City Year and Everett

AmeriCorps Members will Work with EPS Elementary Students

City Year, a dynamic and demonstrated leader in providing school-based support to students in urban districts, is launching a partnership with the Everett Public Schools (EPS) that expands access to high-quality programming and offers invaluable support to educators.

City Year will place eight-person teams of AmeriCorps members (ACMs) in the Keverian, English, Lafayette, Parlin, and Whittier schools to advance educational equity and nurture civically engaged leaders. Beginning in mid-August, two Impact Directors from City Year will work with school leaders to prepare for the full deployment of the ACM’s in Everett’s schools. Marika Azocar is assigned to the English and Whittier, while Courtney Lynn Dailey will onboard the program at the Keverian, Lafayette, and Parlin schools.

In 2017-18, the Everyone Graduates Center (EGC) at the  Johns Hopkins School of Education analyzed data from 28 cities and more than 38,000 students and found that those who received support from City Year AmeriCorps members demonstrated improved social-emotional and academic outcomes. And a 2015 study by Policy Studies Associates in 600 schools across 22 districts showed that City Year-affiliated elementary schools were two times more likely to improve on state English assessments and up to three times more likely to improve math proficiency rates than similar schools without City Year support.

“I’m genuinely excited about bringing City Year into my school to work with the talented, dedicated, and creative teaching teams we already have in place across all grade levels,” said Parlin School Principal Dennis Lynch. “There is no such thing as too much support for our students.”

Value is another clear advantage of this partnership. It is 78 percent more cost effective than contracting with individual providers to deliver City Year’s holistic set of services, according to a study by Deloitte Consulting LLP. It is estimated that $7]  million in increased government revenue and cost savings from high school graduating classes served by City Year. Another study shows that every dollar in federal taxes invested in AmeriCorps returns as much as $17 to society, program members, and the government.

More than half of City Year’s funding comes from donations from individuals, corporations, foundations, etc. The remaining half is divided between school districts (22 percent) and the national service network AmeriCorps (26 percent).

The ACMs, who range in age from 18-25, are trained to deliver a suite of interconnected services. This might include one-on-one or small-group instruction in ELA or math, with embedded social-emotional supports; offering homework assistance after-school programming, and civic and community-building projects; small-group sessions in social-emotional skill building; school activities that engage families and inspire civic engagement; and add classroom capacity by supporting teachers and providing and/or enabling differentiated instruction. ACMs also work closely with students who exhibit one or more warning indicators in areas including attendance, behavior, and academic performance. 

“The AmeriCorps members are smart and engaging young men and women who will connect and engage our students,” said Whittier School Principal Michael McLucas. “It is a privilege to welcome the City Year program to our community.”

City Year, like the EPS, embraces the Whole Child Approach to learning. In the largest sense, this is a philosophy that is based on research about how students learn and develop and, as a result, prioritizes all of the developmental and personal needs of students in addition to their academic achievements. Whole-child instruction leads to students who are happy, healthy, safe, engaged, and challenged, ensuring they are empowered to pursue and achieve their goals.

“The City Year partnership extends over a period of years, so our students can ‘grow up’ with the program,” said Madeline English School Principal Theresa Tringale. “Students really benefit from extra support as they advance from third through eighth grade, when they need help in developing an understanding of who they are and how that will set them on a path of lifelong learning and success.”

City Year was founded in 1988, and has grown into a national service program made up of more than 3,000 corps members serving in 29 cities in the U.S. Everett is the first community in Massachusetts that City Year is partnering with outside of Boston. The City Year Boston location has approximately 160 service members.