STEM

PRESS RELEASE: May 8th, Students Showcase Skills at Google

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

CITIZEN SCHOOLS TEAMS UP WITH GOOGLE TO TEACH MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

Students to Showcase New Skills at Google Offices on May 8th 

Mountain View, CA – May 3, 2011 – For a group of lucky Bay Area middle school students, Google’s Mountain View campus has been transformed into their classroom. These students have been working hand in hand with Google employees – “Googlers” – during the afternoon hours to learn about topics ranging from website development to debate. The project is part of a national partnership between Google and Citizen Schools, an education nonprofit that partners with schools to expand the learning day for children in low-income communities through afterschool and expanded learning time programs.

On Tuesday, May 8th, students will gather at Google to showcase what they’ve learned in “apprenticeships” – ten week mini-courses where students and Googlers have worked together on hands-on projects that help students make the connection between school and future careers. Parents, teachers, Googlers, and community supporters will be in attendance at this science fair style event to see firsthand what new skills the students have mastered. Four groups of students will present on a variety of topics, including website design, debate, healthy cooking and technology innovation.

Since 2006, over four hundred Googlers have been involved in teaching nearly 140 apprenticeships through Citizen Schools in California, New York, and Massachusetts. This spring, there are nearly 100 Googlers teaching twenty-seven apprenticeships nationwide, including thirty-three Googlers teaching seven apprenticeships in California.

According to internal surveys, 80 percent of students taking Google apprenticeships through Citizen Schools this fall expressed interest in pursuing a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) career. This data is especially powerful given the current concerns about STEM education nationally. Just as the STEM field is growing and demanding new talented employees to fill jobs, our education system is struggling to produce enough highly-skilled young people ready for the challenge. Part of the problem, according to MIT, is that our students need more exposure to people who might spark a passion for STEM. According to a 2009 MIT survey, nearly two-thirds of teenagers said that they may be discouraged from pursuing STEM careers because they do not know anyone who works in these fields and they do not understand what people in these fields do.

“Citizen Schools helps Google make a positive contribution in our community by supporting efforts to promote math, science and technology on a local and national scale,” said Claire Hughes Johnson, Vice President, Google. “There’s nothing better than seeing the reward in the faces of students learning at Google. Citizen Schools makes a real difference for those great kids—not to mention the immeasurable benefit to the Google employees volunteering their time to help out.”

Last year, Google announced a $3.25 million grant to support Citizen Schools’ expanded learning programs. The organization partners closely with struggling schools across the country, including six schools in the Bay Area, to increase student achievement through expanded hours and hands-on learning projects. External evaluations have shown that Citizen Schools students have better attendance rates, higher grades, and fewer behavior issues than their peers. Long-term, studies have shown that Citizen Schools participants graduate from high school at significantly higher rates than their peers who did not participate.

“Google and their employees are playing a significant role in setting thousands of students across the country on a path towards educational success,” said Joe Ross, Executive Director of Citizen Schools California. “We are inspired by the work that Googlers have taken on through teaching apprenticeships and sharing their talent and passion with our students.”

About Citizen Schools 

Citizen Schools is a leading national education initiative that partners with middle schools to expand the learning day for children in low-income communities across the country through afterschool and expanded learning time programs. The organization mobilizes a second shift of afternoon educators, who provide academic support, leadership development, and “apprenticeships”—hands-on projects taught by volunteers from business and civic organizations. At partner middle schools in eight states across the country, Citizen Schools students develop the skills they need to succeed in high school, college, the workforce, and civic life.

Learn more about Citizen Schools’ programs and results at www.citizenschools.org. For California specifics, visit http://www.citizenschools.org/california/.

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Education News Weekly Roundup

The Education News Weekly Roundup is brought to you by Holly Trippett, the Public Relations Intern at Citizen Schools and a senior at Emerson College studying Marketing Communications.

This news roundup includes news from 4/17 – 4/26.

