The Detroit Blog
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Unfiltered: Tiffany Cooper Gueye on Staying Smart

Posted by Karen Dybis, Monday, June 21, 2010 at 11:00 am

Today, education fans, is National Summer Learning Day in the United States. That means those little tykes running through your living room, playing on your street and generally driving you crazy one day into summer vacation probably should be doing something more constructive to make sure their brain doesn't melt in the summer heat.

Let me introduce you to Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL) – a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide educational summer and after school programs to children who need them most.

Founded in 1992, BELL serves more than 11,000 children annually in under-performing public and charter schools throughout Detroit and other urban communities including Boston, New York City, Charlotte, Augusta and Springfield. What makes them stand out is the scientific evaluation and proof that has been done by the Urban Institute about the effectiveness of their programs.

Today, Dr. Tiffany Cooper Gueye will tell us about BELL, how it is impacting Detroit and its overall goals for changing the way we educate our students around here.

For background: Even Mrs. Obama has taken note...In a May speech during an event to talk about new grant programs, she mentioned BELL as follows:

"We know that some of the best solutions to our nation's problems already exist, and that's the beauty of this country. ... And we know that with the right support, the right kind of investment, they can go from just changing a handful of lives to making a difference on a much larger scale. Some examples [include] the BELL Program."

Onto the good stuff...

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By Tiffany Cooper Gueye, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer

Some might take a look at Detroit schools and conclude there is only one direction for them to move — and that is up.

Detroit Public Schools recently reported a 58 percent graduation rate in 2008-09, compared with a statewide rate of 89 percent. While this is an improvement from a 2007 study in Education Week that reported Detroit's 24.9 percent graduation rate was the lowest among the nation's 50 largest districts, there is still much work to be done.

We firmly believe that while making the school day as productive as it can be is obviously important, Detroit students cannot hope to catch up during the school day alone.

As school ends and summer approaches, it is critically important to understand the role that summer programs can and have played in making a significant difference in a student's ability to improve academically, particularly children attending schools in under-resourced communities like Detroit. Studies indicate that as much as 66 percent of the achievement gap can be attributed to differences in learning that take place during the summer. It's hard to underestimate that figure. Research shows that "most students lose about two months of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills over the summer months. Low-income students also lose more than two months in reading achievement."

It can take students weeks, if not months, to regain these losses in the fall. And, with some districts moving to a four-day school week because of a shortage in funding, the opportunity for students living in under-performing, under-resourced urban areas to achieve academically is shrinking.

The organization I lead, BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life), was drawn to Detroit, Flint and Saginaw, where 1,200 students have participated in our after school and summer experiences, because we believe that there is much more potential here than the data initially suggests. We believe that Detroit's children, who we recognize as Scholars, have tremendous potential, despite current performance. As a partner to schools and school districts, we provide these scholars with high-quality after school and summer school programs that have scientifically proven to enhance students' performance in literacy and math, and improve their attitude toward school.

We've already seen results. In 2009 alone, the number of Detroit, Flint and Saginaw scholars who tested at or above their grade level for reading increased by 86 percent during the six-week program; Michigan scholars gained more than nine months in math and reading skills, on average, during the six-week program; and perhaps most encouraging of all, 80 percent of Michigan scholars expressed aspirations to go on to and graduate from college.

For summer or after school to be most effective, it's not enough to get scholars learning. We also know that parents have to be involved. We understand that parents care deeply about their children's academic success and future. We design our programs to include workshops for parents that vary from teaching English language courses to lectures on how to deal with bullying, how to navigate school choice options and how to understand your child's progress - among others. We include the entire family throughout the entire BELL experience to ensure that support and expectations will be fulfilled by the child's support network.

There is no magic bullet for improving Detroit's schools. And no matter how much time, effort and resources are poured into improving the in-school learning environment, it will never be enough. Providing opportunities for learning and mentoring during the after school hours and into the summer can give Detroit's children the boost they need to believe in themselves and in the promise of a brighter tomorrow.

* Please view the following video, produced by WETA Reading Rockets and in partnership with Major League Baseball, to see first-hand how BELL Summer has made an impact in the lives of Michigan scholars, including seven-year-old Nikita, who attends Warrendale Elementary in Detroit.