Dr. Gil Noam's PEAR Social-Emotional Development Work will guide our comprehensive approach to building school capacity, support systems, and a common language around social-emotional development so students can learn, dream and thrive in school and afterschool settings. The Legends Fellow will serve the community of 600 students at Legends Charter School as a learning coach. All member activities are designed to address the research-based Early Warning Indicators (EWIs) that predict drop out risk: specifically, student performance in attendance, behavior, English, and math (An Early Warning System, Curran, Neild & Balfanz, 2007). Monday through Friday, Legends Fellows implement our full-time in-school and after-school education program called Legends Full Circle Social Emotional Learning & Academic (SELA) programming. During a typical 10 hour day, Fellows spend 1 hour conducting attendance initiatives (e.g., morning greeting, phone calls home); 4 hours providing tutoring and in-class academic support; 20 minutes of mentoring during lunch for students identified in need of attitude, behavior or motivation coaching; 30 minutes for lunch; 30 minutes for whole-school and enrichment programming; 1 hour of planning and documentation time with teammates and/or teachers/specialists; 1 hour of afterschool homework support; and, 90 minutes of afterschool enrichment activities. During planning periods and Professional Development Days, Fellows participate in training and reflection, community engagement, service planning and documentation, and post-Fellowship career planning. Through these activities, Fellows provide supports that will help improve students’ ability to be the BOSS (Basic Organization Skills for Success) of their lives and learning, academic efficacy, and engagement to their school and thereby keep the students in school and on track to successful promotion to 9th grade. Legends Fellowss will serve as a conduit to unite and connect with their scholars to help learners start school in their executive state, disengage stress and commit to their daily goals and review the daily schedule as a school-wide Tier 1 intervention. There will be 27 Legends Fellows deployed to Legends Charter School. Under the leadership, direction, and training of the Program Manager and Director of Social Emotional Learning and Academic Development, the Fellow will work directly under the supervision of their classroom teacher. According to teacher exit surveys, many leave the profession because they are burnt out because of the myriad of demands and pressure they experience in the classroom. Supporting student's continuum of services alone is overwhelming and unrealistic. The Legends Fellow will ensure teachers have every opportunity to teach, attend planning periods and professional development and will, therefore, be expected to facilitate student team-building games at recess, assuring consistency of culture in special area classes and specials and provide any other support, accommodation or modification the student may need to be successful. The Legends Fellow will provide students with positive, caring adult relationships at school, academic support, and opportunities to develop social-emotional skills that will put our community's students on track to graduate from high school with the skills and mindsets essential for success in college, career, and life. Legends Fellows will also serve to address the looming teacher shortage by being a pipeline to talent and a non-traditional pathway to entering education.
Service Activities
The role of the Legends Fellow is to support students in the classroom with a focus on attendance, behavior, culture and academics.
Academic Support
• Create, support and/or co-lead literacy and/or math focused events to enrich school literacy and/or math culture and climate
• Create, support and/or co-lead events or programs recognizing and appreciating growth and/or achievement in literacy and/or math
• Promote a positive learning environment
Engagement & Positive School Climate Participation
• Provide small group and one-to-one social-emotional skills development programs and attendance coaching to elementary, middle and high school youth
• Support and/or conduct extended day programming through facilitation of enriching activities for students before, during, and after school including, but not limited to, academic enrichment and intervention, homework support, recreation, service learning and leadership development
• Create, support and/or co-lead events or programs to recognize and appreciate significant growth and/or achievement in social-emotional development and positive behavior
• Engage students as leaders to help plan and/or lead event elements
• Participate in and/or lead Facilitated Data Review and Student Progress Monitoring meetings utilizing business intelligence tools
• Facilitate coaching sessions for small groups of students on building social-emotional learning skills
Secondary Activities
• Contributing to overall school performance by engaging parents, coordinating enrichment programs for students, serving as role models and helping to enhance school culture
• Supporting and developing thematic events to engage community stakeholders
• Supporting, creating and/or co-leading events or programs that recognize and appreciate significant growth and/or achievement in attendance
• Welcoming students at the start of the school day
• Supports lunch and recess duties
• Placing calls to the homes of absent students
• Providing homework assistance to a consistent group of students before and after school.
The Legends Fellow works in support of the Subject Expert Teacher and is developed and directly supervised by the Director of Social, Emotional, and Academic Development.
