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You
are here: From Outside In:
How Out-of-School Programs Enrich Student Learning
by Nancy Bacon
For students to graduate from our K-12 school system prepared for citizenship, they need a rich extra-curricular experience outside of school. In this essay, I seek to define key elements of citizenship today and then explain how out-of-school programs connected with in-school curriculum support education for citizenship. I describe the two types of hosts for out-of-school programs, higher education institutions and community organizations, and provide examples of out-of-school programs within both of these contexts. In conclusion, I address some of the challenges in evaluating out-of-school time programs run by universities and non-governmental agencies.
The Case for Out-of School Programs
Our schools exist to educate young people for citizenship in the world they will inhabit. I state this to clarify our schools' purpose in juxtaposition with the growing fervor around testing that creates the false goal of educating students to pass reading and writing tests. In the United States, the term citizenship implies an active engagement in the political and economic work of living in a multi-cultural society. One must only read the headlines to understand that the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in one nation, particularly the United States, are inseparably intertwined with the lives of individuals living around the world, thus the need to think of citizenship on a global scale. I purposefully write "will inhabit" to underscore the notion that we do not really know the actual world for which they must be prepared. Our schools, therefore, exist to prepare young people for life outside of school and in local and global communities facing issues only partly apparent to us today.If our schools exist to educate students to life outside of school, a rich pre-graduation experience outside of school is critical within our students' total education. Just as a pilot banks hundreds of hours of simulated flight before flying solo and a surgeon spends years beyond medical school practicing incisions, young people need to test-run their knowledge and skills in an out-of-school setting before carrying the full mantel of citizen. Students who graduate from school with a strong academic experience and firsthand exposure to the machinery of our society and world are more likely to vote, participate in civic discourse, and think critically about the political and economic issues that connect us with the world beyond our borders.
It is important to actually define what people get when they apply knowledge and skills in a real setting because it helps to define the benefits of out-of-school programs. While our schools work diligently to provide students with critical knowledge and strengthen key skills, a third element comes into play with application of these two: understanding. Daniel Wright recently wrote: "As former U.S. Ambassador to China, Stapleton Roy, said:'knowledge does not equal understanding.' 1 Knowledge combines information, theory, and fact. Understanding brings nuance, subtlety, the intangible. Knowledge is bones and flesh; understanding is soul and spirit. We need both, for sure." Martha Nussbaum underscores this notion of understanding by arguing that our schools have the primary responsibility for shaping our youth into world citizens, and world citizens are defined by their ability to sympathize with their fellow human beings, wherever they live in the world. 2 We know that there is a helix-like relationship between knowledge and engagement: the more people know, the more they engage in civic activity, and the more people engage, the more they know. Understanding takes root in students as they journey down this road of knowledge and engagement and grapple with real issues facing real people. Understanding—caring enough to connect personally with a person or issue— is a critical by-product of authentic programs that challenge students' knowledge and skills.
Once we acknowledge that students need to practice civic engagement before "going live" as citizens, we need to consider all of the possible settings for this practicum in real world dialogue and debate. Schools can create microcosms of reality—good teachers use simulations and experiential learning all the time—and yet these microcosms of reality fall short of reality itself. Students are often limited by the population of fellow students within their classroom and school for diversity of thought and peer review. Teachers are frequently limited to the adults within their school or community for support, feedback, and external resources. The school setting itself is familiar to students with cultural ground rules that may or may not apply outside of the school. On the other hand, extending educational activities beyond school-based programs opens up exciting possibilities for mixing up student populations, engaging diverse adults in creative ways, and introducing students to new physical settings that broaden their horizons.
While out-of-school programs frequently refer to extra-curricular activities, or activities unrelated to in-school learning, many out-of-school programs are tied directly to in-school learning and on-going curriculum. Students benefit from both curricular and extra-curricular programs that take place outside of their school, and in many cases these programs attract both types of students at once. Some students participate with their teacher or as part of a directed assignment; other students participate out of personal interest or through family involvement in the program. The programs described in the next section of this essay have both curricular and extra-curricular application.
