At America’s Promise Alliance’s recent Grad Nation Summit, General Colin Powell and Jeannie Oakes, Director of Educational Opportunity and Scholarship at the Ford Foundation, framed the importance of expanded learning time to close achievement and opportunity gaps. General Powell noted that the programs and opportunities schools can offer “help young people enrich their lives through more and better learning time.” Their remarks were followed by a video which told the story of Orchard Gardens, an expanded-time school in Boston, MA.

You can view the video here.

This past Thursday, December 6th, the OGPS community was thrilled to welcome world renowned cellist, Yo-Yo Ma, dancer, Damian Woetzel, and the Silk Road Ensemble to our school.  The artists visited as part of the President’s Council on the Arts & Humanities which had selected OGPS as one of their Turnaround Arts Initiative schools.  The artists performed for an assembly of Dubois Academy students and then spent the rest of their visit working individually with smaller groups of students.

For additional coverage, please visit:

Boston Globe’s Coverage
Boston Herald’s Coverage
WBUR’s Coverage

Jennifer Davis, the co-founder and president of the National Center on Time & Learning, highlights the great work being done at OGPS in Teach for America’s Pass the Chalk Blog.  The amazing turnaround work being done by the students and staff at Orchard Gardens is highlighted as a model for other failing schools throughout the country.

To read the blog post, visit our friends and partners at Teach for America here.

To review the National Center on Time & Learning’s case study of Orchard Gardens, visit here.

After having the chance to show their soccer skills, the poetry portion of America SCORES Boston’s program was showcased by OGPS fifth grader, Lael Watson, who performed an original poem.

To read more, visit the Boston Globe’s coverage, here.

If you have any questions, comments, or would like to make any suggestions, please feel free to click here to send an email.

http://www.politico.com/multimedia/video/2012/09/deval-patricks-full-speech-to-the-democratic-national-convention.html

To read this great recognition, click here.

OGPS is starting its transformation in anticipation of the Spring Art Show. Performances start at 5:00, first floor art gallery open at 4:30. Hope you can make it!

VH1′s Save the Music Foundation highlighted Orchard Gardens in their Annual Report for 2011. Orchard Gardens’ music program has benefited significantly from its association with Save the Music. Our turnaround work would be that much more difficult without their generous support of our arts program.

To read the report, click here.