Continuing Our Partnership With The Family School
TRW’s Partnership Team is Set to Continue Our Program with The Family School at P.S. 90
The Theatrical Rights Worldwide Partnership Team was created in 2008 to provide human resources to schools in New York City that need a helping hand with their Arts programs. The Family School opened in September, 2009 with a unique mission that is a perfect fit for our outreach program. In October 2009 the Partnership Team began our work with over sixty first and second graders from the Family School, coordinated through Music Specialist Justin Dayhoff and Principal Pamela Lee. November brought a follow-up assessment meeting between the Theatrical Rights team and Dayhoff and Lee that resulted in an agreement to continue the drama/music program in a new session that began in January, 2010. The program features an extended schedule, including an early morning before-school component. Look for the report on the current session in our next E-News Update!
The Family School is modeled on a nurturing family. The vision of the school is to extend and deepen the effects of a school-based education on students by bringing the school into the home and the parents into the school in order to prepare students to succeed in today’s multicultural and specialized world. Students are engaged in learning experiences during and after the traditional school day using research-based learning strategies. Additionally, there are support services and small group instruction for English language learners, students with special needs, and students performing below grade level in and out of the classroom during the school day. The school creates a learning-focused after school program that provides healthy snacks, a half hour of homework support and enrichment activities designed to give students a range of approaches to investigate topics in literature, anthropology and culture, history, food, visual art, music, science and mathematics through a multicultural lens.
The long-term objective of the partnership is focused on helping the school sustain a permanent drama department to offer students the opportunity to participate in the tradition of Theatre Arts in America’s schools. TRW is proud to be a part of this tradition.
Academic Outcomes
According to the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Family Research Project, academic outcomes associated with participation in after school programs like the TRW/Family School partnership include:
• Better attitudes toward school and higher educational aspirations
• Higher school attendance rates and less tardiness
• Less disciplinary action
• Lower dropout rates
• Better performance in school, as measured by achievement test scores and grades
• Greater on-time promotion
• Improved homework completion
• Engagement in learning
