2021 Camden Children's Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom School
Jun. 2014 - Present
Introduction
In 2014, the Camden Dream Center started the Children Defense Fund Freedom School summer program and in summer 2018, CDC introduced two new components to its summer program - STEM and essential skills. In addition, CDC piloted a STEM-based (JV InvenTeams Lemelson-MIT) curriculum for an after-school program in two Camden City School District (CCSD) middle schools. Our success resulted in CCSD engaging CDC to run a middle school after-school program for the 2018/19 school years.
The digital divide and digital literacy are still economic wedge issues of the 21st Century; where minorities and girls, in particular, are at a significant disadvantage. At CDC, we are all about “vision to see and courage to be,” focusing our efforts on closing the digital skills gap within Camden’s socioeconomically diverse, high-poverty, and underrepresented communities.
Our mission is to empower families by providing educational training in 21st Century learning and skills development that improves the quality of life for people living in underserved communities.
Challenges
Studies showed that students that are not engaged in a form of reading during the summer are behind by 3 months in literacy proficiency when they resume school in the fall.
Camden is the 8th largest city in NJ with 40% (2015) living in poverty, 33% (2015) have no high school diploma, and 91% (2010) of Camden are African American and Hispanic.
The CDF report on the state of children in New Jersey indicated that 80% of Blacks, 79% of Hispanics, and 52% of White 8th-grade public school students could not read at grade level in 2015.
Summary & Methods
Development of a well-rounded summer enrichment program consisting of the Camden Dream CDF Freedom School program, Camden Dream Center STEM enrichment program, and essential skills. The reading literacy skills were based on the CDF integrated reading curriculum; while the STEM curricula are based on content that would result in the individual assessment of students instead of group progress tracking.
Solution & Metrics
95% of the participants were able to maintain or performed above grade level.
Over 450 K-8 students participated in the Camden Dream CDF Freedom School summer program since 2014, and 160 of the participants were introduced, during the last three summers, to the STEM Enrichment Program to achieve a well-rounded summer enrichment program.
About 25% of the participants are returning scholars over the last seven summers.
