如上所示, 左至右:圣母无玷学院的特蕾西·托宾, leader of 城市连接 implementation in Ireland; Winthrop Elementary School Principal Leah Blake McKetty; 电子游戏软件 Lynch School Professor and 城市连接 Director 玛丽沃尔什; Ireland’s Minister of 教育 Norma Foley; Mary Immaculate College President Eugene Wall, and 教育 in Ireland Vice President Sara Dart during the minister’s March 18 visit. (贾斯汀骑士)
Ireland’s Minister for 教育 Norma Foley toured Boston’s John Winthrop Elementary School in March to learn more about a 电子游戏软件 program that supports 老师 and students at the Dorchester school and now works with 10 schools in Dublin.
“我对你所做的工作感到敬畏,” Foley told the Winthrop staff and their partners from BC’s 城市连接 program as they described how the evidence-based initiative helps provide a range of services to the school’s more than 200 students.
城市连接 works with the Winthrop and seven other Boston Public Schools. 项目协调员, 比如温斯洛普家的妮可·马奎斯, 与负责人合作, 老师, and counselors to assess students’ strengths and needs and help provide supports—including tutoring, 课外的活动, 服装, 餐, and health services—to reduce the barriers to improved academic achievement.
坐在学校的临时图书馆里, 福利收到了温斯洛普校长利亚·布莱克·麦凯蒂的来信, who started her job 10 years ago when the Winthrop was a “turnaround” school with test results in the lowest one percentile of Massachusetts schools. 十年后, 温斯洛普已攀升至第14百分位, 尽管麦凯蒂说还有更多的工作要做.
McKetty说，城市连接“对我们来说是一个了不起的资源”. “这对帮助我们的学生是不可或缺的, 帮助我们的家庭, 帮助我们的老师, at all levels and really just supporting not just our students but our overall school community.”
本学年到目前为止, 城市连接已经帮助温斯洛普提供了1,484项学生及家庭服务.
总的来说, 城市通服务45人,每年有139所公立学校的000名学生, 宪章, 以及马萨诸塞州和其他六个州的天主教学校. Typically, the predominantly urban schools lack the resources of their suburban counterparts.
“我们可以改变一个孩子的人生轨迹. When you put the right conditions in place around children, and 老师 know this, we can do that. 孩子不会失败. 我们，成年人，让孩子们失望.”
城市连接 began work two years ago with 10 schools in Dublin’s North East Inner City initiative, which are among those struggling schools provided additional services and resources by Ireland’s pioneering Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools. 与利默里克的圣母无玷学院合作, 城市连接 worked during the pandemic to initiate its program in alignment with Irish educational regulations.
在当年, 城市连接提供了4,777服务和充实机会1,都柏林800名学生, 特蕾西·托宾说, a Limerick-based teacher and principal leading the implementation of 城市连接 in Ireland through her work with Mary Immaculate College. Tobin called the 城市连接 approach “invaluable” to principals and 老师 in the Dublin schools the program partners with.
“在18个月的时间里，城市连接已经在都柏林落地, it has become successfully embedded in both schools and community organizations,城市连接创始人兼董事玛丽·沃尔什说, 丹尼尔·E. Kearns Professor in Urban 教育 and Innovative Leadership at BC’s Lynch School of 教育 and Human Development. “This is a testament not only to the program, but to our outstanding partners in Ireland.”
“城市连接”在爱尔兰有扩大业务的潜力. 本月初, Foley’s office announced the expansion of the number of schools in the DEIS program. Programs like 城市连接 are suited to provide services in schools that need extra help.
Walsh launched the program 20 years ago based on research in child development and learning that recognized students’ in-school performance is affected by in-school and out-of-school factors, 比如饥饿, 无家可归, 创伤, 和压力.
Groundbreaking research by Walsh and her colleagues from BC and other universities showed that students in 城市连接 schools, 与从未接受过City connect服务的同龄人相比, demonstrated gains in academic achievement that were similar in magnitude to the harmful effects of poverty. The long-term studies have shown that students who received 城市连接 services in elementary school experience decreased drop-out rates and higher rates of completing college or other post-high school programs.
“我们可以改变一个孩子的人生轨迹,” Walsh told Foley and others at the Winthrop. “When you put the right conditions in place around children, and 老师 know this, we can do that. 孩子不会失败. 我们，成年人，让孩子们失望.”
在2月份, 通过一笔1000万美元的匿名捐款, 运营城市连接的BC中心更名为玛丽E. 沃尔什儿童发展中心以纪念沃尔什的开创性工作.
Following her visit to the Winthrop—part of a series of events the minister attended during a multi-day series of appearances in Massachusetts surrounding St. Patrick’s Day—Foley praised the work that BC and Mary Immaculate College are doing to support students in Dublin’s neediest schools.
“We were just so thrilled to get the opportunity to see the work on the ground today,” Foley said during a discussion about 城市连接 held at BC later in the day. “It was a wonderful example of what it should be and how it actually is operational. It is one thing to see it on paper but another to see it delivered effectively in a school community. 我自己坚信无论孩子遇到什么挑战, 孩子需要什么就有什么, 孩子也能带来巨大的力量. We are very proud of the work that is being done and very appreciative of your work with Mary Immaculate College and [BC’s] expertise and talent as well and the collaboration we have seen here today.”
艾德·海沃德|大学传播| 2022年4月