The Latest News from RICH

After School Program Launches at Oxford Manor!

Pictured are Natasha Parker, reading director, and Devin Watson, administrative assistant, at RICH’s new after school program. Approximately sixteen students will receive significant tutoring support, and lots of it, during the academic year. Tutoring is available in any subject, and the community space at Oxford Manor also has a bank of ten computers students can use for writing and research or during their free time. Many thanks to a generous supporter for donating hundreds of books, and to the staff of the National Capital Area chapter of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for donating over 40 books, to form a lending library at Oxford Manor that will make it possible for us to have “book clubs” for the students.

Alliance of Concerned Men Helps RICH’s Students

Since RICH began serving the Oxford Manor community in Anacostia in July, the specter of neighborhood violence has started to rise with the building of two new residential complexes within a quarter mile of Oxford Manor. Both residences will absorb some occupants of the Barry Farms housing project, a housing development from the ’70s which itself is going to be converted to a more modern, mixed, residential facility. Many of the Oxford Manor youth are worried about impending violence and are even resigned to it.

Enter the Alliance of Concerned Men (ACM), with its proven track record of settling disputes between warring gangs in Washington, D.C. ACM has met with 10-15 of Oxford Manor’s young men on three Monday evenings, and the students have genuinely appreciated ACM’s no-nonsense, keep-it-real approach to daily life. By the end of the school year, we expect that all of our young men at Oxford Manor will have a different viewpoint on their neighbors as well as a more optimistic outlook about their own future.

The Amazing Team of Carmichael and Medley

RICH has been helping the students of Jack Carmichael and Andrew Medley in Anacostia High’s Matthew Henson Academy since the fall of 2010. All of these students previously failed their math classes, a requirement for admission to the Matthew Henson Academy. The combination of a sound online program, provided by Apex Learning, and the patient and caring direction of these two wonderful teachers, have made a huge difference in turning around the academic lives of over 150 students in three years. RICH will have a had a hand in providing significant tutoring support to forty of these students over a two-year period.

The Oxford Scholars Say Thank You!

Pictured are most of the eleven K-8 students, eight MATHletes, and five Word Stars who participated in RICH’s first-ever full-fledged summer program, which took place at the Oxford Manor community space in Anacostia during the month of July. The program ran for four weeks and provided sixteen non-MATHletes with two hours of private or semi-private tutoring every day. The MATHletes did most of the math tutoring, and they received two hours/day of enrichment in advanced topics.

Twenty-three out of the twenty-four participating scholars increased their skills in a significant way. All of the MATHletes believe they are on track for a scholarship to a competitive college, not just college. The Word Stars, some of whom were reading at the kindergarten or first grade level before RICH entered their lives last fall, all increased their reading at least another half a grade level. Our tutors were able to home in on each of the scholars’ academic trouble spots.

Equally important to the scholars’ success, RICH now has an anchor in Anacostia and will soon announce plans for an after-school program at Oxford Manor.

You made this program happen. Thank you, and a big thank you to the Beschloss and Leonard families, who matched your donations. RICH was able to raise over $16,000 during the matching period in June. Give yourselves a pat on the back.

Another Celebration for Cesar Chavez Scholars

The Capitol Hill campus of the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School, partners with RICH since 2003, celebrated another outstanding graduating class on June 10. Three of our original Saturday Academy students in 2007 were Kwang, Ruben, and Ellida, all of whom made the honor roll every quarter once their grades increased after RICH’s intervention. Kwang, in fact, gave the valedictory speech. Salutatorian was Terik, whom RICH identified last summer as a potential scholar for the POSSE Foundation. Terik eventually did win the POSSE scholarship and will be attending Lafayette College, tuition-free, for four years. In this graduating class, RICH tutors provided significant tutoring support to over twenty students on their term papers, or theses, as part of RICH's Endangered Theses program.

RICH Begins at Oxford Manor

RICH accepted an invitation from the Community Preservation and Development Corporation to pilot a four-week program during July, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The program keeps the momentum going for the Word Stars at the Matthew Henson Academy at Anacostia High, who began the last school year with kindergarten or first grade reading levels. The program also provides enrichment for RICH’s MATHletes, who otherwise would not be taught topics such as combinatorics, matrices (including Markov chains), linear programming and financial literacy. These MATHletes have tremendous potential to receive college scholarships when they get to senior year, and the Word Stars would have gone three months without reading were it not for RICH’s intervention. RICH’s program also serves the children who live in the surrounding neighborhood.

RICH Battles Truancy Issue

In cooperation with Anacostia High School and the local organizations Working in the Spirit of Excellence (WISE) and Helping Inner City Kids Succeed (HICKS), RICH Director Paul Penniman has helped organize a series of home visits on the part of teachers and staff at the school. Once a month, on a Friday afternoon, approximately one dozen teachers visit a total of 25 houses to meet with families of students whose attendance has decreased. Attendance at Anacostia High is one of the lowest in Washington, with fewer than 80% of the student body on an average day attending most classes. “Brother Paul is definitely making a difference here,” says Mr. Robert Millner, Anacostia’s attendance counselor.

Saturday Academy Continues to Churn Out Results

Cesar Chavez teacher Elizabeth Baker and RICH tutor Chris Reid teamed to produce significant improvement for all 23 geometry students who attended Saturday Academy during the winter months. At this writing, already over 75 students altogether have improved significantly their test scores or grades after attending RICH’s Saturday Academy.

RICH Partners with Year Up

RICH is excited to partner with Year Up, an intensive one-year program for adults 18-24, providing technical and professional training, college credits, an education stipend and access to corporate and/or federal internships. RICH is acutely aware that many of our high school grads find themselves part of the “opportunity divide,” lacking preparation and support services that will prepare them for college and livable-wage careers. RICH, through its partnership with Year Up, is now trying to bridge that gap.

RICH's DREAM TEAM Takes to the Streets

Brenda, a student at Chavez’s Capitol Hill campus and part of RICH’s DREAM TEAM, which has gathered signatures in support of equitable college access for immigrant children. Nearly half of all Latino children, many of whom are legally documented, cannot get access to government-sponsored financial aid. RICH has partnered with the Latin American Youth Center to help spread the word about this important issue.

George Washington University Evaluates RICH’s Programs

RICH thanks the evaluation team at George Washington University, headed by Dr. Kathryn Newcomer. Click here for the report regarding how RICH helps lower the high school dropout rate. The report estimates RICH returns approximately $1,000,000 per year in money saved due to fewer dropouts and future incarcerations. (Please note that the term dropout in this study refers to anyone who leaves Chavez before graduation.) Read an evaluation of RICH’s programs done by graduate students at George Washington University.

RICH Begins at Anacostia High School

RICH's work has begun at Anacostia High School, with children who have known mostly failure and may never have had even one positive roll model in their lives. Most of these students are either learning disabled or have some emotional disturbance such as depression, or an anger management issue. The median reading level is fourth grade. When Paul Penniman first met with the staff at Anacostia, he asked whether students had been in the criminal justice system, had been out because they gave birth, or just had failed multiple years of school. The response was, "all of the above."

So far, RICH has launched the following programs at Anacostia:

•     Classroom help in geometry; an online course has been started in this subject.
•     Algebra and numeracy tutoring for the most struggling students.
•     English enrichment for students who can go much further than class usually allows.
•     Reading remediation for the most struggling readers (those at the kindergarten-first grade level).