Education & achievement programs
No issue is more critical to a community’s ability to respond to the challenges of a rapidly-changing world than the quality of its schools, and the opportunities available to its young people. Harvard is engaged in multiple ways in efforts to strengthen local schools in Boston, Cambridge and beyond, to expand educational opportunity for residents of these communities, and to eliminate barriers to student achievement.
Whether as volunteers, student teachers or interns, Harvard students play a major role in these efforts. The University also offers Boston-area elementary, middle and high school students a wide range of opportunities to enrich their education.
Here are a few examples of the 140 programs that address Education and Achievement
Each year the Office of Government and Community Programs lends its support and guidance to the student organized activity, Youth Day. Youth Day 2001 was the pinnacle event of the work Harvard School of Public Health students have done with area middle school-aged students throughout the academic year. The student organization, Diaspora, invite Mission Hill School students to the School of Public Health for a day-long series of workshops and fun activities focusing on a variety of public health issues.
Every spring, the Harvard Kennedy School Student Public Service Collaborative encourages high school students to explore the merits of public service. Its one-day Public Service Conference, held at the Kennedy School since 1993, engages some 50 to 60 students from the Academy of Public Service High School at the Dorchester Education Complex. This year, the Conference will be opened to students from several public schools that are focused on different forms of public service.
The Achievement Gap Initiative (AGI) is a university-wide effort initiated by the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) to focus academic research, public education, and innovative outreach activities toward eliminating achievement gaps. Major funding is provided by Time Warner Inc., with additional support from the Spencer Foundation and the Murphy Innovation Fund. The HGSE provides important core support. The Scholars affiliated with the AGI represent a cross section of academic disciplines--Education, Economics, Public and Social Policy, Sociology and Law.