With the support of all of you this year we have been able to serve over 200 middle and high school youth in after-school programs filled with STEM and Art enrichment that we offer at LEAP and in the Salem and Gloucester public schools and 150 students in our College Success programs. This June, we will have 31 high school youth from Salem, Peabody and Gloucester graduating. And, thanks to everyone here, we continue to have 100% high school graduation and 100% college enrollment. And 85%

In LEAP for Education’s College Success Program (CSP), it is one of our goals to support students while leading them towards finding their own autonomy, which is vital in order to succeed as independent adults in college and future careers. It is important to the CSP staff that students are taught the appropriate way to communicate with every professional in their lives. In addition, it is incredibly important that our students see themselves as adults who can solve problems instead of looking for adults around them

This weekend I spent a few days down in Hull, MA and took a bike ride to the Hull gut where a deep water channel between Hull and Peddocks Island connects the ocean to Hingham bay. On incoming and outgoing tides the water can be turbulent with winds and treacherous cross currents. For small boats, particularly sailboats, it is not only the water and wind conditions but it is the speeding motorboats throwing wakes that make the crossing so unpredictable and scary. If you are tacking

I recently heard someone say, “The choices we make, make us”. Ironically I had just finished two books, Sonia Sotomayor’s memoir entitled My Beloved World and Wes Moore’s book, titled The Other Wes Moore, One Name, Two Lives. In each book Justice Sotomayor and author and activist Wes Moore talk about the choices they made, both growing up amidst poverty. I have often spoken about the important role LEAP plays in providing social capital to our students. And as I pondered this statement about choices, I

High school reformists incorporate the 3 R’s for student success: rigor, relevance, and relationships. Students need to be challenged academically, must understand how that challenge relates to life in the “real world,” and they need to know that adults in the system care about them and are invested in their success. Most urban high schools offer a range of rigor in course selections including honors and AP level courses. However, too many students miss the connection between their learning and the real world. How many times

Today coding is an elite career mostly populated by white or Asian men. Girls, blacks and Latinos are largely absent. To democratize Computer Science we need it to be available in the public schools and taught in a way that makes it compelling and relevant to all of our students.

In previous blogs I have spoken about contextualized learning, particularly as it relates to science and math. For too many students the way math and science (and other subjects) are taught in school is too abstract leaving students disengaged and wondering what all this textbook learning has to do with them and their lives. But the problem goes even deeper. Even when students get to participate in lab work or even take home or in-class projects, the assignments are more often than not, prescribed. Either it

Any after-school provider who speaks out against Extended Learning Time (ELT) speaketh with forked tongue, indeed. Quality after-school programs prove over and over again that ELT is valuable. When reading articles on ELT, I am taken aback with comments that ELT have not been proven to impact academic outcomes. I infer from the articles that the data is inconclusive. I have not had the time to read the research that has been done but I believe that some of the issue may be that the value

On June 11,2013, Salem CyberSpace held its second Great Expectations event at the Kernwood Country Club.  260 students, parents, supporters and community members came to celebrate the graduation of 14 high school students and 10 college graduates. Here is the speech that its Director, Linda Saris, delivered that night: Today is a very special day for all of you.  The graduates you will see today are among the first students to participate in the academic youth programs which started in 2003, 10 years ago when these

Thank you to Arthur Posey for posting this blog Arthur Posey is a retired high school guidance counselor and freelance blogger specializing in issues that relate to education (including education reform, TEFL and the importance of vocational schools. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him rafting his favorite rivers or fixing up his motorcycle. My uncle Dan was top of his class in high school, with excellent grades and promising SAT scores. Most of the colleges he applied to offered him full-ride scholarships. He went