Closing the Educational Opportunity Gap

Education is at the heart of ExpandED Schools, a New York City-based nonprofit. The organization supports partnerships between public schools and community organizations that add 2.5 hours to the school day, bring more role models into the classroom, and build enrichments into the curriculum. ExpandED Schools touches the lives of thousands of students from lower-income families each year and has reached a million students since 1998. The “America First” federal blueprint has targeted public education for massive cuts, including the elimination of enrichment programs like after-school and summer programs that are critical for closing the achievement gap. In this GrantStation interview, Lucy Friedman, founding president, discusses the great need in the great city and how they are facing potential cuts.

On a sunny spring day in Midtown Manhattan, Lucy Friedman, founding president of ExpandED Schools, met with GrantStation. Friedman looked surprisingly fresh, especially after pulling off a high-energy and highly successful Spring Benefit, held at SONY. It was an especially joyous occasion as the gala celebrated the milestone of reaching 1,000,000 students in 2017. And students were in abundance—urban farmers, screenwriters, photographers, editors, actors, musicians, and engineers—mingling with education leaders, industry leaders, and elected officials.

ExpandED Schools was founded in 1998 as The After-School Corporation (TASC) with a challenge grant from the Open Society Foundations (then Open Society Institute). The organization created the nation’s first citywide system of K-12 after-school programs. Today, it reimagines the school day by providing hours of enriching activities—STEM, leadership, the arts, and sports—each day, all designed to close the learning gap for low-income kids.

GrantStation: What do you most want people to know about ExpandED Schools?

Lucy Friedman, President, ExpandED Schools

Lucy Friedman: Our goal is to ensure that all kids have enriching educational experiences so they reach their full potential. We do it in three ways: more hours, more role models, and more joyful learning opportunities.

We partner community organizations with schools to expand the school day by two-and-a-half to three hours. We infuse that time with role models from the community—teaching artists, coaches, and tutors—and build joy back into learning. Curriculum enrichments include robotics, drama, and chess, as well as sports, arts, and leadership activities.

By the time a child living in poverty reaches the sixth grade, it’s very likely that he/she will suffer a 6,000-hour learning gap compared with middle-class and upper middle-class kids. And it’s not about the time spent in the classroom because that’s pretty standard across the country. It’s about the learning that happens beyond the traditional school day: after-school activities, tutors, summer camp, even weekend trips to cultural institutions. These are the kinds of activities that may be taken for granted by middle-class and affluent kids.

Six thousand hours is the equivalent of five years in the classroom. We expect all kids to grow up and reach their full potential equally but we’re not giving them equal opportunities. Providing a level playing field benefits all of us: the child, the family, the community, and society. If we want our country to flourish, we need to empower all of our children to be who they’re meant to be, regardless of their zip codes.

GrantStation:  How do you decide which schools are included in the program?

Lucy Friedman: First and foremost, the school has to have a principal who wants to lengthen the school day, and we focus primarily on those schools where the families don’t have the resources to bring these enriching experiences to their kids.

GrantStation: Educators and parents are very concerned about proposed budget cuts on both the federal and state levels. How are you addressing that?

Lucy Friedman: Well, of course we’re still figuring it out. We have several concerns. One fear is that specific funding sources for after-school and summer programs will be cut. We’re also concerned whether if, as a sanctuary city, New York City will be punished. Or, if there’s a ten percent cut across education, the city will have to reduce its investment in anything that’s non-mandated.

Over the years, we have evolved to support the schools through coaching, technical assistance, and capacity building, and through advocacy, incubation, and research. But we’re now finding ourselves looking for dollars for direct services, which we’ve not had to do for a long time because New York City has provided this funding. We’re really concerned that our schools will lose these funds either through the loss of targeted appropriations like the 21^st Century Community Learning Centers, which are at risk, or overall cuts.

We’re safe for the next few months but we’re less sure about what will happen in the fall. We don’t want to shift our current approach of using private funding to focus on quality, innovation, and research, to one that only ensures that we’re keeping the lights on in our programs.

"PS/MS 188 has collaborated with ExpandED Schools for over ten years. Their support has gone beyond funding, to providing professional development to staff (expanded and school-day), as well as opportunities for social-emotional learning, STEM, and enriched talent development opportunities for students (97% of whom are Title-1 eligible, and 47% living in temporary housing).

ExpandED Schools’ impact on PS/MS 188 has been dramatic. NYS standardized ELA/Math test results show consistent improvement in meeting NYS standards. Over twice as many students have scored “proficient” over a three-year period. We are also proud that in 2016, PS/MS 188 received NYC DOE’s highest rating (Excellent) in categories of 'Growth on Tests' and 'Closing the Achievement Gap' (School Quality Snapshot).”

-Suany Ramos, principal of PS/MS 188, The Island School

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