Community School District Five
433 West 123rd Street
New York NY 10027

Contact: Thelma Baxter,EdD.
(212) 769-7529

**PROGRAM DESCRIPTION**

DISTRICT 5, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE Lightspan partnership, Inc. and the Sports and Arts in Schools Foundation, will implement and externally evaluate a comprehensive extended day program for students, parents and staff at each of the five participating schools, PS 92, PS 123 PS 125 PS194 PS 197. The program, which will supplement and expand existing district extended school day efforts, has been planned in collaboration with the participating schools, and offers an integrated mix of activities designed to prevent school violence and enhance academic success. As such, this component will take place on Saturdays (currently, the District funds "Harlem Reads, Harlem Writes, Harlem Performs" a program designed to enhance the ability of parents and community members to support the District's literacy efforts. This initiative operates on Saturdays at the targeted schools, will complement the ESD/AVP program) and will include structured activities in sports, arts, chess, theatrical, and dramatic presentations in an out-of-classroom setting, conflict resolution training, and educational trips. Violence prevention, parent participation and professionals' development activities are integrated into all the activities. Two teachers/coaches at each participating school will teach and participate in activities in order to strengthen integration with the entire school program. These teachers will work closely with the principal school leadership teams, collaborators, and each school's Literacy Team to ensure that extended day activities are consistent with district/school programmatic goals and plans. A program coordinator, provided through project funds will visit each site at least once per week for administration, coordination and on site monitoring.

The Saturday component will provide three (3) hours of services from November 11th April 21st 2001 with an additional Saturday (November 4th) for professional development for participating staff. The component will serve at least 60 students at each of the participating schools for a total of 360 students.

PS 125 in walking distance of the other schools will serve as the hub of sports related activities due to its proximity to Morningside Park, and since an Olympic size swimming pool. The District Five Fit For Life Training Center and tennis courts are on the premises. All schools will receive a core mix of lifetime individual sports, arts, and conflict resolution skills integrated with literacy development. The service model will provide for arts education and sports related activities at the elementary and middle school level.

In addition to the program, provided on Saturdays the district will utilize the services of Lightspan, Inc. for school year 2000-2001. Last year the District piloted the program at PS 197and as a result, students involved in the Lightspan after school program achieved an average of an 11% increase in their reading scores. Since this was shown to be an effective model for literacy acquisition, the program will be implemented at PS123. Reading scores at PS123 declined dramatically during school year ending June 2000. Only 16.8% of students achieved a level 3 or 4 , whereas 27.6% of the students achieved level 3 or 4 in 1999. In addition, PS 123 has been previously designated as a "SURR" school

The program model entitled. "Achieve Now" is a Comprehensive School Demonstration Model. The exemplary program, which utilizes interactive curriculum software and support materials in Reading/Language Arts and Mathematics is uniquely designed to enhance classroom teaching and to create and sustain a continuous path of learning between schools and homes. It also features the latest in technology and has demonstrated success in improving student achievement levels. Thus, by virtue of its attractive design it is likely to attract and motivate low achieving youngsters who are otherwise likely to become involved in undesirable activities, if they are not offered constructive program alternatives.

Program Site
Public School 92 (Mary Mclead Bethune)
Principal: Dr. Beverly Lewis
Funded Organization: Community District 5