Reaching Beyond the Classroom
Charter School Enlists Community Members to Share Expertise

By Vanessa Mizell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 24, 2008

Deirdre Smith pressed the play button on the CD player, walked to the back of the high school auditorium and eyed her 12 students as they stood like statues in choreographic formation. The 25-year-old model folded her arms and awaited the cue in the song that was playing: "Five! Six! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! And . . ."

The students jumped into action, strutting, turning and posing down the carpeted runway.

"This class is a good confidence-builder," Smith said. "Without confidence, these students wouldn't be able to walk in front of an audience and sell themselves."

Smith, who conducts fashion shows at high schools, was teaching a class in urban arts and entertainment at the Shaw campus of the Maya Angelou Public Charter School in Northwest Washington. It was one of nine enrichment courses offered in the spring at the high school.

Many charter schools in the District offer elective courses, often during the summer or winter breaks. Some team up with businesses that send representatives to teach extracurricular classes or workshops.

But at Maya Angelou, the enrichment program is not an elective, but rather a required part of the curriculum at three of the school's four campuses: Shaw; Evans, a high school in Northeast; and the middle school in Southeast.

"D.C. is very segregated, and we need to get people in the same space in a safe environment," said David Domenici, co-founder of the Maya Angelou schools. "A Web developer. A reporter. We want to expose kids to a broad range of interesting people and activities that you just can't cram into a 9-to-3 school day."

So Domenici and co-founder James Forman Jr. decided to extend school hours three days a week to include the hour-long enrichment period.

The 94 high school students at the Shaw campus might be in for some surprises this fall. That's what Gillian Moise, director of the school's enrichment program, said she is hoping as she recruits adults with expertise in a wide range of subjects. In last quarter's enrichment classes, students built rock-climbing walls, designed newsletters, studied Italian and devised retail business models.

Christon "Christylez" Bacon, a musician and native Washingtonian, wanted to share some of his artistic abilities. The hip-hop artist has performed at area concert halls and Washington National Cathedral and participated in poetry jams at U Street cafes. During the school's first enrichment period in the fall, Bacon, 22, taught a spoken-word class.

"This was something I had to do," Bacon said. "I had so many people who came to me when I was in school and got me to where I'm at now. So it's been a circular journey for me."

For Bacon's course, students held a school-wide spoken-word presentation attended by local poets.

Moise said the class was well received. "I definitely want to reintroduce spoken word," she said.

The enrichment program doesn't require teachers to be certified in education because they are not teaching core-content classes, although a few years of experience in the relevant field is preferred, Moise said.

Other courses have included law, culinary arts, sports management and journalism.

Bacon applauded the program for allowing community members to teach and said he enjoyed the class.

"I think a lot of other schools miss out on some good teachers as a result of not having this sort of program," he said. "I'm definitely thinking about going back."

The selection process includes an interview, a background check and an orientation. In the week before the enrichment classes begin, the selected teachers visit classrooms to advertise their courses. Students rank their top three choices and are assigned to a class. They have one week to transfer from the class they were assigned. Teachers are paid $40 per class.

School administrators say the biggest challenge for most teachers in the enrichment program is managing the classroom.

"Some classes just don't work," Domenici said. "You have someone who really thinks they want to work with teens, and for some reason their class totally flops." He said some people might not have the temperament to deal with teens.

In designing the Maya Angelou schools' curricula, Domenici and Foreman said they hoped to keep students engaged during the after-school hours, which is when statistics show that crime is most prevalent among teens. They added the enrichment period, a dinner break and a tutoring period to the schedule, adjourning classes at 7:15 p.m.

Moise said she will spend much of the summer recruiting people to teach in the program. There is a demand for classes about African American heritage, automotive education and physical fitness.

This year's schedule might include classes on film, African drumming and computer fundamentals, she said.

To learn more about the enrichment program, visitwww.seeforever.org.