After the Bell: Improving Student

Learning With After School Programs

A Symposium for Educators and Decision Makers

School reform is coming to Connecticut and it presents a unique opportunity for community-based after school and summer learning programs to partner with the public schools in the ongoing development of our children. If you're wondering how this partnership can be successfully accomplished you won't want to miss this symposium!

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Keynote speaker, Earl Martin Phalen is the co-founder of BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life) and CEO of Summer Advantage USA. 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.

* Also featured will be a 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!

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We all know that children don't stop learning after the school bell rings. In fact, the vast majority of their time is spent outside of a traditional classroom. Keeping them engaged academically is a challenge that involves diverse exposure and access to quality learning opportunities that can fuel their individual passions and ignite their knowledge-hungry minds.

Quality after school and summer programs can offer creative solutions to educators' dilemmas. Building partnerships with the out-of-school time community, including businesses and other organizations, may well be the key to helping our children succeed in learning.

This symposium provides a platform for participants to explore different points of view, the latest research and most importantly, real world examples of how they can forge and sustain these school-community partnerships to help meet the high expectations we have for all of our children.

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The morning 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 co-founder and former CEO 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 was founded in 1992 by a group of Black and Latino students at Harvard Law, led by Phalen and Andrew L. Carter.

The students began a small tutoring program in a local school, where most children could not read, write or do math operations at grade-level proficiency. Since that time, every member BELL's first class of scholars has enrolled in or graduated from college -- compared to only 30% of their peers. BELL operates high quality summer and after school educational programs in Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, New York City and Springfield, MA.

Earl is deeply committed to the education of children. He is the founder and current CEO of Summer Advantage USA, a new venture with the goal of bringing high quality summer learning programs to 100,000 children throughout the country. Summer Advantage USA is an evidence-based program that ensures the academic and social development of school-aged children, ages 5-14. Participation in Summer Advantage USA makes a 5 month annual difference in children’s learning achievement.

As a result of its focus on summer learning opportunities and rigorous program evaluation, BELL was cited by President Barack Obama as a model educational provider in legislation (STEP UP Act) that was recently voted into law.

Earl is a Mind Trust Fellow and Ashoka Fellow, and holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He currently sits on the advisory board for the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University and served on the education advisory committee of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.

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