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The Richmond Project: Lending a Hand to West Contra Costa Schools
Both UC Berkeley and the public schools are benefitting from this successful school-university partnershipby Gretchen Kell
Back in 1992 the Richmond Unified School District was bankrupt. The district's financial woes had led to teacher layoffs and drastic cuts in programs for students. It was at that time that Berkeley professor Stan G. Prussin and high school teachers Bob Fabini of El Cerrito High School and Randy Enos of Kennedy High School worked with the Chancellor's office to begin the Richmond Project. The effort to help the district-now the West Contra Costa Unified School District-included providing people power to the schools.
Today the project continues to grow as students and professors provide El Cerrito and Kennedy high schools with tutors, teaching assistants, guest lecturers, used equipment, and books. Coordinated by Berkeley's Graduate School of Education, the project added two more schools to its list last fall-Portola Middle School and Harding Elementary School.
"People on campus take their commitment to the community seriously," said Dr. Nina Hersch Gabelko, director of the Richmond Project. "The program is sustaining itself and growing long after the district has left the headlines." "Typically," Gabelko continued, "university experts tell schools what to do, as if they know the school's business. That is not what is happening here," she added.
For example, Berkeley graduate student Jason King is a tutor and lab assistant for El Cerrito High teacher Bob Fabini's chemistry classes. King is also organizing enough Berkeley volunteers to assist in all of El Cerrito's chemistry classes on one day each week.
Fabini, who is the only physics teacher at El Cerrito, now feels he and the science department have professional colleagues at the University, which helps to connect them to the greater scientific research community. "Now when I have an idea about trying something, there's someone at Berkeley I can bounce the idea off of," he said.
This past year, Jeremy Avigad, a Ph.D. student in math, paired up professionally with Linda O'Connor, a math teacher at El Cerrito. He also rounded up other Berkeley tutors by tacking up posters on campus challenging students to "justify your existence" by helping high school students.
Gabelko said the project has had many volunteers from the sciences, so during 1994-95 she emphasized placing writing volunteers. One of this year's volunteers, Holly Higgins, a graduating senior in English, credits her experience tutoring in Ruth Reible's three English classes at Kennedy High School with her decision to become a teacher. Higgins says of her experience at Kennedy, "Though I am not [yet] a teacher, I have experienced the thrill of teaching . . .and observing as a light goes on when students take something they have learned in class and apply in a new situation."
Plans are already underway for fall 1995. Berkeley faculty-and even whole departments-who had not previously participated in the Richmond Project have asked to be included for the coming academic year.
"Our next big push is into the humanities and social sciences," Gabelko said. "Randy Enos, Kennedy High social studies department chair and a coordinator of the Richmond Project, is working with history doctoral candidate Abigail Lustig on an exciting seminar series for selected students from the participating high schools," she said. The course will be sponsored by Berkeley doctoral students and faculty in the history of science. Activities will begin in the fall.
This past April, on Shadow Day, students from Kennedy and El Cerrito high schools each spent an eventful day on the Berkeley campus with an undergraduate. The high school students got a taste of college life by attending classes, eating lunch at the dorms, and "hanging out" in Sproul Plaza. The participants reported that they returned to their high schools with renewed dedication to their studies and a strong commitment to come back to Berkeley as freshmen.
Gabelko added that when she approaches people on campus to join the project, "they don't say no. They are phenomenally busy, but Berkeley folks are dedicated to K-12 education."
Gretchen Kell is a senior public information representative in the Public Information Office at UC Berkeley.
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