A Public School That Not Only Keeps Children Safe, But Heals

A special accelerated education program named Udaan in India offers a chance for girls aged 11-14 from rural areas to quickly complete their primary schooling. The highly interactive and engaging curriculum teaches girls language, math, environmental science, and gender politics. In 2016 the program joined President Obama's "Let Girls Learn" initiative to expand across Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, Pakistan and Somalia to reach 3 million girls.

The Austin Independent School District is expanding its therapist intervention program at a variety of its schools in order to help improve student well-being. Over 40 student mental health clinics, which are open year-round, are now present in elementary, middle, and high schools and also offer its services to parents, and through their presence have helped increase attendance, as well as helping students cope with stress and anxiety.

Only about 40 percent of students in the fourth and eighth grades in the U.S. are considered proficient in reading. A group of parents in Arkansas, whose students are dyslexic, are introducing new strategies informed by their children's experiences to change the way reading instruction is taught to all students statewide.

Teacher home visits have been hailed as a strategy to improve student performance; however, in areas where students regularly move across district lines, a regional home-visit approach may be necessary. The Dallas-Fort Worth area has emerged as one model.

As school poverty rates goes up, learning and test scores fall. At Gildo Ray elementary school in Washington state uses a teaching method called director or explicit instruction, in which children learn from a structured approach to teaching with teacher-guided practice. Gildo Ray’s test scores in math and reading are among the highest in the state.

Minnesota schools began a comprehensive program aimed at assisting children of minority groups to successfully navigate the college application process and push them towards higher education.

Lagos' Project Zero program worked with teachers, youth organizations, and other groups in the education space to reach out to parents of students who had dropped out of school during the pandemic. The program provided them with school kits including everything they needed to re-enroll, such as books, uniforms, shoes, and other supplies.

To enhance learning, Smart Primary School has integrated peer-mentoring in its curriculum through the Buddy program. Each student in the first grade is paired with a fifth grader who tutors and guides the younger one with lessons and activities for the next four years. The program has not just helped them improve their language, communication, and mathematics skills, but also helped enhance the school atmosphere through the trust and bonding students build in the process.

Books for Keeps works to increase the literacy rate of students by providing them with books to read during the summer when they aren’t at school. Since 2009, Books for Keeps has given away almost 800,000 books. A study by the nonprofit found that students gained almost 17% of a grade level more over the summer than students who didn't participate in Books for Keeps.

In Boston, four organizations that serve Black and Latino families formed an alliance to provide low-cost learning pods to students of color. Run out of two churches, the full-day learning pods “serve nearly two dozen kindergarten through sixth-grade students.” The service comes at a crucial time, since pandemic learning is leaving behind students of color who already were at a disadvantage.