Citizen Schools News:

Education News: 

  • New York Times/WNYC: School Book – 4/17 – New Study Identifies ‘Opportunity Gap’ for Students – Educators have long studied the achievement gap, in which black and Hispanic pupils and low-income students of all races perform at much lower levels than their white, Asian and better-off peers. A new study released on Tuesday by a group that supported efforts to attain for more money for city schools looked at the educational opportunities available to poor and minority students and found the choices lacking.
  • Chicago Magazine – 4/23 – A Case for Longer School Days? – This article reflects on Houston’s success with extending the school day and mentions that gains were strongest with partnerships.
  • CNN – The push for longer school days – Steve Perry talks about why he is in favor of longer school days.
  • Harlem Children’s Zone – 4/24 – A Bold New Plan – HCZ shared a video on their plan to build a $100M new school and community center building in Harlem. The video is really well done and highlights how the organization is utilizing social media.

Come Together for STEM Education

Lately, we’ve been hearing a lot about the need for better education in our public schools. For our youth to be able to prepared for and successful in the ever-changing and growing global community, they will need a strong set of skills – not just any skills but those in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Citizen Schools is hosting a STEM Summit with leaders and innovators from the field on Wednesday 4/18. Reserve your seat today.

Here are some things we know:

• By 2014, there are expected to be 2 million jobs created in STEM-related fields (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)

• Forty percent (40%) of all students test at below basic math level; 70% African Americans and 3/5 Latinos test below math level (2005 National Assessment of Education Progress)

• The number of engineering degrees awarded in the United States is down 20% from the peak year of 1985. (Tapping America’s Potential)

• Concern about America’s ability to be competitive in the global economy has led to a number of calls to action to strengthen the pipeline into these fields (National Academy of Sciences, Committee on Science, Engineering & Public Policy, 2007; U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2006; U.S. Department of Education, 2006).

Citizen Schools is taking steps to answer that call to action right now with our 2012 STEM Summit. The event will build the knowledge, inspiration, and action necessary to ensure that underrepresented minority and female youth have access to top class science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.

Listen to what is working from our panel guests featuring expertise from New York Academy of Sciences, Infosys, Google, and Cognizant. Participate in workshops presented by IBM, Pfizer, St. Philip’s Academy, and Verizon. Be inspired by our keynote speakers, Citizen Schools‘ CEO & Co-Founder, Eric Schwarz, Cisco‘s Business Development Manager, Kevin Aspell, and Navarrow Wright, Chief Technology Officer, Interactive One.

We invite you stand up to this call to action and be a part of what works. Space is limited and seats in workshops are filling up quickly. Register today to secure your seat!

Volunteering: A Learning Experience for Student and Teacher

Darakshan Mir is a Graduate Student at Rutgers University and a volunteer Citizen Teacher  with Citizen Schools through the New York Academy of Sciences.

Looking back at the Coloring Outside of the Lines apprenticeship that I taught this past fall, I really feel lucky that I had the opportunity to get involved in something as meaningful as this. The apprenticeship taught me a lot about teaching, learning and empathy.

Student tessellations presented at the WOW!

Coloring Outside the Lines was designed for students to explore and learn math concepts while applying them to creating tessellations – two-dimensional planes that feature the repetition of a geometric shape with no overlaps and no gaps (like a honeycomb). The apprenticeship focused on building innovation capabilities in students as they were tasked with using the design process to create their own unique tessellations. I was amazed how my students got involved in the WOW! and how well some of them performed in the WOW!. I had many students, who were constantly involved and invested in the work, who connected to it, and it wasn’t surprising to see them shine through at the end of the apprenticeship. But, I personally found the trajectory of two other students very interesting. Read more…

Continuing to Impact Students – Despite School Closure

Sylvia Monreal is a Second Year Teaching Fellow at the MLK Jr. Community Campus in Newark, NJ

Last month, the superintendent of Newark Public Schools announced her plans to close seven schools in the district. One of those schools happened to be our site, Martin Luther King, Jr., Community Campus. It seems like just yesterday that I wrote on this blog the challenges we would face in the Kingdom (as we’ve come to call the school) as the first Expanded Learning Time site in all of Citizen Schools New Jersey. It would be tempting to write up Superintendent Anderson’s announcement as an end of our mission but that would be far from the truth.

Marian Wright Edelman, the president and founder of Children’s Defense Fund, once said, “We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.”

There is no doubt that Superintendent Anderson’s announcement will bring great change to the lives of our students, but, hopefully, so will the daily work that we continue to do as a part of Citizen Schools. Read more…

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