July 21, 2005

Eric Schwarz Makes After-School Time Count

In recent weeks social entrepreneur Eric Schwarz, president and CEO of Citizen Schools has been busy watching students demonstrate the new skills they’ve developed during real-world apprenticeships with lawyers, architects, chefs, writers and more. The projects and performances are designed to make adult onlookers say, “Wow!” and as Eric describes the work, his enthusiasm is palpable.

Headquartered in Boston, Citizen Schools prepares disadvantaged youths for academic achievement in high school and advancement to college by transforming idle out-of-school time into hands-on learning opportunities. Middle-school children work with highly skilled professionals and artisans to learn how to argue mock trials, design public parks, create Web sites and more.

Lawyer Neil Rosen coaches David, an apprentice in Citizen Schools' Eighth Grade Academy.

Citizen Schools currently serves 2,000 middle-school students and engages 1,500 volunteers in 12 cities in four states: California, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Texas. With help from the Skoll Foundation, the organization plans to double in size by 2007-08, with 4,200 student and 4,000 volunteers across 20 or more communities and six to eight states.

Eric and Ned Rimer founded Citizen Schools in 1995 because they believed that schools alone were insufficient to solve the problems identified in 1983 when “A Nation at Risk” warned of a rising tide of mediocrity in American education. Instead of trying to transform the traditional school system, they opted instead to work with young people when they are not in school—which is about 80 percent of their time. “In our view, after-school time has been an afterthought too long,” Eric said.

Citizen Schools is already demonstrating impressive results. An independent longitudinal evaluation conducted in June 2004 by Policy Studies Associates reported that Citizen Schools students significantly outperformed a matched comparison group in the areas of improving school attendance, being promoted to the next grade, reducing discipline problems, scoring on high-stakes tests and advancing to strong high schools. During the school years 2001-02 and 2002-03 in Boston, where the Boston Globe has reported that only 44 percent of ninth graders graduate from their high schools four years later, Citizen Schools sent 99 percent of participating eighth graders to high schools that have a proven or promising track record of college preparation.

“We need to reimagine learning – the when, where, who and what of learning. To succeed as citizens and workforce contributors in the 21st century, youths need to extend their learning time. They need the type of authentic, real-world learning experiences that Citizen Schools provides,” said Eric.

Citizen Schools apprentice Francisco (right) works with designer Adam Smith in an urban planning apprenticeship.

Citizen Schools recruits citizen volunteers as teachers because, Eric explained, “We believe that we will not truly reform education until we get citizens off the sidelines and into young people’s lives in massive numbers.” Among those who have offered apprenticeships are lawyers, Web designers, grandmothers who know how to sew, urban planners, gardeners, stockbrokers and even an undertaker whose apprenticeship developed a project to help youngsters deal with grief.

Eric, 44, said he is particularly sensitive to the needs of middle-school youths because he had a difficult adolescence and benefited greatly from the community spirit created by his parents and others who bonded when they formed a Montessori school that he attended in New York City. He also became fascinated with the power of volunteers to drive change and mobilized large numbers of college volunteers while working in a presidential campaign. In 1994 he drew upon his experience as a newspaper reporter to run a pilot program that took 10 students through the process of publishing a newspaper. When he saw the proud smiles on their faces as they distributed the issue, he was hooked.

Recently, he has watched middle-schoolers argue cases before federal judges during mock trials, present their design for a skateboard park, cook a gourmet dinner for parents and civic leaders, organize a road race, manage stock portfolios, read children’s books they have written and present a paper on programming to a national conference of women engineers.

“They are pushing the boundaries of what a typical 12- or 13-year-old student would normally do,” Eric said.

For more information, visit Citizen Schools’ Web site at www.citizenschools.org or call (617) 695-2300.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Nine in 10 Americans think children need organized activities or a program to go to after school where they have learning opportunities.
  (Afterschool Alliance Poll, September 2003)
  
• Only 6.5 million K-12 children (11%) participate in after-school programs. An additional 15 million would participate if a quality program were available in their community. (America After 3 PM, May 2004)