Current OWL programs include the following, all of which are designed to strengthen students' technical skills, teach responsibility, encourage risk taking, and encourage leadership skill development:
1.Elementary Program, Grades 3rd-5th: OWL’s inaugural program focuses on engaging elementary school students through an innovative after-school program that is offered at no cost four days a week, three hours a day. The program includes Learning Lab, Homework Helper, Healthy Snack, and Team Energizer. Students develop basic skills in computer programming, reading, writing, and math concurrently as they develop the core skills necessary in the Information Age, including peer teaching, creative thinking, analytical reasoning, problem solving, teamwork, and leadership.
2.Middle School Program, Grades 6th-8th: The Middle School Program was piloted in 2007 at Kepner Middle School. The core of the program is divided into distinctive “Techno Tracks,” including robotics, stop-motion animation, computer programming, and graphic design. In 2009 OWL implemented a new component to the Middle School curriculum called Career Exploration, which is designed to help students understand the skills that are necessary for their future job success. Students attain this knowledge by researching career fields, visiting prominent universities and companies, taking aptitude tests, receiving mentoring, and listening to guest speakers from leading industries within Colorado.
3.Summer Program: OWL provides a 6-week technology camp in the Westwood neighborhood of Denver for 3rd-8th grade students. The camp uses thematic weeks focusing on different advanced technology tools (animation, computer programming, digital photography, etc.) and fun field trips to inspire a love of learning during the summer months when the learning gap increases for low-income children. OWL also provides four-week technology sessions at Denver-CAMP’s Noel and Smedley locations and provides one-week technology and leadership camps at Metropolitan State College of Denver each summer.
Additional components of OWL programming include:
1.Student Leaders - Student Leaders assist their peers with attaining advanced computer skills. Student Leaders are selected based on a demonstrated love of learning, creativity, hard work, and a passion for helping others. Utilizing this proven peer teaching model develops children’s teamwork skills and leadership abilities and creates a powerful and affirming culture.
2.Parent Involvement - Parent involvement is an important component of the school program. Each site hosts three parent events during the year in order to engage parents in their child’s success. Orientation gives parents the chance to learn about the program and ask questions. The end-of-session celebrations take place in December and May and are a time for students to showcase the projects they have created.

Problema

Many students from low-income areas are challenged by environmental factors that can be disempowering...creating obstacles to educational achievement, confidence and a future vision of lifelong success. OWL's programs work to build educational inspiration, technical literacy and leadership skills, so our students are equipped with the skills to succeed. OWL serves 3rd through 8th grade students from low-income families. OpenWorld Learning is addressing the high rates of school failure, truancy, and risky behavior of these vulnerable students. Over 90% of the students in the participating schools qualify for federal free or reduced-cost lunch programs, and over 40% are English Language Learners. The neighborhoods in which these schools are located average 862 criminal offenses per year. Denver County is one of the five worst counties in Colorado in terms of per capita juvenile violent arrests, juvenile property arrests, and juvenile drug arrests. Additionally, according to the Colorado Department of Education, only 52.7% of Denver’s 2,893 high school seniors will graduate, with Hispanic students lagging 22.5% behind their Caucasian peers.

Solución

After-school programs like OWL's offer critical support to working families to keep children safe and strengthen school engagement. This is particularly important for children living in poorer communities, where they are most at risk for engaging in unproductive, illegal, and/or dangerous activities. OWL’s vision is to play an integral role in the transformation of Denver Public Schools to become one of the best urban school districts in the nation. For the students, OWL’s programming enhances their proficiency in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). These skills go far toward guiding OpenWorld Learning students onto a path toward attaining a college education and preparing for a world in which the need for individuals with technical skills far exceed the supply. It also empowers the students to have confidence and solid choice-making skills that allow them to succeed despite what might appear to be obstacles in their life. Not including the OWL programs, the schools in the neighborhoods where OWL operates provide an average of only two after-school program options each, none of which focuses on technology or computer skills, and only one of these programs operates during the critical after-school timeframe of 3-6 pm, the time when young people engage at a higher rate in unhealthy, unproductive and/or illegal behaviors.

Ejemplo

One of our students at Ellis Elementary spends the vast majority of her day in special education classrooms and peer groups. She has frequently remarked that coming to our program is the best part of her day--for a number of reasons, but to me the most salient is that she gets the opportunity to interact casually and academically with students she does not otherwise see for much of her day. While acknowledging this student's particular challenges, we treat her as we treat all the students, and her peers follow our lead. I have watched her open up socially as the students include her on the playground, have watched her expand and refine her motor and reasoning skills as she collaborates with those around her on computer projects, and have watched her improve academically as she works through her homework with older students. Through OpenWorld Learning's activities, this student and her peers have formed relationships, grown in self-confidence, and polished their interpersonal skills in a way which will serve them far beyond the fifth grade.

Mercado

Technology-based curriculum relates to "what" students learn, but the shift that occurs when students learn to take dominion over how they orient themselves to the world around them is a direct result of "how" they learn. This reflects the true essence of OWL's mission of academic achievement in a natural result of igniting a love of learning and developing leadership and confidence.