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Accountability
Targeted Assistance
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Provider: Greenwood Shalom Outreach Community, Inc
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| Provider Details |
| Program Areas: | Reading, Writing, Mathematics |
| Grades: | K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 |
| Place of Service: | Place of Religious Worship |
| Type of Organization: | Faith Based |
Experience with:
Limited English Proficient (LEP) students: No
Students with disabilities: Yes |
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| Program Description (written by provider) |
| The Greenwood Shalom Outreach Community (GSOC) is a seven year old organization that provides a variety of educational and supportive services to at-risk youth. GSOC’s SES program will provide tutoring in reading, ELA and math via computer-assisted instruction and direct one-on-one and small group instruction. GSOC’s SES program uses research-based curricula, including the Passkey Prescriptive Learning System and EDUSS software, which enables students to learn at their own pace through interactive computer-aided learning exercises. GSOC has been effective in improving academic outcomes for at-risk students, as measured by pre-and post- Woodcock-Johnson assessments and other measures. Since GSOC began administering these assessments in 2003, all students tutored by GSOC improved by at least .5 grade levels after three-to-six months, and some improved by as much as 3.5 grade levels. |
| Evidence of Effectiveness (written by provider) |
Evidence of increased student achievement--Greenwood Shalom Outreach Community (GSOC) has more than seven years experience providing after-school academic support programs for at-risk children and youth in Boston. In 1999, the Outreach Ministry of Greenwood Memorial United Methodist Church started an after-school program with $5,000.00 from the Shalom Fund. GSOC’s mission is to help at-risk children and youth achieve, to the fullest extend possible, their potential. GSOC’s after school program provides tutoring for remediation and enrichment to youth who live in the Four Corners area of Dorchester, as well as children who live in Roxbury, Mattapan, Hyde Park, Boston, South Boston and Roslindale. The population of students served by the GSOC after-school program is demographically similar to the population of Boston Public School (BPS) students who are eligible for Supplemental Educational Services (SES). GSOC serves a 50/50 male/female group of students with 63% being African-American (including Caribbean), 31% Latino and 6% Cape Verdean. Nearly all of the children served by GSOC qualify for free or reduced lunch and 40% are raised by a single parent. Nearly one-third of the students it served in 2005-2006 had disabilities. Many of the students served by the GSOC after-school program are enrolled in schools required to offer SES.
GSOC has been licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (DEEC) since 1999, and it is currently licensed to serve 49 students, grades K2-8. As part of the process of becoming licensed—and as part of the license renewal process that GSOC has successfully completed in 2003 and 2006—GSOC was evaluated by DEEC and deemed effective in creating positive outcomes for the children it serves. Also, GSOC is required to provide evidence of success each year to the Victory Generation program, one of its key funders and supporters, in an annual report which cites specific evidence of program effectiveness, including evidence of positive impact on academic outcomes.
GSOC’s after-school program has been effective in improving educational outcomes for the at-risk students it serves. GSOC currently uses multiple evaluation methods to monitor student achievement and the effectiveness of its program, including pre- and post-testing, collection and tracking of student report cards, parental feedback, tutor reports, homework logs and review of promotion rates at the end of the school year. Evidence of effectiveness includes:
· Pre- and post- tests: In 2003-2004, GSOC began administering pre- and post- Woodcock-Johnson assessments to the students enrolled in its programs. Although the time in which these pre- and post- assessments have been administered has been relatively brief, data from these assessments show that the program has a positive impact on the academic achievement of its students. Specifically, pre-test results over a period of four years revealed that 98 % of students performed below grade level in reading and/or math at the commencement of their participation in the program, with students ranging from .5 levels below grade level to six levels below grade level. Post-test results after three to six months of tutoring demonstrated that all students improved, with improvements ranging from .5 grade level to 3.5 grade levels.
· Completion of reading assignments: The students served by GSOC’s after-school program are not “regular readers,” as evidenced by feedback obtained from their parents and teachers. All students enrolled in GSOC’s after-school program are required to complete 20 minutes of reading during each session. The texts selected for each student to read are based on the student’s grade and reading level. Successful completion of the reading assignments, which is monitored and recorded by the program’s tutors, is a GSOC academic performance measure. In 2005-2006, 100% of students enrolled in the after-school program completed their reading assignment successfully during every session they attended.
In adapting its after-school programs to become a SES program, GSOC is integrating the Passkey Prescriptive Learning System (Passkey) into its overall academic support programming. Passkey will be the SES program’s primary tutoring curriculum. Using Passkey will enable GSOC to strengthen both the delivery and the assessment of its tutoring program. Passkey, when used 30-to-45 minutes per day (as in GSOC’s SES program), has been effective in increasing the achievement of at-risk students, as evidenced by the following case studies—
· In the Boyd County, KY Public Schools, 56 summer school students used Passkey 30 to 40 minutes per day. At the beginning of the summer, the students averaged two years below grade level, as measured by STAR Reading and Math assessments. At summer’s end, reading scores increased from two months to two years, and math scores increased by nearly one year.
· In the Moore, OK Public Schools, 200 to 300 8th grade students used Passkey for three months, averaging two hours per week. At the start, the students’ average score on the Oklahoma state assessment was 73, which trailed the state average of 78. At the end, the average score was 88.
· In the Williamston Public Schools (Williamston, NC), 20 middle school students used Passkey 45 minutes three times per week for eight months. At the start, students’ average score on the End of Grade Test for North Carolina was 1.8—far below the passing score of three. At the end, the lowest grade of participating students was 2.8, and the highest grade was three.
GSOC’s after school program also maintains a homework log and portfolio on every child. During each session, students spend time working on their homework, and tutors maintain a log for each student. While homework assistance will not be part of the SES program, the homework assistance logs and portfolios will be used by the SES Program Coordinator and tutors to help diagnose student needs and will be shared with the parents of SES students. The homework log and portfolio are used to monitor student progress and to diagnose student strengths and needs. |
| District(s) Served |
Please note that these are the districts this provider is approved to serve through this contract. Not all of these districts may be required to offer supplemental educational services through Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act. Check with your school or district for more details.
| Boston Public Schools | North Reading Public Schools | Boston Preparatory Charter Public District |
| Benjamin Banneker Charter Public District | Boston Day and Evening Academy Charter District | Neighborhood House Charter District |
| Boston Collegiate Charter District | Boston Renaissance Charter Public District | Roxbury Preparatory Charter District |
| Uphams Corner Charter District |
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