional years. "We would like to expand the program into at least one additional school, perhaps in the west end of the city," Brandon said.
The program will run through the end of May, with a summer component slated to begin in July.
"The summer program will be for rising sixth-graders, teens and pre-kindergartners," Brandon said.