Academic enrichment for students in the seventh and eighth grades.

ABOUT THE PALS PROGRAM

PHILLIPS ACADEMY
ANDOVER HIGH SCHOOL
LAWRENCE MIDDLE
SCHOOLS  PROGRAM

           
PALS was created in 1988 as a part of the Phillips Academy Community Service Program to address the educational needs of middle school children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds in Andover's neighboring city of Lawrence, MA.  Utilizing the extensive educational resources of Phillips Academy in an intensive four-week summer program, Monday through Friday in July, followed by academic enrichment and tutoring twice weekly throughout the school year, PALS serves up to 40 students annually from grades 7 and 8 in the James F. Leonard School, and the Edward F. Parthum School.  Its curriculum helps students set long-term goals, guides them in planning their high school programs and supports their day-to-day academic successes, especially in math, science, computer use, reading, writing, and vocabulary development.  The program also seeks to build the self-confidence so critically needed to promote personal and social responsibility during the early teen years. 

The key factor in the growth and success of PALS students is the active engagement they have with trained, high school student teachers, principally from the community service programs of both Phillips Academy and Andover High School.  An outstanding group, numbering 20-30 each year, these energized and high achieving individuals serve as role models and mentors, motivating the younger students to stay in school, study hard, and develop a sense of responsibility for themselves and others.  In turn, these older students gain skills and insight into the teaching profession, while solidifying their motivation for a lifetime of public service.

THE COMMUNITY AND STUDENTS SERVED
BY THE PROGRAM

Now entering its 19th year, PALS participates in a broad community effort to address critical educational challenges in Lawrence.  More than 30% of those living in poverty in the city are under 18 years of age.  School dropout rates remain quite high.  More than 80% of the student population is Latino, and the Latino dropout rate remains the highest among all racial/ethnic groups in Massachusetts public schools.  Overall MCAS scores in Lawrence are very low, and the unemployment rate is close to the highest in the state. 

PALS students come to the program highly recommended by their teachers for their academic potential and self-motivation.  All are from ethnically diverse and low income families.  In the Summer 2007 program, 38 students are enrolled: 20 in 7th grade and 18 in 8th.  The ratio of boys to girls is 40:60.  The ethnic breakdown is 85% Hispanic/Latino, 8% Caucasian, and 5% African and African American and 2% other. 

SUMMER PALS

For Summer PALS, PALS adds a staff of 7th and 8th grade teachers who are active in the Lawrence Public Schools.   It also hires 12 older student teaching interns from the Greater Lawrence area, many of whom are students or recent graduates from Phillips Academy, Andover High, or Lawrence High.  Some are also graduates of PALS.  During Winter PALS, 20-30 students from Phillips Academy and Andover High School are trained and supervised for teaching and leading after-school enrichment activities with PALS students twice per week.  This year, PALS  also continues to have a few student teachers from Central Catholic High School and, for the second time, another from North Andover High School.

These student teachers perform a mentoring role that is absolutely pivotal to the success of PALS students in the program and beyond.  As teachers and role models--peers barely four or five years older than the PALS students--they epitomize high motivation for learning and mature dedication to growth and service.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW 

The core experience of this year-round program is Summer PALS, the 4-week summer session on the Phillips Academy campus in Andover, attended by each PALS student prior to entering his or her 7th and 8th grades at the Leonard, Parthum.  A typical day, running from 8:50 am to 3:00 pm, engages students in language arts and math classes, science investigations, computer usage, sports activities, field trips, career orientation, personal reflection, and chess.  Chess is an ever popular and highly important intellectual exercise that helps students develop patience, practice strategic thinking, and plan ahead.

Winter PALS, beginning in mid-September and running through May, offers important follow-up for these same students.  Central to these experiences is the continued teaching and mentoring provided by high school students from Phillips Academy's Community Service Program and from Andover High School, who meet with the master teachers each Thursday afternoon to coordinate planning and practice methods of teaching for the following week.  After school on Tuesdays, these older students go to Parthum School to teach the PALS students from all three middle schools--stressing language arts, math and study skills--and on Wednesday afternoons they offer enrichment activities at Phillips Academy similar to those in the summer.

PALS has  always found that children of interested, supportive families have the most success in school.  In the summer, teachers maintained fairly regular contact with their homes through phone calls, “bus stop chats”, and a special picnic at the end of July to celebrate completed student projects and awards and prizes.  Families are invited at the end of each academic term to celebrate the accomplishments of their children.  We always encourage them to clap and cheer for their kids!

