Over the years 2003-2008, the Amy Kohlberg Quinlan Internship Program sponsored by the USF Collaborative for Children, Families and Communities offered teens research-oriented summer internships to study ways to improve the quality of youth development in their communities. As the school year winds to a close, we want to re-cap some of their suggestions for enhancing effective education
• Greater meaningful student involvement in school policy decision-making • More help during and after school, schools should facilitate club participation
• Tutoring for kids by kids
• Smaller classrooms, smaller school size, assign students to small learning communities in order to promote bonding
• Develop curriculum to improves school performance while increasing education about the community and social connectedness
• Integrate programs into the community, promote connectedness, give teens experience and understanding of the adult world, offer mentoring and life skills programs for students in the community
• Provide more opportunities for active learning and service-learning
• Use alternate methods to measure student achievement such as student & teacher satisfaction surveys
• Teachers should display high expectations and be trained in effective communication
• Create a physical setting which has visual appeal, schools should be clean, pleasant décor, manicured landscapes, proper temp control, lighting, seating arrangements.
This program has been suspended due to budget cuts and re-allocation of funds. For copies of past studies and recommendations, visit our website by clicking the url below. Next month we’ll review the interns’ recommendations for out-of-school time.
See more information at: http://www.usfcollab.usf.edu/interns.cfm
