An exciting, extended day program is happening at The Ethical Community Charter School. It is called the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC). All program activities are offered through a 21st CCLC competitive grant funded by the State Department of Education through the U.S. Department of Education. Therefore, all program services are provided free of charge. The 21st CCLC grant will provide a variety of activities that will enrich the lives of our neediest students and help them achieve academic success. While the main focus in the program will be on academic enrichment and remediation, other components will focus on building social, physical, and emotional skills through activities in fitness, sports, arts, culture, science, math, and technology. A 2008 study of afterschool programs reported that balancing academic support with a variety of activities that promote youth development appears to support and improve academic performance. (Little, P., Wimer, C., & Weiss, H. (2008). After school programs in the 21st century: Their potential and what it takes to achieve it. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Family Research Project).
The 21st CCLC program has three major components:
Academic Enrichment
Youth Development
Parent/Family Engagement
The 21st CCLC program will implement after school activities that will extend, enrich and remediate identified academic and socio-emotional needs of students. The overarching goal of the 21st CCLC Program is to provide the students and parents of The Ethical Community Charter School and the surrounding community with an organized, educational, and recreationally oriented program for students in grades 3-8. In collaboration with other community based partners, our 21st CCLC program will also establish programming for family members of participating students to promote literacy, technology skills, communication skills, and increase the number of opportunities per year to interact with their child’s educational environment.
This manual explains the program’s operational procedures. It also details parent and student expectations.