Social Impact Social Media

Building Educated Leaders for Life, or BELL, operates in 11 cities. The average American student loses one month of math and reading skills per summer, according to a 2011 study by the RAND Corporation and for low-income the study finds skills are set back two months. reflectionfilmsonline.com BELL’s summer programs serve 10,000 children in kindergarten through eighth grade. And, by contrast, students participating in BELL’s summer program gain the equivalent of 1.7 months in reading skills and 1.4 months in math. Participating students can get up to 8 hours assistance, 5 days a week for up to six weeks. Students also participate in music, art and science activities and receive breakfast and lunch. The program was born in the 1990’s out of a discovery by black and Latino Harvard law students volunteering to mentor teenagers at public schools. They learned their students could read at only a second-grade level. As a result several volunteers led by Earl Martin Phalen ...

Playworks is the only national nonprofit sending trained "coaches” to under-served inner city schools. They currently have programs in 300 schools in 23 cities and serve around 130,000 students. playworks.org Playworks trains adults in how to create, safe, rewarding and inclusive experiences at recess. These coaches then go out to low-income urban schools and train teachers and parents how to get the most out of learning opportunities even during recess. Coaches become a part of the school community. Playworks also runs tutoring programs and physical activity programs. It is amazing what kids and adults can learn in terms of leadership skills, diversity tolerance and apparently much more according to results of their annual survey of participating principals, teachers and staff. With coaches in place students come back to class more focused and ready to learn. For the 2010 -11 school year Playworks surveyed over 2,500 educators. Here, briefly are the results. 98% r...