The mission of School Partners© is to build the capacity of community and faith organizations to partner with their neighborhood schools to deliver aligned, quality afterschool and summer programming that raises academic achievement of children from Pittsburgh’s lowest income communities. To these ends, Neighborhood Learning Alliance:

1. Develops Networks Across Neighborhoods: The Wireless Neighborhoods networks include:
   • Nine community and faith based organizations funded to deliver quality afterschool programming models;
   • Three to five additional groups projected to be funded in fall 2007;
   • Eight additional community and faith based organizations not funded by Wireless Neighborhoods that are delivering academic models or receiving consultation from School Partners©;
   • Eight Pittsburgh Public Schools Elementary School partners with three to five ALA partners projected to be added in Fall 2007;
   • One Pittsburgh Public Schools High School partner; and
   • 496 Kindergarten-12th grade youth served in 2006-2007 in programs funded by Wireless Neighborhoods.
2. Builds Strong Partnerships between Community and School: Through its network of community and faith partners, Wireless Neighborhoods facilitates genuine collaboration with neighborhood schools needed to provide support networks for many of our City’s most academically underachieving children. The following outlines some of the collaborations that have resulted from Wireless Neighborhoods and its partners constant efforts to build strong relationships with school partners, out of which some of our core tenets have been made possible:
   • Shared Resources -
     • Space - Six of our programs are housed at their school partner at no cost, an estimated in-kind donation of $125,000/year.
     • Transportation - Pittsburgh LEARNS programs utilize the bussing provided by their partner school, an estimated in-kind donation of $40,000/year.
     • Funding - Our Community LEARNS program partnered with Peabody to offer its EAP-funded afterschool tutoring program, STEPS 2 Success, at its community sites. This collaboration was a real success with an extremely high enrollment of 67 youth, demonstrating the power of resource sharing between community and school.
     • Recruitment - Working together to recruit for afterschool programming, summer programming, and special events and activities has increased enrollment and turnout.
     • Co-planning of programming and events, including:
       • ‘Ft. Pitt ALA Reception’ - 300 attendees toured the new ALA and welcomed in the new plan for excellence.
       • ‘Excellence for All: An East-End Community-Building Event’ - 900 attendees and 75 service providers came together to address violence, gang culture and other community issues.
   • Providing Pittsburgh Public Schools Trainings to Afterschool Staff - Wireless Neighborhoods ensures that afterschool staff are trained on the curriculum, policies and procedures of Pittsburgh Public Schools in order to best provide programming and work with parents to support the youth.
   • Aligning Curriculum and Real-time Information Sharing - Our afterschool programs personalize education plans based on review of school data obtained in real-time.
3. Engages Parents in Education and Community: Nothing is more important than a parent’s level of participation in and knowledge of their child’s education. Wireless Neighborhoods drives a parental engagement agenda with its partner organizations to inform and educate through:
   • Program Advisory Councils that bring together parents, program staff, teachers, counselors, and school administrators;
   • Trainings and forums for parents;
   • On-going, regular communication from program staff; and
   • Engagement in their school’s PSCC.

   In 2006-07, Wireless Neighborhoods parent engagement efforts produced the following:

   • 70 Parent Advisory Committee meetings, bringing together an average of 10 parents per meeting;
   • 60 parents attended a series of 4 stress management workshops;
   • 50 parents, youth and staff attended a Pittsburgh Public School Board meeting to voice support for community involvement in afterschool programs; and
   • Over 200 parents and community members attended the following parent involvement forums:
     • ‘Educational Costing Out’ with the Education Law Center
     • ‘Building a Strong PSCC in Your School’ with Pittsburgh Public Schools Assistant Director of Public Engagement
     • 2 City Wide Parent Meetings to strategize how to best encourage and support the Pittsburgh Public Schools in their education reform agenda
4. Develops Engaging, Aligned Afterschool Curriculum: Through strong communication and real-time information sharing with the school, partnering organizations create engaging, educationally focused activities that align with Pittsburgh Public School curriculum and reinforce critical concepts learned during the school day.
   • Elementary Programming - School Partners© staff have developed strong relationships with the Pittsburgh Public Schools Elementary Math and Reading Curriculum Supervisors. As a result, we have been able to provide training for our partners on vital academic information, including how to:
     • Utilize the curriculum pacing guides to align afterschool programming with the school day
     • Interpret DIBELS and Math Standards Based assessments to personalize afterschool interventions

     Site coordinators draw upon the trainings to create activities that reinforce curriculum and remediate weaknesses found in assessments, while ensuring academic concepts are presented in a method consistent with Pittsburgh Public Schools curriculum. School Partners© staff review and revise each program’s weekly afterschool lesson plans to further ensure efficacy through alignment and personalization of services.

