The "Eastbay Collaborative for Underserved Children (ECUC): A University, School, and Community Partnership to Develop 21st Century Skills" is a unique UCB partnership of private schools, community partners and service providers. The partnership received its first 21st Century grant in 2009 and has developed robust 21st Century programs in schools without previous 21st Century funding for students and families with limited or no access to these services in the past. Led by the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) Graduate School of Education under the guidance of Principal Investigator Glynda Hull, the collaborative includes six schools in the Diocese of Oakland serving approximately 800 students with before and after school and summer programs. Together these partners have been operating after-school programs in some of California's (and the nation's) most challenged urban communities.
In July 2014 the ECUC partnership received $7.5 million from the California Department of Education ($1.5 million each year over 5 years) to forge robust Expanded Learning Programs (ELPs), the current federal policy focus for after-school programs. Our objectives are to support schools and students in implementing ELPs tied to the California Common Core Standards (CCCS), while also achieving the promise of creative out-of-school time. In so doing we will draw on the strengths of UCB faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students, as well as school-based staff and community partners, as we envision dynamic, engaging, and rigorous learning activities within supportive and effective spaces for learning.
In a global and digital world, a premium is placed on new kinds of skills and knowledge: communicating effectively to diverse and distant audiences; organizing, analyzing, and deploying informatic data; creating and thinking collaboratively to solving complex interdisciplinary problems; and using technological tools effectively and responsibly. Such skills and dispositions are critical in preparing our students to compete for jobs, become effective and ethical citizens, and positioning them to be authors of rewarding personal futures. We plan to foster the acquisition of such skills and knowledge, with a special emphasis on STEEAAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Executive functioning, Arts, Athletics, and Math), through a careful interweaving of academic assistance and enrichment.
The core of the ECUC 21st Century project program elements is embodied in a framework we refer to as STEEAAM, portrayed in the graphic above. It is designed to provide a fashioned link between innovative academic assistance, enrichment, and family literacy activities aligned with California Common Core Standards-based learning and teaching during the school day.
Our theory of change is that student academic success occurs because of a wide range of essential needs and competencies being addressed — emotional, social, environmental, physical, and cognitive. Consequently, our program activities: 1) provide concrete and focused strategies to directly improve 21st century skills, especially in English Language Arts, science, technology, and math, increase students' chances of graduating, and help them envision a college pathway; 2) help build the protective factors and resiliency assets (such as caring relationships with adults and self-efficacy) that children need in order to overcome the challenges they face and envision a positive future; 3) provide meaningful activities that re-connect students to school life; and 4) increase parents' ability to assist and support their children's academic success via family literacy services and onsite parent involvement activities.