PROGRAM EVALUATION

(See also PALS Newsletter, Fall 2005)

PALS annually measures the program's success by various formal and informal methods and results, including the following:

• All PALS students have attained scores of passing or above on MCAS tests.
• The majority of the awards at graduations annually go to PALS 8th graders. 
• Since 1998, a total of 45 PALS graduates have earned Adelante Scholarships (approx. 1/3 of all recipients) to attend one of three, demanding, area high schools:  Central Catholic, Presentation of Mary Academy, and Notre Dame. 
• As far as we know, all of the children who have completed PALS to date have either graduated from high school or are on track to do so. 
• In recent years, the majority of PALS graduates have gone on to college, several to excellent institutions, including Boston College, Brown University, M.I.T., and University of Massachusetts (at both Amherst and Lowell).
• Inspired by a desire to “give back,” many students over the years have returned to PALS as student teachers.  In Summer PALS 2005, there were two PALS graduates who served in this capacity, one now an undergraduate at Boston College and the other a senior at Central Catholic.
• Each year, we become even more aware of the positive impact the program has on our high school student teachers; some report that their experience in PALS convinced them to enter the teaching profession after college.
• In the past, two PALS graduates have received the prestigious annual Bright Future Award from the YWCA of Greater Lawrence.  In 2005, another graduate was one of eight high school seniors to receive a $1,000 scholarship from the Exchange Club of Lawrence.

BENEFITS

1. PALS students gain basic and higher skills in reading, writing, and math, often filling in academic gaps and moving to more advanced levels of work.
2. They become more motivated to learn, with increased independence.
3. They develop new self-confidence and self-esteem that, in turn, help them improve in other subjects at school.  For some, the growth can be dramatic.
4. They receive help with high school applications, exposure to college and career opportunities, and encouragement from older student teachers to develop sustained motivation for productive lives.
5. PALS opens doors of educational opportunity and broadens career horizons.
6. High school-age, student teachers learn and grow in equally powerful ways too.  They gain skills and insight into the teaching profession, while solidifying their motivation for public service throughout their lives.
7. The PALS model of education has directly led to at least one other local program that serves Lawrence students:  Prep@Pingree, administered by the Pingree School in South Hamilton, MA, now in its fifth year.

SOURCES OF SUPPORT

PALS continues to be an exemplary resource for students in economically disadvantaged families because many people invest in the young people of Lawrence and in the promise they hold for the future of their home communities.  Over the years, a highly successful collaboration has sustained the program:  foundation directors, business leaders, countless individuals, teachers, administrators, and students in both public and private schools.  The annual budget of PALS  is supported entirely by outright gifts and grants, all of which are utilized exclusively for such operating support.   With gratitude to each of them, we also salute many unnamed others who volunteer in various ways and make gifts-in-kind of equipment and instructional materials.

The core experience of PALS is a 4-week summer session on the Phillips Academy campus in Andover. A typical day runs from 8:50 AM to 3:00 PM.  The morning is devoted to math and language arts classes.  A sports period at 11:30 PM  is followed by lunch.  In the afternoon students partake in a variety of educational activities.
 
Every morning, four teachers, each with two or three high school-age teaching assistants, instruct the two grades.  Each grade is divided in two sections, which in turn are divided into "family groups" of two to four students, taught by the same individual for the entire 4-week session.  This close and continuous teacher/student relationship makes individualized teaching possible.  And to insure a unified curriculum, teachers and assistants meet daily for ∏ hour before the students arrive to plan, practice, and discuss each student’s progress.
 
Morning Math Program:  The 7th grade curriculum strengthens math fundamentals and works with per-cents, fractions, decimals, graphing, and strategies to solve word problems; and the 8th grade again stresses word problems, decimals, percents, and introductory algebra.  Daily homework is assigned for work at home every night.
 
Morning Language Arts Program:  Extensive writing and editing are done at both levels, using word processing methods with a strong emphasis on organization and vocabulary development.  We set a goal for each student to read at least two books from the PALS library, a mark surpassed by almost everyone.  Students in the 8th grade also work on specific SSAT vocabulary, analogies, and reading comprehension exercises to prepare them for tests they may take in the fall.
 
Sports:  During the period before lunch four days a week, students participate in athletic activities, typically including swimming, basketball, and tennis.
 
Afternoon Activities Program:  Each summer there are a variety of "hands-on" experiences designed for the appropriate grade level.  For example, this past summer 8th graders were taught interviewing techniques and talked with a large number of adults in the community from various fields, including a journalist, a doctor, a lawyer, and several engineers.  All students also become very involved in chess--through formal drill, computer aids, and continuing instruction from accomplished chess players--an excellent way to develop patience, problem-solving skills, and an ability to plan with short- and long-term goals.  Biological science also has gained a very prominent place in the program, especially through creative activities in the Peggy Corbett Science Center founded in 1999.  Students learn to use the scientific methods of observing, asking questions, forming hypotheses, testing assumptions, and collecting and analyzing data.  Music appreciation (especially singing) is a recent, popular activity too.
 
“Girl Talk”:  With the assistance of a trained facilitator, 8th grade girls discuss peer pressure and other teenage issues and learn to take pride in their academic strengths.
 
Field Trips:  Each Friday we undertake field trips to support the afternoon activities and career themes the children discuss during the week.  Trips last summer included the New England Aquarium, Museum of Science, The MIT Museum, De Cordova Museum, Lawrence General Hospital, Salem Maritime Museum, and Peabody Museum at Harvard.
 
Parental and Family Outreach:  Because the investment and encouragement of families are essential to children's growth, we try to stay in touch with parents and family members by phone and through “bus stop chats” during the summer.  A special picnic at the end of July gives families an opportunity to celebrate completed student projects, enjoy a musical presentation, and honor their children as they receive awards and prizes.