Credit: Courtesy of Bridge the Gap

High schoolhouse teacher Sarah Rizzo, center, tutors R.J., left, and Tammy.

Credit: Courtesy of Span the Gap

High school teacher Sarah Rizzo, heart, tutors R.J., left, and Tammy.

Located on the bottom flooring of a housing projection in ane of the wealthiest counties in the state, a small after-school program is helping low-income students flourish.

Without activities, such every bit sports or the arts, that typically concenter students to after-school programs, Bridge the Gap College Prep draws them in by offering one-on-one academic and emotional support. The program, which operates out of the Gilded Gate Village housing project, serves about 130 primarily low-income students, close to 40 percent of the students who nourish public schools in Marin Metropolis, an unincorporated metropolis of 4,000 in Marin County.

The 10 teachers involved in the after-school program work closely with the students' public school teachers. The after-school teachers assistance the students with their homework assignments and create their own lessons that emphasize the skills – such as using academic linguistic communication and thinking critically – they will need for college. Volunteers in the classroom tutor the students in small groups or one-on-one.

A contempo issue brief past the Afterschool Alliance, an advocacy grouping based in Washington, D.C., noted that the plan supports the Common Core State Standards, the new math and reading standards most states have adopted.

The 4th-graders at Bridge the Gap accept been focusing on the Common Core approach to learning fractions. Teachers ask students to illustrate what they are doing and explain their answers in writing, according to instructor Liz Bamberg.

She added that the students are also writing about large social topics, such as a recent article in Fourth dimension Mag for kids that asked, "Are you adulterous?" They are writing more than and are "lapping information technology up," she said.

ExpandedLearningTimeFinal-copy-150x1503.jpgQuaternary-grader Jeremiah (Bridge the Gap wouldn't allow the utilise of students' last names), a slim male child dressed neatly in a black sweatshirt and biscuit pants, said he was drawn to the program because of "all the books and learning equipment." He figured the programme would back up his dearest of writing. He was right.

"I was a terrible writer, sloppy," he said. "They said to take your time, don't blitz. At present sometimes I read it over and say that's not adept plenty, and I arrive better." Jeremiah says he keeps a journal that has 100 pages filled with stories most "random topics."

"I wrote a story virtually a pair of spectacles coming together a face," he said.

Building an bookish vocabulary is a primal component of the program. A recent lesson called, "Said is Dead," challenged the students to supersede "said" with more descriptive verbs. In one story, a fifth-grader wrote, "Nancy complained, I gasped, I panted" and "the class screamed."

The lessons have been and so successful that their schoolhouse teacher thought adults were writing the kids' papers for them, said Denni Brusseau, executive director of the program. "She didn't know where these words were coming from," she said.

Fifth-grader Jade, her black hair pulled dorsum in a ponytail and wearing a dark-green and beige school uniform, credits the program with giving her confidence and improving her grades. "Here they make me experience like I am able to do the work," she said. "Now I'm getting some A's."

Bridge the Gap tracks its students, and program officials say students accept improved academically and socially, particularly in writing and behavior toward others. Of the 13 seniors served by the program in the past four years, all take graduated and gone on to higher.

Tara Seekins, banana head of Willow Creek Academy, a K-8 public charter school in Marin City, says students in the afterwards-school program have proficient report habits and high levels of homework completion.

"They know there's accountability at Bridge the Gap and at home," she said.

A key to the program's success is the strong relationships staff members build with students and their families. Brusseau greets each student who enters the center, even if it means interrupting a conversation with an adult. The ratio of teachers to students is near ane to 8, with one or more volunteers in each classroom to tutor students in small groups or one-on-one.

Teachers and other staff from Bridge the Gap nourish open houses at the students' schools and will meet with school staff if students are having issues.

When a student is having trouble, "often the families don't feel equally comfortable with school personnel," Seekins said. "They prefer to talk to Denni (Brusseau) or their child'south after-school teacher."

Seekins said i educatee's father died in January and he "just couldn't be in class." Bridge the Gap set up an independent study for the educatee on a topic he was interested in – the history of popular music. "He completed the assignment earlier leap break and was able to transition into the regular classroom," Seekins said.

Students run into their subsequently-school teachers as people they tin confide in.

"This place has helped me a lot," said Katelin, a loftier schoolhouse freshman who has long blond hair and carries a regal phone with a monkey on the back. "Only knowing that people really care about me and my pedagogy, knowing that I am able to get help has made a difference," she said. "Without it, I'm pretty certain I would be lost."

She considers her science teacher, Sarah Rizzo, who besides grew upwards in a low-income neighborhood, her friend.

Alvin Gilmore, the plan'south educational managing director, said staff members are often called based on their ability to exist function models.

Isaias Franco, who teaches English language language arts to high schoolhouse students in the program, grew upwardly with a single female parent and was the first in his family to graduate from higher.

"In high school, I had beliefs problems," he said. "I share my stories with the students, and nosotros talk well-nigh how they would handle the situation."

"We talk nigh simply because y'all're aroused now, that doesn't determine your life, nearly how yous tin can come from a family without resources and exist successful," Franco said.

Rizzo, Franco and the other high school teachers eat dinner with their students. Each teacher also spends x minutes alone with a pocket-sized group of students each 24-hour interval.

"In the smaller groups, they know information technology'south a rubber place to talk well-nigh things that are bothering them," Rizzo said. "I pupil'due south brother was shot. A gang is trying to become another student to join. Some don't take health care. For many, this is the merely place they can get dinner. A child shouldn't take to worry near that."

Bridge the Gap began in 1995 as "Little Readers," an ongoing program in a local church that matches a tutor/mentor with a child in grades 1 through 3. Now with a upkeep of almost $880,000 a year, Bridge the Gap has expanded to include a programme for grades iv through 8 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.g. and a high school program from 4 to 8 p.chiliad., both located in the housing project. The center provides a substantial afternoon snack (on one recent day, the snack was vegetarian chili, corn bread and salad) and dinner for the loftier schoolhouse students.

Bridge the Gap is predominantly supported past wealthy individuals, Brusseau said, though the heart does get some grants from foundations. The funds pay for the teachers, three directors, an administrative assistant and a manager for nigh 130 volunteers.

The movement to the housing project in January 2022 was "a game changer for us," Brusseau said. "Information technology's accessible, the rent is reasonable, and we have twice the infinite we used to have."

Simply furnished with warm cinnamon and yellowish cement walls and a grey linoleum flooring, the eye is in a two-story, cabin-like building built in the 1960s. Apartments are on the second floor, and a playground and grassy surface area with shade trees is in the forepart. Newer iv-story brick apartments for low-income families are scattered beneath hills covered with conifers and eucalyptus trees.

Students are starting to make the center their own by painting murals on the walls. The young artists each fill in the outline of a human figure and also include a favorite quotation. The figure by "Yahemmi Stay Chill <3" is black with brightly colored globes that look similar planets in the night sky. Part of the torso is painted white as a backdrop for the quotation: "If people are trying to bring you down, it only means you are higher up them."

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