New York boys club has a time-tested recipe to protect members' mental health

To help address falling enrollment and families’ lack of child care, Brooklyn Charter School extended the school day to twelve hours, providing before- and after-school activities and meals. So far, 80 students have signed up for the expanded hours and the school’s enrollment has rebounded from pandemic lows.

To better serve Black students, Joe Shoemaker Elementary School uses “equity cohorts.” Teachers select four to seven students of color who are reading below grade level and then focus on building relationships with them, helping to nurture their social and academic skills. Over the past two years, they’ve seen improved test scores and reading levels among students who participated.

ourBRIDGE for Kids is a school-based program that helps English language learners improve their language skills. Since the pandemic increased rates of chronic absenteeism among English language learners, ourBridge shifted its focus to also provide family services to provide comprehensive support, like secure housing and grocery delivery, that helps keep youth in school.

The Sebastian Indian Social Projects (SISP) works with socio-economically disadvantaged communities, providing social services like healthcare and employment assistance with a primary focus on educating youth. SISP has focused on educating the local female population, which has helped empower them economically and led to several women receiving jobs outside of their village. SISP has also educated several students who were forced to drop out of traditional school and provides supplementary activities along with their standard education, such as skating and coding clubs.

Maryland allocates extra funding to community schools, which are designed to provide social services and resources such as family centers, clothing closets, mentorship programs, and community partnerships. In one community high school, the addition of resources for teen parents has helped lower absences and increase college-admission rates.

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.

In a community where economic barriers prevent children from getting an education, the Oakbridge Foundation provides free, quality primary school education for out of school children.

As the education community increasingly raises up social-emotional curricula as a solution to rising anxiety levels in young children, it can be hard for schools to know which of the countless programs and curricula are actually effective. One district in Virginia might have found a promising model — Bristol's schools have made several simple changes to give students the space to talk openly about their emotions and are seeing clear academic improvements.

A new initiative in West Virginia is training elementary school teachers to identify signs of intergenerational trauma in their students and adjust their teaching methods accordingly.

Mounting evidence points to an increasing disparity in the educational achievements of those children who attend and complete pre-school, and those who do not. The Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program is a national home visiting initiative for low-income families that is working to bridge the gap. They provide learning curriculum, guidance, and parenting support for disadvantaged families in their homes, so that their children can be equally prepared to succeed in school.