School of Communication students shifted the focus about D.C. Public Schools from its usual debate to show "what works" in the D.C. schools by releasing their findings about six programs already boosting test scores. Their findings began a discussion between the community and a panel of educators and education policy makers in the area.
The "What Works!" panel held on Tuesday night was one of the final parts of the campaign run by the students in professor Charlene Gilbert's Communication and Social Change class.
Students found that arts education, athletics, foreign language instruction, mentoring, parental involvement and tutoring all positively influenced students' learning abilities.
A combination of 12 undergraduate and graduate students in SOC divided the work of researching, planning and executing for the "What Works!" campaign, according to Allison Smith, a junior in SOC and student in the class. Drawn from film and media arts, journalism and public communication, they each brought their own expertise to the subject.
"We decided we wanted to take the debate and turn it into something positive," Smith said.
Jamie Corbett, a graduate student in SOC, led the press conference before the panel discussion. She said the mission of her classmates was to encourage people focus on the programs that help students and to copy these successful programs in other parts of the community.
"Tonight, we are not here to bemoan the negatives," Corbett said. "Tonight is about focusing on what works - the programs and policies that contribute to academic achievement among students from every socioeconomic background."
The panel consisted of five members of the education community: D.C. Board of Education's Tonya Kinlow, AU Dean of the School of Education Sarah Irvine-Belson, Miner Elementary Principal LaVonne Taliaferro-Bunch, Tellin' Stories Senior Program Coordinator Jill Weiler, and Peabody Early Childhood Center School-Within-School teacher Sarah Burke.
A common trend in the discussion was the current lack of funding and support within the public school system that inhibited the programs from expanding. Taliaferro-Bunch and Burke said they wrote grant requests and relied on parental support through fundraising for the programs in their schools.
"We have a lot of partners who want to assist, but we have to decide how we want them to assist," Taliaferro-Bunch said.
At Miner Elementary, she created a group to assess the needs of the students and community to make it a positive learning environment.
Gilbert, who moderated the event and also has a child in a D.C. public school, said she was proud of the work her class created and the ways in which it assembled information in print and video format.
"It was inspiring for me to see them inspired by the students in the D.C. public schools," Gilbert said.
After the panel, attendants were encouraged to take postcards to write down what they have seen work in their schools. The postcards are a part of their strategy to encourage D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, D, to examine these programs that help kids.
"Every school ought to have the resources it needs to provide a free, quality, public education," Kinlow said. "It's why I've been in the education system for this long"
