Embedded Enrichment Through Cultural Partnerships

Jacob Hiatt Magnet School, Worcester

The Jacob Hiatt Magnet School is a preK-6, 475-student school located in a diverse, urban neighborhood in downtown Worcester, Mass. Founded in 1990, the school originally had a longer school day funded by the Worcester Public Schools until budget cuts in 2002 forced them to cut back to a traditional 6.5-hour school day. When the opportunity to apply for ELT funding through the Massachusetts Department of Education arose in 2005, Hiatt leadership, faculty, and families embraced the chance to once again offer a richer school day to all students.

A key aspect of the Hiatt redesign is its approach to integrated enrichment through community partnerships. Hiatt teachers came together early in the ELT planning process in 2005–06 to create a “wish list” of enrichment activities they hoped the school could offer if the day was expanded. Based in part on this list, the school engages more than 10 arts and cultural institutions annually from Worcester and beyond to provide integrated enrichment programming across all grade levels. The Hiatt’s “ELT Facilitator,” Patty Genese, recruits these partners using a process the school developed. Each prospective partner must respond to an RFP Partnership Request for Proposal and submit a proposal that outlines the scope and sequence of their programming, draws explicit connections to the Massachusetts curriculum framework, and includes a detailed budget. School leadership then selects partners based on their compatibility with Hiatt school goals and their capacity to implement high-quality, experiential, standards-based enrichment. Partner programming is matched up with the most appropriate grade levels and teachers.

The Hiatt runs four 8–10 week enrichment modules throughout the year. During each module, partners collaborate with each grade level to lead sessions on a particular theme that enhances and complements the classroom curriculum. Sessions are typically 45–60 minutes, once a week, with the partner designing and implementing the lesson with the Hiatt teacher present to provide support and lower the adult-to-student ratio. The school leadership made a strategic decision to have teachers stay in the classroom with partners during enrichment times, rather than leave to participate in professional development, common planning time, or individual prep. This way, they can participate in the classes alongside students and partner staff. Having Hiatt and partners staff working together creates an opportunity for alignment between core and enrichment curricula, helps relationship-building between partners, teachers, and students, and, over time, allows Hiatt teachers to integrate the content and pedagogy of partner programs directly into their own teaching practice.

Over the course of the year, all students in each grade level participate in four different modules. At the end of each module, the school displays student work in their own “Hiatt School Museum.” Enrichment modules during 2007–08 included:

  • Pre-Kindergarten: “Puppet-Making Workshop” with Pumpernickel Puppets
  • Kindergarten: “Eric Carle Collage Project” with Worcester Center for Crafts
  • Grade 1: “Nature Detectives” with the Massachusetts Audubon Society
  • Grade 2: “Native American Pottery” with Worcester Center for Crafts
  • Grade 3: “Massachusetts Topographical Maps” with Worcester Center for Crafts
  • Grade 4: “Line Design: Geometry & Art” with the Worcester Art Museum
  • Grade 5: “Paul Revere: The Man Behind the Myth” with the Paul Revere House
  • Grade 6: “Life in Japan” with the Japanese Consulate General, Odaiko New England, and the Worcester Art Museum

Some partners, like the team that led the “Life in Japan” class with grade 6, do only one module per year. Others, like Worcester Center for Crafts, move between different grade levels throughout the year and offer a number of different grade level-appropriate classes.

Genese, as the Hiatt’s full-time ELT Coordinator, plays a critical role in all aspects of developing, managing, and sustaining these community partnerships, from reviewing proposals to acting as a liaison between partners and teachers to securing additional funds to support partnerships. (Partners are paid through a combination of ELT grant funds and additional grants, including ones from the City of Worcester and private foundations.) Genese was a teacher for 14 years at the Hiatt prior to becoming the ELT Coordinator in 2006, and the school considers this established relationship to be a great asset; she already had the strong connections with the teachers necessary to successfully direct this partnership model.

 

Another condition for success was the Hiatt’s rich history of community collaboration prior to becoming an ELT school. Genese was able to build on existing school-community relationships in forming these partnerships, and took advantage of local infrastructure like the Worcester Arts and Humanities Educational Council (WAHEC), “a coalition of cultural and educational institutions that is coordinating its efforts to enhance Worcester County’s educational system by linking it directly to its extensive cultural resources.” Many Hiatt partners are affiliated with WAHEC.

 

Worcester’s City View Discovery and Chandler Elementary Schools, in planning for ELT in 2006–07, adopted both the Hiatt’s approach to integrated enrichment and its practice of hiring a veteran teacher as the full-time ELT Facilitator. The three Facilitators now work together on coordinating partnerships, sharing ideas and best practices, and on one occasion, applying for joint funding to support partners working with all three schools. They recently worked on a common ELT Coordinator job description for the Worcester Public Schools, which district leadership can use in recruiting and hiring facilitators for additional ELT schools in future years.