If Not At School, Where?
From the standpoint of the delivery of educational programs, our schools exist in a triad with institutions of higher education and non-governmental organizations and institutions. Taken together, our K-12 schools, higher education institutions, and non-governmental organizations represent the full range of resources and training possibilities available to students, and collaboration across all three strengthens each individual member of the triad considerably. In many cases, out-of-school programs are coordinated either by higher education outreach coordinators on a university campus or by community organizations in a community-based space.
While this article does not explore them specifically, higher education entities and non-governmental institutions organize many out-of-school programs within the setting of a school, and these programs have the potential to impact student learning in significant ways. Similarly, a large number of out-of-school programs for teachers exist, and they have a major impact on improving student learning by connecting teachers with resources and training unavailable through school districts. Some of the most effective powerhouses in teacher professional development and resource writing are based on university campuses and non-profit organizations. Designers of out-of-school programs for students can build on these relationships and draw important connections between learning done by teachers and programs for these teachers' students.
Examples of programs
The World Affairs Council of Seattle works with hundreds of community organizations, as well as federal and state institutions and several local universities in the delivery of its programs. The examples of out-of-school time programs below represent some of the programs that the Council sponsors or works with. Given the Council's focus on global issues, all of these programs are geared to engaging students in critical world issues.
Programs partnered with a university
The programs described below represent examples of K-12 Out-of-School programs on international topics available to students in Seattle and/or Washington State, coordinated by university-based entities.
The Washington State Model United Nations program represents an interesting partnership that took root out of the work being done by a non-profit organization, the World Affairs Council of Seattle, but evolved into a project of the University of Washington. Launched in 2000, WASMUN engages over 500 Washington and Pacific Northwest high school students in a simulation of the real United Nations over the course of two days at the University of Washington in Seattle. Using resources and contacts of the University's Jackson School of International Studies Outreach Centers and recruitment programs, WASMUN engages a diverse group of high school students and university students in an exploration of global issues impacting our world today.
The Foundation for International Understanding Through Students (FIUTS) is technically a non-profit organization based on the University of Washington campus. As the support organization for international students on campus, FIUTS links UW international students and scholars from over 100 countries with the community. FIUTS students and scholars participate in Model United Nations training programs, youth summits, classroom visits, and the annual CultureFest, giving K-12 students firsthand experiences with students from countries that they are studying. In many cases, FIUTS partners with the World Affairs Council to expand its reach into area schools, allowing for an effective combination of university resources and non-profit connections to benefit student learning.
The World Affairs Council of Seattle is implementing in Spring 2004 the World Affairs Challenge program, an initiative of the University of Denver in Colorado. The project represents an excellent example of the potential of partnering schools with both a higher education institution anywhere in the country and a local community non-profit partner. The Challenge uses the resources and graduate students of the Center for Teaching International Relations and engages middle or high school students in a full-day program on a critical world issue. The 2004 program focuses on human rights, with teams of middle school students traveling to Seattle on May 14 for a public presentation on an human rights issue that they have been researching. The World Affairs Council has convened local judges to give feedback to students. The Council will implement a similar program, Brown University's Capitol Forum on America's Future, for high school students in Fall 2004. For more information, visit the Council's website (http://www.world-affairs.org) or each program's website: http://www.du.edu/worldaffairschallenge/ or http://www.choices.edu/capitol_forum/index.cfm.
Programs partnered with non-governmental organizations
The programs described below represent examples of K-12 Out-of-School programs on international topics available to students in Seattle and/or Washington State coordinated by community-based, non-governmental organizations.
The World Affairs Council has convened a World Affairs Youth Summit each year since 2001, when it convened a full-day session for high school students on Islam in partnership with Muslim students studying at the University of Washington. In 2004, the Council involved 80 high school students in an in-depth discussion on the global issue of youth refugees. The International Rescue Committee served as another community-based partner organization in the project. The World Affairs Youth Summit allow the Council to take a compelling issue and build community partnerships around it, thereby exposing students to work being done by a variety of similarly-focused organizations. (Visit http://www.world-affairs.org/class_studprog.html for more information.)
