In view of the English language improvement and academic progress of students (100% passed Math EOG and 90% passed reading EOGs) in the current New Hanover County Schools (NHCS) 21st CCLC OLAS after school program, this comparable proposal will reside in NHCS College Park Elementary School.
The ASPIRE Academy will serve different Limited English Proficient (LEP) students whose principal has observed the progress of the LEP students served by the 21st CCLC OLAS program at a similar elementary school. Though this program will have site-specific variations to the 21st CCLC OLAS program, its purpose will be to duplicate the 21st CCLC OLAS’ goals by serving one of the largest developing groups of LEP students in NHCS (~20%).
Three research-based curricula, aligned to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study (NC SCOS), will be integrated in an existing after-school environment. It is expected that up to 100 K-5 Hispanic/Latino children and their caregivers will be involved in this program with the major goal of helping the children achieve excellent English speaking, reading, and writing proficiencies. In addition, each of the children will have a UNCW student mentor from the UNCW School of Education.
There will also be opportunities for the parents of the children enrolled in this project to join an existing Adult English as a Second Language (ESL) class at the school which will add special parenting workshops based on a nationally recognized, research-based model that specifically targets English skills for language minority parents. Parents will also have the opportunity to take advantage of a number of services offered by ASPIRE Academy Partners that will build meaningful and relevant relationships with this special population. Should this program prove to be as successful as the current 21st CCLC OLAS program, we will have compelling evidence to begin to look at developing this framework for replicability in other school systems.