     • Over 1,700 hours of academically rigorous reading and math curriculum has been developed by School Partners© staff and delivered by its partner organizations in the 2006-07 school year.
     • Wireless Neighborhoods School Partners© have created a Games Matrix that align the 47 Reading and 71 Math games and manipulatives used in our afterschool programs with the content strands in Everyday Math, Harcourt Math and Macmillan-McGraw-Hill Treasures, the math and reading curriculum utilized in Pittsburgh Public Schools, allowing partner organizations to efficiently and effectively plan afterschool programming.
   • High School Curriculum - During the school year, afterschool programming mixes academics and recreation to create fun, engaging sites that teenagers want to attend. Before engaging in recreational and social activities, each participant is required to complete two 45-minute academic sessions:
     • Session 1: Homework Help/Tutoring - Delivered by 5th Quarter Enterprises tutors trained to tutor to varying learning styles, sessions are targeted and personalized as a result of the following real-time information sharing that has been possible through our strong partnership with Peabody:
       • Daily Homework Sheets Signed by each Teacher;
       • Weekly Lesson Plans of the Teachers;
       • Bi-Weekly Progress Report E-mails from Teachers;
       • Full Sets of Text Books at the Sites; and
       • Full Transcript to Date with Standardized Test Scores.
     • Session 2: Academic Enrichment/School Credit Recovery - If all school work is complete, the second session consists of an academic remediation, enrichment or credit recovery technology-based program assigned to a participant, again, based on review of their academic history and current academic standing.

     Summer programming is just as personalized and targeted. Program staff work with school counselors and teachers to develop a summer plan to address academic needs and then provide case management support throughout the summer. Plans include both Pittsburgh Public Schools and Community LEARNS academic components aimed at credit recovery, remediation and/or enrichment.

5. Individualizes and Personalizes Education: Academic transcripts, standardized test scores, and patterns of in-school behavior are reviewed with youth, their parent(s)/guardian(s), and school staff to develop individualized academic plans to target academic and personal needs. On-going, real-time data collection allows for review and revision of plans following grading periods.
   • Elementary Programs - 357 Academic Improvement Plans created based on DIBELS and Math SBA assessments
   • High School Program - 73 Academic Success Plans and 95 Summer Academic Success Plans created based on GPA, attendance, failed course, Terra Nova/PSSA’s, and teacher recommendations
6. Tracks School Data in Real-Time: Made possible through the relationships Wireless Neighborhoods has facilitated between community and schools, program attendance and participant academic performance information is collected, logged and shared in real-time across shared servers and an on-line database, allowing for Wireless Neighborhoods administrative staff, partner administrative staff and program staff to all see the information in real-time and work together to identify and address issues immediately. This type of collaboration truly allows for ‘the village to raise the child’.
7. Incorporates Technology in Afterschool Programming: On-line and server-based academic software packages are a key component of School Partners© afterschool curriculum. In addition to providing academic remediation and enrichment, use of technology based programming prepares youth for the world of the 21st Century:
   • Elementary -
     • Project LISTEN: Developed by Carnegie Mellon University to improve literacy, Project LISTEN is an automated Reading Tutor that displays stories on a computer screen, listens to children read aloud and utilizes Carnegie Mellon’s Sphinx-II speech recognizer to analyze the student’s oral reading. The Reading Tutor intervenes when the reader needs or requests assistance.
     • Scholastic Reading Counts: Provides computer-based quizzes that test reading comprehension after the student reads a book.
     • iknowthat.com: A website that incorporates grade-specific reading and math standards into exciting online games.
     • Similar to our games/manipulatives matrices, School Partners© created an iknowthat.com matrix for improved planning and alignment with school curriculum and state standards.
   • High School -
     • Apangea SmarthHelp Cognitive Math Tutoring Program: SES-approved web-based program aligned with Pennsylvania standards.
     • Kaplan Online SAT Preparation Program: 50-hour Kaplan Online SAT Preparation program.
     • NovaNET Credit Recovery: Community LEARNS has a unique agreement with Pittsburgh Public Schools to provide NovaNET credit recovery at the Community LEARNS sites.
     • M.O.S.C. Certification: 25 participants have earned Microsoft Office Specialist Certifications.
8. Creates Youth-Friendly Learning Environments: A youth-friendly environment encourages learning by developing a space that brings education into a student’s everyday surroundings and creates a welcoming atmosphere for children and youth to explore, learn and grow. All community and faith based partners operating under the Wireless Neighborhoods models are trained on how to create youth-friendly learning environments in their programs.
   • Elementary -
     • Text-rich settings with labeling on items throughout the room
     • Inviting soft spaces that encourage children to lay back and read
     • Bulletin boards where students proudly display their work
   • High School -
     • Youth provide input on the design of their space
     • State-of-the-art computer labs with high speed internet, Microsoft Office, and capability of efficiently delivering academic software utilized, as well as music and gaming software
     • Designating academic areas that are clearly separated from recreational and social activities
     • Recreational areas that include gymnasiums, teen centers, big screen televisions, gaming systems, pool tables, and foosball
     • Libraries with literature and periodicals urban teens want to read
     • Food service programs
9. Requires On-Going Staff Development: Wireless Neighborhoods requires on-going professional development that in turn enables the staff of our partners to effectively educate and support their students.

