Study Stars After School Program

Providing access to after-school programs for students in underserved communities,

Community HousingWorks (CHW) provides students who live in affordable apartment communities access to after-school programs. Their after-school program, Study Stars, is available for resident families at 37 communities in San Diego and reaches nearly 1,800 children aged K-5^th grade. 

Study Stars focuses on literacy, group learning activities, and individual tutoring. A computer learning application, iReady, helps advance literacy development through group participation and progress tracking. Students also participate in Read Aloud, reading and discussing comprehension questions in an on-site community library with a parent volunteer. Additionally, CHW staff, resident volunteers and older youth provide homework help and individual tutoring.

Girard co-funded the Study Stars Program at approximately 18 Community Housing Works low-income housing complexes in San Diego County. Girard’s funding helped provide staff support for the after-school program, increasing and subsidizing the number of on-site CHW group leaders who provide homework and tutoring help, as well as paying for software licenses.

Read more: How Study Stars helped Christopher learn to love reading.

Cadence Learning

A team of entrepreneurial educators created a new instructional model utilizing national and local talent to address learning loss due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

When the COVID pandemic began in early 2020, students and teachers both struggled to quickly adapt to the demands of remote learning. The National Summer School Institute (NSSI) responded by creating a virtual summer school program –now called Cadence Learning — that reached 12,000 3^rd to 8^th grade students. Cadence brought an exciting, novel studies approach with high-quality literature and real-world math problems to keep students interested and engaged while meeting curriculum standards. Award-winning master teachers worked in close collaboration with local teachers who led cohorts of 20-30 students and provided engaging and effective reading and math lessons and a diverse array of enrichment activities. The pilot also provided for extensive professional development for local teachers.  

More than 50  schools in 18 states, 14 mentor teachers, and 513 partner teachers participated in the inaugural program.  Parents were overwhelmingly supportive: 86% agreed strongly that they were satisfied with their child’s experience. In 2021, building on the first year’s success, Cadence evolved the program to better meet the academic needs of students, refine the teacher experience and to include  the option of an in-person learning experience through local partner organizations. 

Girard, along with other national funders, provided start-up funds for the national effort in 2020 and actively recruited 2,000 students from Southern California schools to participate in the program.  On a local level, Girard provided direct funding for teacher stipends at five schools so that 570 students could attend the program.  In San Diego, Stephen Hawking STEAM schools and KIPP Adelante participated; and in Los Angeles, Girard funded KIPP Opportunity and KIPP Philosophers to attend the program.

Learn more: NPR- 5 Things We’ve Learned About Virtual School in 2020

UCSD TEACHING ONLINE ESSENTIALS (“TOES”)

UCSD Extension offers tools for teachers adapting to teaching online and makes an immediate measurable impact in teachers’ and students’ lives.

UC San Diego Extension responded to a dire need at the start of the COVID 19 pandemic — teachers needed support in their transition to remote classroom learning. Teaching Online Essentials, a regular offering, was updated and curated for educators to help in their transition to remote instruction, providing fundamental strategies and proven tools to support remote learning in four key areas: Best Practices in Online Teaching and Learning; Foundations of Online Curriculum Design and Delivery; Effective Use of Instructional Tool and Multimedia; and Effective Strategies for Parent and Teacher Communication.

Participating teachers constructed lessons, projects and support strategies for remote learning. They then shared their projects to social learning platforms and engaged in ongoing dialogue about teaching practice. The platform inspired peer exchange, helped build community, and grow vital conversations around remote learning practices. UCSD Extension also published A Parent’s Guide to Distance Learning, a user-friendly synopsis of best practices for parents and caregivers linked to videos on University of California Television (UCTV). 

Feedback on TOEs has been overwhelmingly positive. To date, more than 10,000 teachers have completed the coursework, which has now been adopted by California’s government agencies. Girard helped initiate the program, leveraging their relationship with USCD to implement quickly and successfully.