The Log

Stupski impacts DHS

Friday, May 11, 2012 By John Thompson

This past fall “The Log” reported on the Danville Schools’ partnership with the Stupski Foundation, a nonprofit organization with a stated mission to improve life options for children of color and poverty. While all of this was good news, the student body is still generally unsure what the foundation has done or plans to do. “We’re still waiting on results,” said junior Katie Block. “So far we’ve seen a couple select groups of students and teachers go off to San Francisco but nothing here.” While students may find it easy to be impatient superintendent Carmen Coleman would like to remind everyone that this foundation works behind the scenes. “The main thing that has come from the Stupski work so far is Intersession,” said Dr. Coleman. “When we went to San Francisco, they did a great job in our meetings there with helping us to think about how we could truly give students the reins.” The problem seems to be transparency. Intersession received fantastic reviews from students, teachers, and parents alike. However few know that the Stupski Foundation was the primary influence financially as DHS was granted a 5,000 dollar donation for their efforts. The idea of Stupski still remains the same “Big picture. The goal of the Stupski work is to find ways to provide students ownership in the work they are doing,” continued Dr. Coleman. “We want students to be actively involved in work that really matters to them. Through the Stupski initiative, we will be choosing specific strategies to try and then we will measure the impact of those on both student engagement and ultimately, student achievement.” Dr. Coleman went on to say the impact of initiatives like project-based learning is something the school wants to be able to measure. All in all the student body is pleased with the partnership with Stupski even if they’re not quite sure what’s going on. Junior Phoebe Ross stated, “I really do like the opportunities they give low income children. I only wish it happened sooner.”