Adventures in After School Learning Blog

-By Mike DeBritz on Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Community Learning and Educational Resource Consultants Join Forces for After School

(Scotia, NY and Fresno, CA) Community Learning, interactive curriculum developer of the popular hands-on CSI-themed series Cookie Jar Mystery, and Educational Resource Consultants, evaluation specialists and software developer of the After School Manager are joining forces to bring after school leaders a powerful package designed to fortify program sustainability and enhance student participation.

The After School Manager software goes far beyond maintaining accurate after school attendance for schools and community centers by also managing multiple funding streams that are an absolute necessity for after school programs today. The Cookie Jar Mystery course has proven to excite kids about science by creating an authentic crime scenario students solve together. The intriguing nature and relevance of forensic science has proven to captivate over 7500 students who have completed the curriculum.

“We’re finding in this economic environment that clients must keep an eye on future funding streams,” said Dr. Steve Price, Founder of Educational Resource Consultants. “The key factor in pursuing future funding today is demonstrating your track record of success,” Price added. The After School Manager system serves more than 34,000 students in over 25 districts currently.

“We’re excited to bring this essential solution to our customers,” said Michael DeBritz, President of Community Learning LLC. Community Learning has customers in over 40 states using their curriculum kits. “Over the years I’ve seen many after school programs that are absolutely great for kids, but are unable to maintain funding.” This becomes problematic for parents and communities that have relied on after school safe havens and unique support environments for tutoring and academic enrichment.

“After funding, the next greatest challenge for program directors is staff,” said DeBritz. “Our curriculum is designed to engage kids and be easy to teach,” he added. Community Learning’s approach has been to make the learning relevant, fun and interactive because nothing beats hands-on learning in after-school.

Similar to the school day, after school programs are funded by their average daily attendance. After school sites can lose attendance and money if leaders are not continually looking at new programming that engages and interests kids.

A great feature of the web-based After School Manager software system is the ability to track individual program offerings by participation. This gives administrators of multiple sites a bird’s eye view of not only overall attendance, but attendance at the activity level.

“Sharing information about what works is critical after school,” stated Kathy Stanton, VP of Operations. “If program leaders see one site coordinator with outstanding participation for their music program, for instance, they want to encourage sharing what’s working with other staff.” This type of analysis is easily available in the “data dashboard” and simple report generating features standard in the After School Manager.

For after school sites that have solid attendance solutions in place, Educational Resource Consultants also offers a service called the After School Report Card which compares after school attendance data to the school performance data on standardized tests. This correlation can be viewed at the student, school or district level.

“This report has been invaluable to our clients both for their state reporting and future grants,” said Dr Price. He went on to say, “When writing a new grant application, painting a picture of what you’ll do is important, but having the data proving what you’ve accomplished is far more compelling!”

Community Learning and Educational Resource Consultants  will be co-marketing their respective products, with a combined webinar series and joint attendance at leading after school conferences. They are also collaborating on online staff development training modules and new curriculum programs focusing on career development and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).

About Community Learning LLC
Community Learning is the developer of interactive curriculum kits, created around high interest, thematic topics that engage students in learning through hands-on activities and projects. Their learning topics are designed to immerse children in fun learning that’s experiential, relevant and fun. To find out more about Community Learning go to www.CommLearning.com.

About Educational Resources Consultants
ERC is an educational consulting firm specializing in program evaluation, software systems and data analysis that enable school districts, colleges, universities, and community-based organizations to enhance sustainability for educational programs. To find out more about ERC and the After School Manager go to www.ercdata.com.
 

-By Mike DeBritz on Wednesday, September 21, 2011

In the never ending search for new and useful solutions for after school, we linked up with a fabulous publisher of interactive learning materials named NewPath Learning. I've known the founders both Kurt Gelke and George Nassis personally for years and have witnessed their skill and dedication in serving educators.

Their mission is to create innovative learning materials that teachers can easily customize to positively impact students' academic progress. Their very first product was a fun board game focusing on grade level vocabulary and math facts. It not only allowed kids to review standards in a fun way but also brought healthy competition and game theory into play which won them the "Teachers Tools Annual Award" in 2009. All their materials are backed by solid research and aligned to state standards.

Just a little over two years ago they rolled all their content in ELA, Math, Science and Social Studies together in an online learning system. This system is directed at putting the tools teachers need everyday directly into their hands with an easy-to-use web-based format. I've demonstrated the system to a couple of local customers, who were so impressed they'll be utilizing the software this year.

I see the online system working for after school leaders in three ways:

1. Supplemental Learning Materials: I know that teachers don't always have access to relevant materials to work with kids after school besides homework. The NewPath Online Learning System allows you to create customized assignments for students either in the form of flash cards, worksheets, tutorials or games. The tutorials can be aligned closely to the end of year standards for that student's grade and state. You can also create assignments that involve online practice, where the student can access the system from home or during the school day.

2. Lesson Plans: State Annual Performance Reviews and evaluators require programs to document academic plans which include lesson plans. This can be a tricky requirement to complete, especially with your part-time staff. The system has the capability to create customized learning plans that can be housed on the system and assigned to any student. A really nice feature of the system is how easy it is to align those lessons with both grade level standards and the new common core standards.

3. Quality Time on Task: I've seen this many times with free games, yeah they're easy but at the end of the day and year, you have little idea what kids did with their computer time. The system allows you to control what tasks kids spend their time on and the reporting system will record all progress through the quizzes assigned. This will help you determine your students overall progress and impact your program had for an entire year.

(example screen from online game)

We'll have a lot more to come on this, including webinars and descriptions on other ways to utilize the system. Another great feature of this system is the affordability--just $99 per year for a teacher license that includes 50 student passwords.

If you'd like to learn more take a quick tour or sign up for a FREE TRIAL by clicking here!