What We Do
Academically Rigorous Annual Five Week Summer Residential Institutes The five week Summer Institutes is held on area college campuses to expose students to the college experience and ensure that the children do not have to cope with neighborhood distractions. Students do not have visitors for the first two weeks and do not go home for the entire five weeks. For many students, this is their first time away from home and their first opportunity to experience a school setting where doing well academically is respected. For both the students and their families, this experience is often the first realization that college may be an attainable goal. Each year, students get to experience a new college campus. Our partner campuses are: Messiah College (1st year, 5 weeks), Millersville University (2nd year, 5 weeks), and Bryn Mawr College (3rd year, 4 weeks and 4th year, 2 weeks). Coursework during the residency program consists of classes rich in STEM content (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) together with English, and Latin, all taught at a more demanding level than the students experience in public schools. The math curriculum is designed to prepare students to successfully complete Algebra I by eighth grade, a key indicator for college track success. The English curriculum requires students to read at least two novels during the summer institute and write in a journal every day. By eighth grade, students conduct a mini-research project and write a paper summarizing their findings. The science courses in biology, chemistry and physics encourage students to conduct empirical investigation, then analyze and describe their results. All students take computer courses each summer that teaches them, progressively, the fundamentals of hardware and software; word processing; internet usage; and website design and development. The STEM-based content is taught through a science-focused, problem-based learning curriculum that requires students working in small, collaborative groups to investigate real-life problems and systematically integrate content from multiple academic subjects into their solutions. Problem based learning (PBL) promotes critical thinking, student engagement, and academic retention, and enhances the development of social and scholastic skills. The PBL curriculum content is aligned with grade standards but teaches it in a manner that develops inquiry and problem solving skills which have been identified as key needs for tomorrow’s technology-based work force. The problems include, designing a roller coaster using Newton’s Laws of Motion, solving a community water quality problem and provisioning a moon station. Students have one to two hours of homework each night followed by evening workshops on lighter topics; such as, poetry, gospel choir practice, theater, salsa and etiquette. During the weekend students travel on field trips to cultural, academic, and recreational sites in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Positive behavioral health and character building strategies (PRIDE- Personal Growth, Responsibility, Interpersonal Skills, Decision-making and Empowerment) are incorporated into PFL programs to help students address real and potential problem behaviors before they magnify. During the summer institutes, PFL provides certified counselors at each residential site to monitor, counsel, and refer students to relevant services as needed when negative behaviors are exhibited. Students attend workshops that help them develop the confidence, positive self esteem, independent thinking, and coping skills they need to make good life choices and resist inappropriate peer pressure. Issues addressed include anger and stress management, impulse control, conflict resolution, problem solving, goal setting, self-discipline, and leadership development.
Students also learn about wellness and good health practices. To combat the issue of obesity in public schools (in Philadelphia, 51.3 percent of students aged 11 to 19 are overweight, according to district statistics), students participate in a daily cardio exercise program and are educated about the effects of diet and poor nutritional choices. The students eat vegetables and fruit at every meal, are not permitted candy and gum, and drink water or milk instead of soda. The character building strategies that are part of the summer institutes are continued through the school year in each local Saturday Academy program. In 2009 PFL introduced student voice in the program through student run Town Meetings and Circle Intervention Strategies for the entire community together with Teen Talk workshops based on the Sean Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens.
Local School Year Saturday Enrichment Programs The offerings of the Academy indicated below are available in three trimesters of five Saturdays each.The trimester approach will provide greater coherence in our school year offerings, and that the participation of our students will be more strategic than was the case under the historical practice of permitting them to arbitrarily attend a minimum of 10 of 20+ Saturdays for school year-long enrichment classes and tutoring.
- Enrichment Workshops. These workshops are to afford PFL students exposure to topics of rigor and interest that generally will not be available to them at their schools, and is reflective of PFL’s motto “A gifted education for every child.” Over the course of the three trimesters a total of three workshops will be offered per grade, one in each of the following categories of interest: i) Science and Technology; ii) Mathematics, Business, & Economics; and iii) Art, Writing, & Civic Engagement. Students will be expected to complete two enrichment workshops per school year in two of these categories. The workshops will be four weeks in length. Guest lecturers will teach the two core middle sessions, alternatively the core sessions of a workshop may be conducted in collaboration with a university, museum, etc. in its venue. PFL teachers will conduct the first (preparatory) and fourth (wrap up) sessions of workshops.
- Proficiency Driven Tutorial Program. Achievement thresholds are set by grade in mathematics and reading/writing to correlate with readiness for Algebra I by eighth grade; selection of advanced placement courses and dual enrollment in college classes by high school juniors and seniors; and improved performances on standardized tests. Tutorial sessions will be available at the Saturday Academy in three of the five weeks of a trimester. Supplementary tutorials approved and monitored by PFL will be available online.
- PRIDE. This year round program focuses upon individual personal growth and a variety of aspects of student development, including leadership.
High School High school students from low-income inner city families are six times more likely to drop out than suburban students from higher income families, as determined by the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy in 2008. Among minorities, only about half of African American and Hispanic students will graduate in four years, compared with 80 percent of white students. Other studies have found that the transition between middle and high school is the critical point at which many future dropouts. To that end, PFL added a fourth year of summer programming to support this transition and will implement an additional three year, year-round program of academic workshops, mentoring referrals to successor programs and college preparation based on the Individual Education and Career Plan that the students complete at the end of 8th grade. Students also have the opportunity to participate in a trip abroad.
Active Involvement and Support of Parents Parental involvement is a key element of PFL’s success. A total of 50 hours of involvement per year, per family is required as a condition of their child’s enrollment, although many parents exceed this minimum. Parents meet this requirement by engaging in community service and attending PFL’s parent workshops on topics that include computer skills, literacy, and financial counseling. In addition, they learn new parenting strategies to help break the cycle of poor school performance and are encouraged to participate actively in their local PFL Parents Council as well as their school’s parent/teacher organization. Parent stories In addition to the 50 hours parents much see their child attends at least 10 Saturday Academy sessions and they pay a nominal annual participation fee. These requirements serve to engage the parent in the child’s development improving student support which is an additional incentive for the child to succeed. The costs for students to attend the program are underwritten by funding raised by PFL.
Raise Educational Standards Professional teacher development, is a core mission value of the program. Students are taught by certified teachers with a teacher to student ratios of 1:8 or less. During the evenings the students are monitored by residential staff and the student to staff ratio is 6:1. To ensure teacher quality within the program and enrich teacher performance for their continuing work in the district, PFL provides more than 24 hours of ACT 48 certified professional development for the 125 hours of teaching during the summer institutes, this compares positively to the only 18 hours of training that teachers receive for the 180 hours they teach per year in their school districts. These highly skilled teachers are paid, but many say that they come back to teach every summer (60% of PFL staff return each year) because the positive learning environment they find at PFL is why they originally started teaching and recharges them for the school year.