   In collaboration with Pittsburgh Public Schools, Wireless Neighborhoods offered the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Basic Tutor Credential Training to our community partners. We voluntarily underwent this comprehensive training and credentialing process, and require that at least 75% of the staff at each program site funded by Wireless Neighborhoods obtain the credential.

   During the 2006-07 school year, Wireless Neighborhoods provided 62 hours of training to 419 community and faith-based organization staff:

   Training	Trainees	Training Hours
   Classroom and Behavioral Management	129	11
   PA Department of Education Basic Tutor Credential	95	16
   Parental Engagement	12	3
   Utilizing academic standards to create ‘Learn thru Play’ activities	22	5
   Interpreting Assessment Results to Target Learning	16	5
   Strategies for Assisting Beginning Readers	65	5
   Collecting, managing and utilizing data collected in EZ Reports	12	3
   Everyday Math Games and Strategies	50	2
   Using Scholastic Reading Counts to Develop/Track Comprehension	12	4
   NovaNET Credit Recovery	2	6
   Attendance Tracking/Policy	4	2
   Totals	419	62

10. Fosters Best Practices in Afterschool Management: Wireless Neighborhoods helps organizations develop and enhance policies and procedures to create organized, positive structures for their afterschool programs. The following are some of the processes and procedures that Wireless Neighborhoods utilize when assisting organizations in the development of their program:
    • Data collection: To facilitate the organization and management of attendance, assessments and student information, Wireless Neighborhoods has invested in the EZ Reports online database. The database makes it possible to track student participation and program activities, increasing the overall efficiency of data collection and inspection. Partners’ funding is tied to enrollment, file inspections and student attendance.
    • Site Evaluations: Wireless Neighborhoods School Partners© have developed an afterschool program rubric that rates the quality of a program’s staff-student interaction, lesson delivery and overall structure. School Partners© staff visit our partners’ afterschool programs on a bi-weekly basis and utilize the checklist to determine the program’s strengths and areas that need improvement. The completed checklist is sent to the program administrator and site coordinator, and together with Wireless Neighborhoods, an action plan is created to improve the identified areas. Having learned the benefit of continuous quality improvement, organizations have also begun to utilize this tool internally to gauge the quality of their program and develop action plans based on their findings.
    • On-going, Regular Meetings: Wireless Neighborhoods and its School Partners© staff meet regularly with staff, administrators and volunteers of partnering organizations to define best practice and ensure programming quality and efficacy.
11. Makes Data-Driven Decisions based on Third-Party Evaluations: In order to ensure evaluative rigor and transparency, each program implemented by Wireless Neighborhoods is evaluated by a third-party evaluation team to examine the appropriateness of its current outcome measures, define additional evaluation elements and develop an appropriate data collection instrument that can be used across multiple program sites. We are hopeful that the core tenets of the Wireless Neighborhoods program model can be used to define the key elements of quality afterschool that can be used by funders, the Pittsburgh Public Schools and others to assess the impact of community and faith based after school programs.
    • Program participation records and school-based attendance records, behavior data, grade reports, and standardized test scores are used to determine student progress and efficacy of the program services and overall program models.
    • Participants, parents, teachers, counselors, school administrators, and worksite supervisors are all surveyed to determine program satisfaction of all program stakeholders.