Lessons From A School Without Walls

Rise Up for Youth is a program built into some Wichita schools that works to keep teenagers out of gangs and helps them focus on positive changes in their community. There are two programs — one for males called the Brotherhood and one for females called Sisterhood – which encourage teens to keep busy and find activities that give them a natural high. Participants visit prisons, talk with police and people coming out of incarceration, and make college visits. Since the program started, 100% of student participants have graduated from high school and many have gone on to college and have successful careers.

SEED for Oklahoma Kids is a statewide effort to help newer generations climb the educational ladder and build assets. Parents are offered $1,000 in their newborn's name and set aside in a college savings account, destined to be used for pursuing college or trade school education. The concept of the program is not unique to Oklahoma. Other states like Nebraska, Illinois, Maine, Pennsylvania, and more have implemented similar programs. "Automatic enrollment in a saving program, with the ability to opt out, turns out to have a much higher participation rate than relying on individuals to take the initiative."

Texan cities, like McAllen and El Paso, are bridging the digital divide for students and building infrastructure to connect whole communities. In El Paso, the city used $150,000 of the $84 million it received in federal funds to purchase hotspots, which are now available for check-out from public libraries. In McAllen, the city has taken on the $1 million annual cost to provide Wi-Fi to the entire city.

The Student View is a program helping youth from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to learn more about misinformation and navigating the media landscape. The program has been able to expand to 20 cities in the United Kingdom to provide 72 pop-up school newsrooms.

Research shows tutoring can increase learning. Two years into the pandemic, the exact rates of learning loss due to pandemic learning are still unknown, but its effects have been documented. Researchers, teachers, and academics are advocating for “high dosage,” or “high impact," tutoring (a form of tutoring where one tutor is paired with one student, or a group of small students) at a national level. Students at Chicago public schools who got high impact tutoring “two to three times as much as their peers.”

English language learners in Cleveland, Ohio are getting the help they need to get through school through bilingual learning pods. Esperanza Inc., a local non-profit, opened up centers for Spanish-speaking students catch up on their remote learning lessons, but the crucial part was staffing the center with bilingual staff. The centers currently have a waitlist and serve anywhere from 40-50 students.

Middle school teachers in San Antonio, Texas, have resorted to home visits and "nudging," meaning they leave notices for parents at the door with information about consequences, at the first sign of students disengaging from classes or schoolwork. Two teachers go door-to-door to interact with students, and their parents or guardians, to find out why students are not logging on to their remote classes or completing their homework. They also help deliver groceries, or other essential supplies depending on the student's need. The approach has paid off and the teacher has averaged 99% attendance in class.

School counselors in Alabama's schools are providing students with mental health care resources. Florence City Schools partnered with local organizations to provide therapists on-site, as well as social workers. "Currently, 97 of Alabama’s 138 school districts and all five public charter schools have applied for and received $40,000 each to go toward paying the salary of a master’s-level mental health professional to coordinate the district’s mental health efforts for students."

As conspiracy theories spread and misleading news stories are shared, educators are trying to battle misinformation with media literacy education. Through courses, and updated class curriculum, students from elementary to college are learning how to better differentiate between false news stories and misinformation.

School districts and cities in California are looking to create their own local Wifi networks as a long-term solution to the digital divide, and an alternative to hotspots. Some are even becoming internet service providers themselves (ISP) — efforts, they say, that will make it easier to provide internet access to those who can’t afford it.