Georgetown students are taking the lead in education outreach from universities to public schools in the District of Columbia.
The Superintendent of the D.C. Public Schools commended the recent work of Georgetown students in identifying and cataloguing university-affiliated education programs at a meeting in Riggs on Tuesday.
A new database created at Georgetown will untangle the overlap among the programs sponsored by Georgetown and other D.C. universities, resulting in coordination of resources to address problems in D.C. public schools.
According to the June 2004 D.C. State of Education Report, District public school students on average scored below basic achievement level in reading and math on a standard national assessment exam the previous year. In 2004, only 70 percent of D.C. students who had started as ninth graders graduated high school, according to the DCPS 2005 Strategic Plan report.
Georgetown has offered its resources in addressing the District’s educational needs, among them those of the DCPS, for more than 30 years, Deanna Cooke, assistant director of research at the Center for Social Justice, said.
But despite the good intentions of student volunteers, the various service opportunities are often disorganized, Daniel Gude, Georgetown University Student Association secretary of social justice said.
“Student efforts are helpful but there is no continuity in the efforts,” Gude said.
Gude explained that in a recent meeting with DCPS officials, D.C. university representatives discovered gaps in the education outreach services provided. As it stands now, the same relatively small group of D.C. schools and students receives most of the help from the various District university programs, while other D.C. schools receive no volunteer benefits.
“We have no central system by which we are sharing our resources,” Thomas Bullock, Georgetown’s assistant to the president for District of Columbia education initiatives, said.
Bullock’s position, created a year ago by President DeGioia, is the only one of its kind among D.C. universities.
Members of Georgetown University Outreach for Learning and Education have begun compiling a database of Georgetown’s education outreach programs, including staff and student programs, faculty initiatives and internal curriculum and course offerings.
Bullock hopes Georgetown’s database will provide other District universities with a model for organizing their own education outreach initiatives.
