Suzanne's Mom's Blog

Photograph: Melanie Stetson Freeman/Christian Science Monitor
Eric Schwarz, chief executive of Citizen Schools, advocates ideas such as an extended day, hands-on learning, and adult mentors in classrooms.

At work, we have a relationship with an after-school enrichment organization called Citizen Schools. One day a teacher brought in a Citizen Schools group for a special event that my friend Lillian and I attended.

At the end of the program I said to Lillian, “Do you see that girl second from left? Don’t we know her?” And then we both realized the sixth grader had the previous year been in a reading-enrichment program where we volunteer.

It makes you think. There are young people in urban public schools who understand the importance of education and will grab every opportunity they can get.

But about Citizen Schools: “Eric Schwarz is remaking public education in the United States using a simple formula: Extend the school day, give kids adult mentors, and let them get their hands dirty,” writes Gregory Lamb at the Christian Science Monitor.

“The program, called Citizen Schools, has succeeded so well that Mr. Schwarz has been invited to the White House to explain how it works ..

“Now at work in 14 US inner-city school districts and on one Indian reservation, Citizen Schools is seen as a model for making dramatic improvements at low-performing schools. To do that it partners not only with AmeriCorps, the quasi-governmental service organization, but with some of the biggest names in US business …

“The idea is to level the playing field for students who grow up in low-income households.

” ‘In this country we have a growing achievement gap based on family income. It’s actually a bigger gap than it was 50 years ago,’ Schwarz says in an interview at the Citizen Schools headquarters in a renovated brick building on Boston’s waterfront, just one pier away from the replica of the historical Boston Tea Party ship. ‘The reason, I think, is not that poor kids are learning less, but that rich kids are learning more because their families are giving them all these opportunities to get violin lessons, go to robotics camp, get extra coaching and tutoring, and have lots of chances to be [around] successful adults.

” ‘Those opportunities are incredibly unequally provided in our society, and Citizen Schools changes that.’ ”

More.