Education

PROVIDENCE, R.I., Feb. 3 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- Re-imagining how, when and where Providence's young people learn is the focus of a new multi-year grant awarded today by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation to an innovative cross-sector collaborative of school, after-school and city government leaders. Providence is one of only two cities nationally to receive $500,000 over the next three years through the New Day for Learning grant.

The Providence After School Alliance (PASA), Providence School District and the City of Providence have received the Mott Foundation's first three-year New Day for Learning grant to build on efforts to ensure that all young people in Providence are prepared for success in school, work and life.

"We are excited and grateful to the Mott Foundation for choosing Providence as one of the first communities to receive funding and the help of national experts to improve the educational outcomes for all of Providence's young people," said Mayor Cicilline. "The Mott funding will fund a senior staff person at the School Department and the resources needed to better integrate school and after-school in order to create a seamless learning from the beginning until the end of the day."

The Mott Foundation convened a panel of experts in education, after-school and business to choose 10 New Day for Learning Communities from a highly selective pool of applicants. Within that 10, Providence and San Francisco were tapped as demonstration sites and will each receive $500,000 over three years and tailored technical assistance.

The other eight New Day for Learning Communities will receive technical assistance and are: Atlanta, Charleston/North Charleston, Chicago, Denver, Flint (MI), Omaha, Peekskill (NY) and Saint Paul (MN).

"The Mott Foundation is proud to support the efforts in the New Day for Learning Communities as they expand and integrate existing and new efforts to re-imagine education and learning to better prepare young people for success," said An-Me Chung, Program Officer, Mott Foundation. "It will take partnerships between schools, communities, students, parents, elected officials, educators, business leaders and others to ensure this vision for education in America. Each one of us must play our unique and essential roles in order to improve outcomes for all young people."

In order to re-imagine how, when and where young people learn, each of the New Day for Learning Communities will be working to achieve the five critical elements of a New Day for Learning:

-- Expanding the definition of student success;
-- Using research-based knowledge about how students learn best;
-- Fostering collaboration across all sectors;
-- Integrating various learning approaches and places; and
-- Providing new opportunities for leadership and professional development.

For every dropout or unchallenged youth, the country suffers from the lost potential and tax dollars as well as from increased health costs and crime. Research included in the 2007 report The Costs and Benefits of an Excellent Education for All of America's Children shows that among 20-year-olds in the United States today, more than 700,000 dropped out of high school. If half of those students had been guided to graduation, the government would have collected "$45 billion via extra tax revenues and reduced costs of public health, of crime and justice and in welfare payments."

A New Day for Learning in Providence will start with an intensive focus on young people in grades 6 - 8. The City of Providence, school district and after-school community will work to closely link the school day with the middle school AfterZones, which provide a wide variety of expanded learning opportunities led by a network of high-quality after-school organizations and experts. The Mott grant will enable PASA to fund a Director of Expanded Learning Time to work at the District and build learning connections between the school day and AfterZone programs.

"The funding and support provided by the Mott Foundation allows Providence Public Schools and all of our partners to work intensively to create seamless and comprehensive learning environments in select schools and then bring the best practices to scale," said Superintendent Thomas Brady. "Providing innovative, engaging and rigorous learning environments for young people is hard work and all of us have a vested interest and shared responsibility to seeing it through. Now is the time for Providence to stand unified behind its young people and complete our vision for education."

In 2007, leaders in education, after-school and business serving on the Mott Foundation New Day for Learning Advisory Board issued the New Day for Learning report to catalyze conversations, raise awareness and spark solutions for creating a comprehensive, seamless approach to learning in the United States. To learn more and see a New Day for Learning in action, visit NewDayforLearning.org

About the Mott Foundation
The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, established in 1926 in Flint, Michigan, by an automotive pioneer, is a private philanthropy committed to supporting projects that promote a just, equitable and sustainable society. It supports nonprofit programs throughout the U.S. and, on a limited geographic basis, internationally. Grant making is focused in four programs: Civil Society, Environment, Flint Area and Pathways Out of Poverty. Besides Flint, offices are located in metropolitan Detroit, Johannesburg (South Africa) and London. The Foundation, with year-end assets of $2.66 billion, made 527 grants totaling $108.7 million in 2007. For more information, visit Mott.org.

SOURCE The Providence After School Alliance