| Notes |
Grand Rapids | The Challenge of Reach and Sustainability
Through cross-sector collaboration, Grand Rapids went from a community
with no school-based expanded learning opportunities to one with many, all fortified by a network of community and philanthropic support.
Mayor George Heartwell remembers clearly the catalyst for his city’s initial advance toward expanded learning oppor- tunities (ELO) for its schoolchildren. It came in 1995 at a National League of Cities conference that he attended as a city commissioner along with a member of the school board. One session focused on a citywide afterschool program in Albuquerque that was enjoying early success.
“We looked at each other,” recalls Heartwell, now in his third term as mayor, “and said, ‘We could do that in Grand Rapids.’ We had zero after school programming opportunities other than what the YMCA provided. We weren’t using our buildings after the school day. It was the beginning of an interesting process.”
From that initial, “a-ha” moment, ELO in Grand Rapids grew to encompass 21,000 young people and every public school in the city. It came to incorporate the two key attributes of Albuquerque’s program—providing “a positive place for kids to go” at the end of the school day and academic rigor tied into school curriculum—that had so impressed the future mayor in 1995. It has consistently found champions among Grand Rapids’ political leadership and, increasingly, among the business community. According to Heartwell, afterschool
programs are also making “an enormous impact” on rates of juvenile delinquency—a result that is helping build support while the community works to gauge the program’s effects on personal success, academic achievement and other indicators.
Grand Rapids’ implementation of expanded learning oppor- tunities illustrates what a community can accomplish through common purpose and cross-sector collaboration. At the same time, these efforts reveal both progress and a work in progress.
Despite successes in building community partnerships and student/parent participation, officials worry about whether they are reaching enough of the children who most need the additional resources that ELO can offer; about how effectively they are measuring results; and about the durability of the ex- ternal funding upon which their work now so heavily depends.
Building Community Collaboration
After returning from the 1995 conference, then-Commissioner Heartwell and fellow attendee Dan West, a school board member, convened an unprecedented joint meeting of the city commission and school board. That meeting eventually led to recommendations from a task force on child well-being, which in turn led to the creation of a six-person liaison com- mittee (which continues to meet regularly) to discuss how the commission and board could work together, and engage the broader community, in extending opportunities for learning to a student population with a dropout rate above 30 percent.
Building on this momentum, in 1998 Grand Rapids’ city commission and board of education established an Office of Children, Youth and Families (which has evolved into an entity known as Our Community’s Children) to serve as an
Expanded Learning, Expanded Opportunity
3
intermediary for community collaboration and to pursue grant dollars.
“What’s unique about Our Community’s Children”, says Lynn Heemstra, who has headed the organization since its inception, “is that it’s a partnership between the city, the school district and other community partners. The strong relationship with schools and the mayor’s office positions us to get investments from other foundations and from the National League of Cities.”
Grand Rapids’ efforts to coordinate expanded learning within schools began with a mapping of assets—community pro- grams and providers that could potentially be part of a coordinated effort to expand learning opportunities as part of an ELO Network working under the auspices of Our Community’s Children (OCC).
Next, OCC and a community collaborative worked to develop quality standards for ELO providers. They researched best practices and aligned ELO standards with both national and state standards. The standards were intended as the quality goalpost, across all types and sizes of programs, for after school providers within what would become the ELO Network.
The Network, which now boasts more than 60 organizations, coordinates programs, both within Grand Rapids Public Schools (GRPS) and at more than 180 sites operated by community-based organizations around the metro area.
The community-based programs span a continuum from sports to the arts to homework help, and they include weekend and summer offerings. What unites these diverse community programs are adherence to quality standards and agree- ment on outcomes—including school attendance, behavioral impact, academic achievement and social-emotional impact.
Injecting Community Partners into Schools
Community collaboration on ELO comes alive most fully at 30 of the city’s schools. In a distinctive partnership with community providers, the school system draws on federal 21st Century Community Learning grants to operate after- school programs that serve roughly 4,000 students in grades 1-12.
Students and their parents sign up to participate in the programs, which run four days a week (Monday through Thursday) until 6 p.m. GRPS’ Office of Extended Learning oversees the school-based programs, which operate within individual schools through a partnering community organization, such as YMCA or Camp Fire, and directed by a site coordinator.
Within the parameters established by GRPS, and within the budgets they manage using funds from GRPS, partners enjoy wide latitude to tailor their school’s program, which must include structured academic enrichment activities; a health component that includes everything from exercise to cooking classes and lessons in healthy eating; and regular activities for families. Frequently, students take field trips, engage in community service, and have opportunities to take part in sports through partners such as First Tee.
