ECASS: 21st Century Community Learning Centers

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ECASS: 21st Century Community Learning Centers

CEI-PEA is partnering with six New York City middle schools to implement 21st Century Community Learning Centers. These Centers are funded through three-year 21st Century Community Learning Center grants from New York State were established and use an innovative plan to accelerate students’ academic progress and youth development. The plan includes services delivered in 25 weeks after school and 5 weeks in the summer to provide a total of 275 young people (per site) with access to the resources, training and support they need to improve their educational achievement and build the social, emotional and cultural resiliency necessary for long-term success.

Known as ECASS: Educators & Communities Aligned for Student Success, the Centers are designed to become essential components of the ongoing and total transformation of school culture at each of the middle/high schools. For this purpose, the Centers are built upon a unique partnership of educators, youth development experts and community leaders. CEI-PEA leads development of the ECASS Centers in partnership with the school and the Sports & Arts in Schools Foundation (SASF).

The partnership’s goal is to collaborate as a single unit together with parents, students, and community members in order to accelerate students’ academic progress and positive youth development. The ECASS Centers are designed to offer a seamless web between classroom and after school, thereby removing the too frequent disjuncture between school day and after school programs. Specifically, the ECASS Centers use the valuable after-school hours and summer hours to:

  1. help the most at-risk students (students at Levels 1 and 2) accelerate their academic learning and positive youth development
  2. improve school climate and overall well-being of students through engaging sports, fitness, art and cultural, trips, and service learning activities
  3. engage parents and caregivers in their children’s education and maturation of their own learning and literacy.

For more information about our ECASS/21st Century Community Learning Centers, please contact Carlos Medina.