Press Releases
After-school is time of transition
A $1.2 million federal grant will target rising students at two East Durham schools
By NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES, Staff Writer
News & Observer, Aug
30, 2005
Reprinted with permission from the News & Observer
Durham Public Schools has gotten a $1.2 million federal grant to provide after-school arts education, homework help and career training for dozens of rising sixth- and ninth-grade students at two East Durham schools.
The money will be divvied up between the schools and three partners -- Durham Parks and Recreation, Youth Life Foundation of the Triangle and Victorious Community Development Corp. -- to establish 21st Century Community Learning Centers at Southern High and Neal Middle schools. Such programs already exist at Y.E. Smith, Merrick-Moore and Holt elementaries and Hillside High.
"We're very excited," said Linda Chappel, the district's executive director of community education. "We are really working hard to improve student achievement, and this type of program in the out-of-school time is really needed."
With the money, the district will target students entering the tough transition years between elementary and middle and middle and high school. Those are the years when students typically have a hard time adjusting, because they are going to a different type of school and are again among the youngest students.
Some 250 students who are struggling academically or could use some leadership skills will get extra support in the hours right after school, on weekends and during the summer. The centers' aim is to improve student behavior, academics and attitudes toward school, which Chappel hopes will reduce discipline problems and suspensions and improve students' self-esteem and likelihood to graduate.
That is crucial at Neal and Southern, which have difficulty meeting state and federal student achievement standards.
Students will be referred mostly by teachers and guidance counselors and will get intensive tutoring, structured homework support and free SAT preparation courses. Activities will be designed not to seem like just more class time, instead guiding students through the standard course of study with a more hands-on approach.
The program also seeks to support children in nonacademic ways, Chappel said.
Students will learn to be more fit and health conscious through the partnership with the city's parks and recreation department, where students will take aquatics and get tips on eating right. The students will get in touch with their lyrical sides through the Youth Life Foundation, which will teach poetry and other literary activities after school. And the Victorious Community Development Corp. will teach students to operate video cameras and provide other career training.