Citizen Schools at Work

at Duggan Middle School

By Vandana Goyal

Every week, Monday through Thursday, eighty Duggan Middle School students arrive in the cafeteria to attend Citizen Schools and enhance their school day learning through experience-rich learning activities.  Citizen Schools, Inc. was started in 1995 in Boston, Massachusetts to meet the after school needs of students, families and communities with high-quality programming that seeks to re-engage students and communities alike in the process of learning.  Currently, there are 22 Citizen Schools throughout the country, including the one here in Springfield, which is a part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center and housed at Duggan Middle School.

       Citizen Schools focus on developing leadership skills in middle school students through a unique model called apprenticeship learning.  The “apprentices” elect which apprenticeship they would like to participate in, one on Monday and one on Wednesday.  For one semester, once a week, professionals in the community volunteer an hour and a half teaching the students their own expertise.  Examples of past apprenticeships are law, web design, journalism or freestyle.  Successful apprenticeships are the result of partnerships with community businesses, nonprofits, or civic institutions, such as The Republican, Springfield Museums, and the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.  This learning culminates in a final presentation called the “WOW”.  On this night, the students present all of the things they have learned in the form of a product, presentation or performance. 

       Citizen Schools also seek to achieve gains in the academic performance of its apprentices.  The other components to the program week include AIM (Achieve, Invest, Make the Grade) time or homework time.  At the beginning of every program day, the students are allowed one hour to complete their homework and work on subjects they may not understand.  They work with their team leaders, fellow students, and America Reads Volunteers to complete their homework. 

       Apprentices need more than just homework help; they have to understand the process that leads to good grades.  This is why Citizen Schools created the “School Navigation” component over this past summer.  Once a week, students learn that having an organized backpack or showing someone you are an active listener can drastically improve your academic achievement.

       Team time once a week focuses on improving teamwork skills through activities that force the students to work cooperatively. Once a month, apprentices go on explorations or field trips into the surrounding community. 

       Citizen Schools approach to scholastic achievement tries to encompass many of the various techniques used in after-school programs.  Citizen Schools work in the classroom on homework and classroom skills and work at the broader level of building confidence through learning an unknown ability and teaching others and transferring that level of mastery into in-school academic achievement.  Citizen Schools strive to instill leadership in the students so that they may, in turn, show the community that they are, in fact, our future leaders.

      

The MLKCC Citizen Schools program is made possible through funding from the 21^st Century Community Learning Center, Mass 2020, and the United Way of Pioneer Valley.