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Impact

Here you will find ideas that are already succesfully being applied to the unique needs and missions of their schools — and that are replicable and cost efficient. Many of the amazing programs we are discovering are quite unsung. Many foundations, faculty, and heads have been quietly doing this work with great commitment and interest, but are not as yet connected to each other.

PEOPLE WITH PURPOSE

About six years ago, Todd Eckerson had an idea. He loved his work as Dean of Faculty at the Westminster School in Simsbury, CT, but worried about the kids across town at Hartford High, where the graduation rate hovered around 25 percent. He convinced his private school to lend him out to the public school two afternoons a week. He walks the halls of Hartford High and holds "one-minute meetings" with kids at risk. He sends tutors to football team study halls before their practices. "I didn't have the money to copy something like Prep for Prep. But I figured out something else that worked." The motto for the Crossroads Cooperative Learning Program is, "Plan to Graduate. Graduate with a Plan."

WHAT WORKS

Faculty at Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, PA found their scholarship students often struggled. "Many were coming with gaps the folks at GA just couldn't close," says Eric Jones, Head of School at Community Partnership School, "and we all wanted them to achieve and thrive." So Germantown Academy board member Keith Williams, working with Head of School Jim Connor and other guiding forces created a solution: start a small school in cooperation with Project H.O.M.E., an established North Philadelphia non-profit, to close those gaps. This year the Community Partnership School has 60 students in pre-K through third grades, and the program will expand each year.

INSPIRED IDEA

The innovative James Center for Public Purpose at Garrison Forest School in Owings Mills, MD, is an initiative made possible by a first-of-its-kind major grant from the E.E. Ford Foundation, matched by an alumna. Clustering existing programs and partnerships between Garrison Forest and several public schools, non-profits and John Hopkins University, the James Center provides an excellent model for schools deepening their public purpose commitments. "Today these programs must be embedded in what's happening in the school, throughout the curriculum," says Whitty Ransome, Director of the James Center. "It must be a complete two-way flow of people, ideas and initiatives, in many ways eliminating the campus boundaries."

FUTURE OF A SCHOOL,
FUTURE OF A COMMUNITY

In Fall 2008, the students of Sonoma Academy moved to a new 34-acre campus in the rolling foothills of Santa Rosa, California. The school’s new home signaled positive change for the entire community as Sonoma Academy seized the opportunity to build on its mission of engaging with the surrounding community, on its commitment to sustainability, and on its award-winning Connections program. Wingspan Partnerships is helping Sonoma Academy build partnerships with the local public schools and environmental organizations to develop sustainable programs for the good of the whole community and all its learners, shaping the school’s own future in the community.

TEACHER TO TEACHER

The Park Day School in Oakland, CA supports local public school peers by hosting classroom visits and offering meaningful professional development workshops on topics including: Differentiated K/1 Literacy Instruction, Teaching Mindfulness in the Classroom, and Reading Buddies. Each workshop gives public school teachers tools they can implement immediately in their classrooms. Park Day teachers say preparing to present their curriculum helps sharpen their own focus and offers an opportunity to reflect on their own practice.

AND MORE...

...Reading, writing and relationships have evolved over time as ninth graders from Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. have provided after-school homework help, reading activities, arts and crafts and recreation programs for students at nearby Ruth K. Webb Elementary School for over 15 years. The sustained school partnership means trust runs deep. Whole families and faculties have grown to know each other.

...Crossroads School in Santa Monica, CA, is a longstanding leader in public purpose ventures. Among its successes: a small arts program for public school students that now has its own foundation and reaches thousands of students every year. More recently, it has gathered several local schools in partnership to produce an exemplary Science program for local public schools. The program debuts in fall 2008.

...William Penn Charter School has kept active K-12 partnerships for the past decade with six Philadelphia public schools, including the city's only public school for the physically disabled, a new charter school that focuses on the environment, and a bi-lingual school in north Philadelphia.

WHAT'S NEW?

Wingspan emphasizes authentic partnerships and genuine exchange. Instead of simply sending students out on traditional Service Learning days, these programs bring together students, teachers and families from partner schools. The long-term vision is to create sustained partnerships that open communications and share resources among communities.