Community Need Addressed
The Legends Fellow program will serve the Prince George’s County, Maryland community via service at Legends Charter School (LCS) in Lanham, Maryland. Prince George’s County is the third most populous jurisdiction in the Washington Metropolitan area, with 64% of their public-school (PGCPS) students qualifying for free or reduced meals (FARM). Many of these students are concentrated in Central and Southern regions of the county, where the Legends Fellow will serve. Many of the challenges facing our students include poor academic performance, food insecurity, health concerns, and discipline and safety issues. Elementary and Middle school student performance in reading and math has been consistently below the state average, with 24% of the elementary school students meeting PARC ELA and 20% meeting the math proficiency standards. Prince Georges County performs only slightly better than Baltimore City Schools. The persistent underperformance of SPED and Limited English Proficient (LEP) students, who represent a significant and growing presence within the overall student population, is of substantial concern. Currently, SPED students represent 11.3% and LEP students represent 15.8% of the school system’s community. Not only do these two subgroups perform at levels considerably below students overall, but the performance gaps expand substantially at each successive level of schooling. On the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), PGCPS students ranked among the bottom in the state among significant cities nationwide for 4th and 8th-grade reading and math (Maryland statewide ranked 13th in Reading and 24th in Math).
In 2020, 600 students will enroll in a Legends Public Charter School. Of these students, >95% will likely represent minority populations, >80% economically disadvantaged, and 76% of students tested below standards in English and 75% tested below standards in math on state assessments (Maryland School Data, 2018, pgcps.org). In 2017-18, more than 60 percent of graduates in a Maryland school system had excessive unexcused absences 55% and 80% of students at these schools were chronically absent (PGCPS State Review Data). These performance patterns indicate that structures and supports are not in place to provide students with a positive learning environment.
The Legends Charter School Social-Emotional Learning and Academic Development Program, supported by the Legends Fellow, will address many of the issues above. Legends Charter School will provide an advanced liberal arts college preparatory education, emphasizing financial literacy and supplemented with Blended Learning to personalize scholars’ learning experience and establish robust financial portfolios. Legends will grow by one grade level each year until 8th grade. At capacity, this school will serve 900 students.
The Legends Fellow will support the community’s children through our innovative school design, in support of the school’s vision: to help close both the achievement and generational wealth gaps, with every scholar achieving their maximum academic potential while developing financial literacy, through an engaging, inspiring and challenging learning environment; Legends Scholars will be poised to succeed globally as 21st century citizens.
Position Outcomes
On an annual basis we expect to see meaningful short term improvement within knowledge and skills related to literacy and math and gains in attendance and social-emotional development. Over multi-year exposure to our program, we expect to change the mindset of a student so that they are more motivated to learn and succeed academically and attend school consistently. Our long-term goal is that by serving alongside students from elementary through high school, students will graduate at higher rates, be better prepared, and have a more positive viewpoint of their post-secondary success and career.
Benefits
Education award upon successful completion of service, Living allowance, Training
Mentorship
Training
Professional Development
Financial Education
Social-Emotional Learning
Education Benefits
GED/High School Diploma
Must have a GED/High School Diploma
Skills you will gain
teaching support, tutoring, conflict resolution, social-emotional learning, collaboration, teamwork, communication, analytical thinking, problem solving, and active learning
Competencies You Will Develop
Communication
Demonstrate sensitivity and empathy, Listen to and consider others' viewpoints, Maintain open lines of communication with others, Speak clearly, in precise language and in a logical, organized and coherent manner, Write cleary and effectively
Creativity & Problem Solving
Able to identify and define the problem, Capable of generating possible solutions, Communicate the problem to appropriate personnel, Improvise, Provide relevant expertise, Select and implement well-considered solution
Teamwork
Develop constructive working relationships and maintain them over time, Establish a high degree of trust and credibility with others, Interact professionally and respectfully with supervisors and co-workers, Stay positive and outcome oriented, Use appropriate strategies and solutions for dealing with conflicts and differences to maintain a smooth workflow
Decisions
Accepts responsibility, Anticipate the consequences of decisions, Identify and prioritize the key issues involved to facilitate the decision making process, Involve people appropriately in decisions that may impact them, Quickly respond with a back-up plan if a decision goes amiss
Tools
Carefully consider which tools or technological solutions are appropriate for a given job, Consistently choose the best tool or technological solution for the problem at hand
Planning
Able to prioritize various competing tasks, Create environment of contribution, Create plan of action, schedule tasks so that work is completed on time, Demonstrate the effective allocation of time and resources efficiently, Drive decision making, Facilitate group planning, Set goals
Service
Be pleasant, courteous, professional and respectful when dealing with internal and external customers or clients, Evaluate customer or client satisfaction, Honor the privilege of being able to work with and for those being served, Provide personalized, prompt, and efficient service to meet the requirements, requests and needs of customers, Recognize the importance of maintaining privacy and confidentiality of those being served, Understand and anticipate the needs of others, Understand the importance of one's role in the functioning of the organization, Understand the significance of maintaining a healthful and safe environment