After the Bell: Improving Student

Learning With After School Programs

A Symposium for Educators and Decision Makers

Connecticut is rethinking K-12 education and this presents a unique opportunity for community-based after school and summer learning programs to partner with the public schools to shape the academic and social development of our children in very positive ways.

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Keynote Speaker

  Earl Martin Phalen (full bio here) is the CEO of Reach Out and Read and Summer Advantage USA, and the co-founder of BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life). Mr. Phalen is the recipient of numerous awards including the President's Service Award, and he was recently honored at the 2010 BET Awards with the Shine a Light/Local Hero Award for impacting communities and being an education hero.

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Panel Discussion

The symposium will feature an in-depth panel discussion between in-state and out-of-state education leaders on how to successfully build partnerships between community-based after school/summer programs and local school systems. The panel will focus on providing practical solutions on issues such as scheduling, staffing, and program funding – practical solutions to meet everyone’s needs!

Panelists include:

Terry Peterson, Ph.D. is the Chairperson of the Board of Directors for the Afterschool Alliance. He is also director of the Afterschool and Community Learning Network and holds the position of Senior Fellow for Policy and Partnerships at the College of Charleston. Peterson serves on the executive committee of the National Center for Summer Learning at John Hopkins University, the Council for Corporate and School Partnerships, and the Mayor of Charleston's School Reform Committee.

Peterson served as the chief education advisor to the United States Secretary of Education for eight years. At the U.S. Department of Education, he helped develop nationwide education improvement strategies, such as the Advanced Placement, E-Rate, 21st Century Community Learning Center, and teacher quality initiatives. He co-founded International Education Day, the Partnership for Family Involvement, America Goes Back to School, the Pathways to College Network and the Arts Education Partnership. Prior to his tenure in Washington, Peterson served as the chief education advisor to Governor Richard Riley in South Carolina, where he helped design, enact, fund and evaluate one of the most comprehensive and successful K-12 education improvement packages in the nation.

Chris Smith, Executive Director, Boston After School and Beyond. Chris was appointed executive director on October 1, 2008. Before joining Boston Beyond, he worked at the Boston Private Industry Council (PIC) for ten years, as Chief of Staff and director of employer partnerships. He led key policy, measurement and programmatic initiatives to advance employment and learning opportunities for young people in Boston. In collaboration with local business leaders, Chris created Classroom at the Workplace, an innovative program that combines intensive academic remediation and employment for students who failed MCAS. Since its inception, the program has served more than 1,000 students, helping hundreds graduate high school. He played a lead role in developing dropout legislation, signed by Governor Patrick this August, to establish a statewide commission that aims to decrease the dropout rate in Massachusetts. Before joining the PIC in 1998, Chris worked at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, DC on the Secretary of Education’s family and community involvement in education initiative. A native of Worcester, Chris earned an MBA at the FW Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College and a BA in American Studies from Trinity College in Hartford, CT

Michele Rulnick is the Vice President of Youth and Family Programs at the Middlesex YMCA, and is presently a member of the Board of Directors at the Connecticut After School Network. Michele has been an after school professional for over twenty years, working as a teacher, site director and program director. In addition, she teaches after school education courses at Charter Oak State College. She is a trained Quality Advisor through the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST), a gender equity specialist, a trained school age CDA advisor and an endorser for the National After School Association (NAA). She holds a Bachelor’s from the University of Connecticut, and a Master’s in Education from Concordia University.

Jon Romeo, Principal, Commodore Macdonough Elementary School in Middletown, Connecticut.  Named a 2008 Success Story School by the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now and recipient of the 2009 Education Award by the Middlesex County NAACP, Macdonough School has been cited as a true model for closing the achievement gap.  A graduate of Central Connecticut State University, Mr. Romeo has previously taught and served as an administrator at the elementary and middle school level.

Ron Jakubowski, Assistant Superintendent of the New Britain Consolidated School District.

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The agenda will include:

• Registration and full breakfast
• Keynote by Earl Martin Phalen
• Panel discussion on partnership-building between after school/summer programs and school systems with practical ideas and solutions to meet everyone’s needs!
• Participants wishing to stay until noon are welcome to engage in an in-depth discussion with Mr. Phalen on school/after school collaborations.

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 Earl Martin Phalen is the CEO of Reach Out and Read (www.reachoutandread.org)and Founder of Summer Advantage USA (www.summeradvantage.org). Reach Out and Read prepares America's youngest children to succeed in school by partnering with doctors to prescribe books and encourage families to read together. Over 30,000 doctors incorporate Reach Out and Read's evidence-based model into regular pediatric checkups, by advising parents about the importance of reading aloud and giving developmentally-appropriate books to children. The program begins at the 6-month checkup and continues through age 5. The 3.9 million families served by Reach Out and Read read together more often, and their children enter kindergarten with larger vocabularies and stronger language skills, better prepared to achieve their potential.

Summer Advantage USA partners with school districts to provide high quality summer learning programs that have been scientifically proven to cumulatively produce 5 months of academic gain for scholars. While only started in 2009, Summer Advantage educated 1,000 children in its pilot summer and over 3,000 scholars last summer. Scholars gained 3 months reading, writing and math skills (based on a pre- and post-diagnostic test) and parent, scholar and teacher satisfaction rates were over 95%. With its innovative business model and growth strategies that include company-owned sites and franchisees, Summer Advantage will provide quality summer learning programs to over 100,000 children nationwide within the next ten years. 

Phalen has devoted his career to helping children excel. He is the Founder of BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life), an organization dedicated to dramatically increasing the educational achievements, self-esteem and life opportunities of children living in urban communities. BELL operates high quality summer and after school educational programs. Under Phalen’s leadership, the organization grew from a local community service project serving 20 students to a national non-profit educating 15,000 children in five states.

Recognized at the recent BET Awards, Phalen is a Mind Trust Fellow and Ashoka Fellow, and is a three-time recipient of Fast Company’s Social Capitalist Award. In 1997, President Clinton awarded Phalen the President’s Service Award for outstanding community service. Phalen holds a B.A. in political science from Yale University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

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