Community
The Good Neighbor Program In its second run, the Good Neighbor Program II, designed by the Atlanta Housing Authority and facilitated by Georgia State University, educates families on issues related to living in market-value, mixed-income communities. After completing a six module training session including: crime prevention, continuing education, parenting and education, preparing for self-sufficiency and adjusting to your new community, each participant receives a certificate of achievement. Currently, 890 tenants have received certificates for completing the Good Neighbor training. Through the Alonzo A. Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence, pre-post evaluations of the learning modules and of the overall experiences of the tenants have been made and are currently being analyzed.
For more information, please visit the Atlanta Housing Authority’s website at http://www.atlantahousingauth.org/.
Early College High School Project
Atlanta Public Schools (APS) and Georgia State University (GSU) have partnered together in the development and implementation of the Early College High School (ECHS) project at the New Schools at Carver. Under the terms of this partnership, Georgia State University faculty from the Departments of Middle/Secondary and Instructional Technology, Business, Law, Arts and Sciences, Educational Policy Studies, Counseling and Psychological Services, and staff from the Office of Undergraduate Students have served as discipline/subject team leaders, scholars-in-residence, facilitators for professional development, co-teachers, and supplemental support service advisors in the Early College High School. The goal of the project is to support students in graduating with a high school diploma and 60 hours of college credit, making them eligible to enroll in a bachelor’s program at Georgia State University or any other university of their choice. During outcome analyses, it was found that students engaged in this program has levels of high academic self-efficacy and exceeded the overall Atlanta-Public Schools attendance rate, reflecting a higher level of academic achievement.
Jumpstart
The current Jumpstart model pairs Jumpstart-trained college students, called Corps members, with young children in one-to-one partnerships that are uniquely designed to develop literacy, language, and social skills. During the 2006-2007 school year, Georgia State University engaged 37 college students in one-to-one relationships with young children, and served over 100 preschool students in partnership with AmeriCorps volunteers. Each student completed 4 hours of Classroom Assistance Time (CAT) per week, as well as, 4 hours per week in Jumpstart sessions and in total 300 hours of volunteer work within the community. According to the School Success Checklist, which measures language, literacy, initiative, and social skills, the young participants made great gains in school readiness skills in comparison to a group of preschool children who did not participate in the program.
For more information, please visit http://www.jstart.org.