The programs also include a component focused on building non-academic skills, such as self-control and perseverance, which correlate with academic success. Evening family activities, which may include dinner and entertainment, increase parental involvement and, for parents, build a positive association with being in the school building.
Along with the diversity of community partners serving as ELO providers, the involvement of classroom teachers is a hallmark of the program. At each site, teachers from that school oversee the hour-long, structured academic component of the program.
Teachers tailor the content based on each school’s improvement plan and on the needs of student participants. This arrangement, organizers believe, offers several valuable advantages. Teachers already know the students and their aca- demic abilities, and they understand the areas targeted for improvement under their school’s plan. In addition, through parent-teacher conferences and other established channels of communication, teachers can recommend the program to parents of children whom they believe stand to benefit most.
Expanded Learning, Expanded Opportunity
4
Expanded learning in Grand Rapids is not limited to after school time. Seven schools also offer before-school program- ming (administered by the same partner that operates the afterschool program) that provides breakfast and homework help. At the same 30 sites, providers also offer summer programs with a recently added academic component. In a sepa- rate summer program, United Way volunteers provide one-on-one assistance in reading for elementary students whose achievement test scores identify them as high-need.
Funding, which mostly comes from outside sources, limits the scope of Grand Rapids’ efforts. Federal 21st Century Community Learning funds, allocated to cities by the Michigan Department of Education, have been insufficient to in- crease the capacity in each school beyond 20 percent of the students enrolled there. The law now requires the presence of one adult for every 18 children.
“I would like to see a ratio of one adult to 12 children. I think we could make a bigger impact,” says Irma Lopez, a former principal who directs the school system’s Office of Extended Learning. “And we don’t know whether the 20 percent we reach are the 20 percent who are most at risk.”
As a result of these limits, demand for slots outstrips the supply. Each school’s extended day offerings run at capacity and maintain waiting lists. The lists in turn contribute to strong levels of student partici- pation. If students’ attendance for the program falls, parents receive a letter; if the pattern continues, the student may be dropped in favor of someone on the waiting list.
Measuring Effectiveness
Grand Rapids’ efforts received a significant boost in
2012, thanks to a $765,000 grant from the Wallace
Foundation. The grant has funded the development a
Youth Community Data Center, in conjunction with
Grand Valley State University, that for the first time
will enable the city to connect afterschool programs with daily school attendance and assess the effectiveness of after- school programs.
“We will be able to measure what combination of services is producing the best outcomes, down to the individual level,” Heemstra says. “The data center will also show combined impact and show providers how they rate” among all ELO Network members. As of early 2015, Our Community’s Children had piloted the measurement work at two school sites and was scaling up the data center for the entire ELO network.
The new data center, officials believe, will yield significant improvement over the current system of measurement, which involves an annual report by a local evaluator. The evaluations compare the performance of students in each afterschool program with others from the same school who are not in the program. Based on these evaluations, student participants in previous years experienced “noticeable” improvement, according to Lopez. Following the 2013-14 school year—the first in which the school-based afterschool programs were tied to each school’s improvement plan—the evaluation mea- sured “dramatic improvement” in academic performance, behavior and attendance.
For Heartwell and other leaders in Grand Rapids, school-related outcomes aren’t the only important measures of success for ELO. “We’ve seen the impact it can make on juvenile delinquency,” he says—a factor that could be significant for building support for more and better learning initiatives in other cities. “We’ve been able to track data around juvenile arrests and interactions with the police. The afterschool program is having an enormous impact.”
Expanded Learning, Expanded Opportunity
5

Giving Greater Voice to Young People
The Wallace Foundation grant is also enabling Our Community’s Children to focus more attention on out-of-school-time activities for teens. In particular, the ELO Network is seeking ways to engage high schoolers more actively in developing programs that prepare them for college, work and life.
An evaluation of local out-of-school-time programs funded by the grant found that teens were less interested in pro- grams that seemed simply like extensions of the school day and wanted more focused offerings that allowed them to learn or improve particular skills. Surveys also found that more than 80 percent of high schoolers wanted both greater input into the design of afterschool programs and more opportunities for leadership.
Among the study’s recommendations were that (1) programs should better reflect the needs and wants of teens, since their engagement was key to sustained participation; and (2) teens should be enlisted not only in structuring programs but as activity leaders and recruiters.
Based on these recommendations, Our Community’s Children partnered with three high schools, which served as pilot sites for student advisory teams. The teen advisors, who worked with the overall out-of-school-time program coordi- nator and the site coordinators at their schools, were invited to think differently about how afterschool activities were organized and advertised.
