Implementing institution: Citizen Schools Foundation
Country: United States
Source: Fundación Telefónica
Execution period: 1995 - in progress
Plataforma de Prácticas Efectivas:
To close performance gaps at the elementary level, allowing for successful transitions to high school and higher college graduation rates.
Practice-based extracurricular sessions given by volunteer professionals.
Program members achieve, on average, higher participation rates in the higher education system (+31%) with an increase in their ability to complete their degree (+22%) and graduate (+12%).
Citizen Schools, along with offering traditional classes, provide extracurricular sessions during which students learn by doing. The program is aimed at children at the primary level (6th, 7th and 8th), preferably from low-income families. Citizen Schools innovation was developed in the 1990s by two Boston University engineering graduates. The principle is to form partnerships with low-income educational communities that need resources, and to add large companies or foundations such as AmeriCorps, Biogen Foundation, Cisco, Dell, Hewlett Packard, among others.
Citizen Schools’ extracurricular sessions are based on peer learning, organized in small groups and moderated by a mentor. This one is usually an expert of some subject matter and works voluntarily during 10 weeks, in weekly sessions of 90 minutes. In the sessions, students become professionals (web designers, lawyers, financial advisors, etc.). so that they apply their knowledge acquired in class and see how it would serve them in their future professional life.
Learning focuses on both the traditional curriculum (math, reading, history, arts) and the soft skills of the 21st century (oral presentation, teamwork, leadership). The sessions are complemented by visits to other organizations or companies and culminate in an annual WOW! demonstration where children present their progress to their parents.
| While it is true that the United States has one of the best education systems in the world, it is also true that one of its main challenges is access to university, where between 2006 and 2015, the net participation of young people in that academic level ranged between 17 and 21%. | ||
| At the same time, there is a strict selection of students to enter university according to their results at the primary and secondary level, where the acceptance rate of all U.S. universities, does not exceed 60%. In this sense, socioeconomic factors play a role, since students whose families have higher incomes have access to primary and secondary schools of proportional quality. Then at university, given the high cost of careers, students belong, for the most part also, to the upper echelons of society. | ||
| On the other hand, the Report of the Program for International Student Assessment, or <em><strong>PISA Report</em></strong>, has highlighted in 2015 that there are acceptable levels in reading and science for 15-year-olds, but at the same time, this result is below the OECD average for mathematics. |
Between 2001 and 2008, the Citizen Schools Foundation led a longitudinal study to measure the impact of its program on students’ ability to enter college and graduate. A group of 50 children who received the program were selected in the first year. They were studied throughout their schooling until their university graduation. The comparison between that group and the national average results has shown an increase in their participation in the university of more than 31%. Similarly, they are more willing to finish their degree (+22%) and graduate (+12%). These results are explained by an improvement in their math skills in high school (+9 percentage points in 9th grade); +15 in 10th grade), as well as in reading and arts (+13 percentage points in 9th grade); 22 at 12th grade). Considering the positive effects of the program, innovation has an interest in replicating itself in other fields and does not represent a very high cost, as it relies on voluntary tutors.
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