The World Affairs Council similarly organizes an annual World Citizen Essay Contest, an example of an out-of-school program that takes place both within the curriculum of some students and as an extra-curricular or family-inspired activity by other students. The Council has the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as a media partner and engages the help of over fifty community judges each year. The winning students bring their parents to a gala evening, the annual World Citizen Awards Banquet organized by the World Affairs Council. (Visit http://www.world-affairs.org/class_worldcitizen.html for more information.)
One World Now! is a two-year global leadership program for high school youth. A non-profit organization, One World Now! partners with Seattle-area high schools in a program that includes leadership activities, world language study, summer activities, and internships and that involve a diverse group of high school students. As a young organization, it represents a unique approach to impacting student learning. It provides language programs as after-school programs and then supplements these experiences with off-site leadership trainings, internships, and access to a wide range of community programs, including those run by the World Affairs Council of Seattle.
Evaluating the benefits
A critical design issue in planning out-of-school programs for students is measuring the actual impact they make on student learning. Evaluation is particularly important as teachers increase their dependence on out-of-school programs to challenge curious students. Funders of both university and community-based programs increasingly insist on program evaluation as a fundamental component of the overall program design.Evaluation of out-of-school programs poses a specific set of design issues. It requires a certain commitment by teachers to implement evaluation surveys and time set aside as part of the program to evaluate specific elements of an event or experience. Significant work has been and continues to be done by university and non-profit entities in an effort to measure how much participating students have increased knowledge, understanding, and their commitment to taking action with regard to the issue being discussed. As part of long-term programs like the Model United Nations, students complete pre- and post-surveys to measure changes of attitudes. As part of shorter programs, students complete one-time surveys asking them to evaluate their growth. In almost all cases, feedback is subjective, based on data provided by the student about his or her experience.
The challenge in evaluating out-of-school programs comes in triangulating student feedback data with in-school measurements for student learning. A non-profit organization like the World Affairs Council does not have ready access to:
- student grade reports (do their social studies grades go up?)
- attendance records (do they show a greater interest in coming to school?)
- standardized test results for specific students (do they perform better on standardized tests?)
- or college application results (does the student apply to college or get into a better university because of their involvement in this program?)
Every out-of-school time program manager has pages of anecdotal quotes attesting to the success of their program. The hard data is hard to come by for the average, small, under-funded non-profit or community organization.
Conclusion
When many adults think back to what shaped their learning about a given issue, they cite some field trip they went on or competition they participated in. I vividly remember my high school experience as an exchange student in Germany and my participation in a drama day event at the University of Connecticut. I do not remember as well the hundreds of hours I spent inside classrooms. While I am sure that I learned inside those classrooms—without classroom learning, we lack the knowledge and skills to venture out into the world—I am personally reminded about how relevant learning can be when it takes place outside of a school's four walls. That learning is for understanding, and it is only by combining knowledge, skills, and understanding that we are prepared for the job of a lifetime: acting in the capacity of a concerned and engaged citizen.
References
1 Wright, Daniel B. (2003). The Promise of the Revolution. New York: Rowman & Littlefield. Page 3.
2 Nussbaum, Martha C. (1996). For Love of Country: Debating the Limits of Patriotism. Boston: Beacon. Page 143.
Nancy Bacon is the out-going director of educational programs at the World Affairs Council of Seattle. She created the Council's K-12 educational outreach program, the Global Classroom, in 1997 and directed the award-winning program for seven years The Global Classroom organizes youth programs and conducts extension professional development programs for teachers For more information about the GlobalClassroom, visit www.world-affairs.org/classroom.html. Nancy can be reached via email at nbacon@myuw.net.
©June 2004 New Horizons for Learning
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