“We were in charge of the program and had to deal with a budget and come up with our own ideas and plans,” one student said. “We were totally responsible.” During the spring semester of 2013, two of the three schools piloting the student leadership project saw double-digit gains in participation in their afterschool programs.
Funding Cuts and the Threat to Sustainability
Unfortunately, Grand Rapids was unable to build on this promising momentum in its ELO programs for high school- ers. Before the 2014-15 academic year, the Michigan Department of Education declined to renew the 21st Century Community Learning grant funds the school system had received for its high school programs. As a result, while high schoolers could still access community-based afterschool programs, the school-based programs ceased operation.
The cuts came just as Grand Rapids was launching a major new initiative, “To College, Through College,” focused on improving high school graduation rates and greater student enrollment and success in postsecondary education.
In a sense, suggests Mayor Heartwell, the programs fell victim to their own success. Because the statistics for high schoolers were improving so much, he says, and because the funds were reserved for the most at-risk populations, Grand Rapids’ high school students became a lower priority for the state’s grant funds.
Recognizing that the school system had been receiving a share of 21st Century Community Learning funds from the state that, compared to other cities, was disproportionately large, Lopez philosophizes, “We were fortunate to keep what we kept.”
Still, the cuts illuminate the precariousness of the community’s ELO programs amid uncertain budget environments for local, state and federal governments. In such an environment, school system leaders hope their ELO partnerships with community organizations might yield additional dividends. Because they have established themselves as stakeholders in the city’s extended day programs, these organizations might be willing to leverage their investment in young people with funds as well as volunteer support.
So far, however, the community has not been able to close the gap in high school programs left by the cuts in funding. Though some teen programs exist, more could be done to serve the needs of teenagers to prepare them for college, work and life.
Expanded Learning, Expanded Opportunity
6
“Our model is in place,” says Heemstra. “The challenge is to sustain quality practices after national funding goes away. Having strong mayoral leadership is critical. It helps that community members are around the table and are committed to an aligned and data-driven process. I think this is a reason our ELO Network has lasted as long as it has. It will last as long as it adds value to its members. But we are always looking at sustainability.”
“Our ELO effort requires investment,” Heartwell adds. “We’ve shown our creativity. What we’ve started, we can’t afford to stop.”
Successes, Challenges and Lessons
Grand Rapids, in contrast to some cities, is an ELO effort built largely from scratch—and offers some valuable insights into how other, similarly situated cit- ies can create their own initiatives.
One lesson: Having not only buy-in but also political leadership from the mayoral administration can be a critical driver for success. In addition, as other cities (such as Rochester) have found, situating extended learning efforts with- in the schools can be an effective strategy to ensure that programs are available to young people throughout the community, at sites where they are already congregated.
“It helps that community members are around the table and are committed to an aligned and data-driven process. I think this is a reason our ELO Network has lasted as long as it has.”
Expanded Learning, Expanded Opportunity
Because Grand Rapids created its own initiative, its stakeholders have driven the standards and worked on alignment across very diverse programs. And because the school-based programs involve teachers who already know the students, Grand Rapids may have enjoyed an advantage in integrating classroom learning with the academic components of its out-of-school-time programming.
Since the ELO effort began, Grand Rapids can point to some notable successes in terms of the number of children
and partners engaged and the level of support from the community. The very name of the umbrella organization, Our Community’s Children, suggests an evolution in how Grand Rapids residents see themselves as both stakeholders and participants in the well-being of young people all across the city. And the way that leaders are actively engaging young people in shaping ELO programs is instructive for other communities seeking to increase youth participation.
School and political leaders have been gratified by real reductions in juvenile involvement with police and by perceived improvements in academic performance—enough, perhaps, that these gains alone justify the ELO investment.
Ensuring that the programs reach the children who need them most remains a challenge. Transportation and access remain challenges. And measurement of impact is still a problem.
Because Grand Rapids’ ELO efforts are so dependent on outside funding, leaders are acutely aware of the need to mea- sure results and demonstrate progress. They have ensured a rich and persistent research agenda, and with the Youth Community Data Center, are working to ensure that the community sees its impact.
In an era of fiscal austerity, the dependence on outside funders also illuminates a dilemma that many cities face. Without outside financial assistance, it can be difficult to build an ELO initiative and the systems needed to gauge progress, im- prove programs and show that more learning is also better learning. Yet, without those systems, funding in a hyper-com- petitive grant environment can be jeopardized.
The key is being relevant, consistently adding value, and seeing system-wide returns on investments in expanding learn- ing opportunities for children. |