What's new at Leap

11/24/08

Literacy Scores Improve Due to ALLL

Nearly 3,500 kindergarten to 2^nd-grade students in 188 classes in 46 schools benefited from LeAp’s early childhood literacy program, Active Learning Leads to Literacy (ALLL) in 2007 – 2008.

Using the ECLAS test, New York University evaluators tracked student progress. They compared students in ALLL versus students in similar control classes and found that ALLL teaching methods are more successful than traditional teaching methods. ALLL students outperformed those in the control group on 85 percent of the 23 basic literacy skills, and significantly more ALLL students tested on or above grade level in reading and writing.

The ALLL program was so successful that LeAp received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to pilot Arts Learning Leads to Literacy, the expansion of ALLL for grades 3 – 5 (ALLL 3 – 5).

LeAp Models Exemplary Afterschool Programs

All across America, schools and community partners are piloting ways to expand learning and enrichment beyond the traditional school ay and year. LeAp is proud to be a part of this expansion with the launch of a new pilot afterschool program at PS 182Q.

The program at PS 182Q is run by longtime LeAp teaching artist and mentor Seth Goldberg in partnership with TASC’s Expanded Learning Time New York City iniviative. The three-year project is examining 1) feasibility of expanding learning time; 2) whether and how students benefit academically, civically, socially, and emotionally; 3) the cost of such programs and how to finance them; and 4) how to develop and support programs that help children with non-traditional learning styles learn.

LeAp’s award-winning afterschool programs at PS 163M and JHS22X demonstrate that children benefit from fully integrated arts and academic afterschool programming.

August Wilson Monologue Competition

LeAp is proud to launch the inaugural New York City August Wilson Monologue Competition! High school students will study playwright August Wilson’s works, learn monologue techniques, and then perform a Wilson monologue for celebrity judges and a live audience in a school and citywide competition.

“This is a wonderful program that helps students of all backgrounds connect with the African American experience,” said Alice Krieger, LeAp’s Associate Executive Director and creator of the program. “By performing August Wilson’s work, students have an opportunity to inhabit the lives of his characters while examining the meaning of their own cultural heritage.”

On April 27, August Wilson’s birthday, the three winners from the New York City competition will compete in a national competition with students from Atlanta and Pittsburgh at the August Wilson Theater on Broadway. The finalists and winners will receive prizes and scholarships.

As part of the program, students will also attend a performance on Broadway and meet with a professional actor, director or dramaturge who has worked on an August Wilson play.