Dear Friends,
This month we share with a heavy heart the news of the passing of a beloved member of the Greene Street Friends and Horizons community. Kathie Bowes, a passionate early childhood educator and Horizons advocate, died on January 13 after a brave battle with cancer.
Kathie fueled our program with her wisdom, enthusiasm, and her belief that every child in our community deserved opportunity and access. A tireless GSFS Pre-K teacher of over 20 years, Kathie shared her time, talent and treasure with Horizons at Greene Street Friends School, training our staff on the GSFS life skills curriculum, serving as a volunteer during the summer, and supporting our fundraising efforts with gusto.
We are grateful for the Light that Kathie shared freely with all of us, and we are honored to keep that Light shining through our mission to enrich the lives of marginalized children in our community. It was Kathie's wish that donations be made to Horizons in her memory, and we consider it a privilege to carry on her legacy of love in this way.
Read on to learn more about the obstacles facing our students this year. More than ever, Horizons at Greene Street Friends School is needed to propel students forward.
In solidarity,
Malia Neal
Executive Director
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Pennsylvania has some of the highest opportunity gaps in the country. Sixty-six years after the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court case, which ruled segregated schools unconstitutional, Philadelphia schools remain highly segregated. Black students in North, South West and West Philadelphia mostly attend highly segregated schools with 90% to 100% minority-majority school populations. Due to the highly segregated nature of these schools, Philadelphia contains many “apartheid schools”, a term used to describe schools in which at least 99 percent of the students are Black.
Segregated schools lead to gaps in opportunity as “Black and Hispanic students are disproportionately enrolled in high-poverty schools and those schools provide less access to educational opportunities. White students are disproportionately enrolled in low-poverty schools which provide higher access to opportunity.”(“Unequal Access to Educational Opportunity Among Pennsylvania’s High School Students”).
This is why gaps in academic achievement should be better understood as gaps in opportunity. Not all students have an equal opportunity to achieve academic success. The racial disparities in academic achievement are the symptom of an unequal distribution of academic resources, resulting in systematic opportunity gaps for BIPOC students. We strive to provide academic enrichment and resources to our Horizons scholars with the understanding that they are a part of a system that deprives them of the same opportunities granted to their more privileged peers. This is why it is important that we spread awareness of inequities in our education system and work to ameliorate the gaps in opportunity that divides zip codes and communities in Philadelphia.
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COVID-19 has forced Philadelphia's school children to go for an extended period of time without in-person instruction. Many students will lose academic progress during this time, but the negative effects of remote schooling will disproportionately burden students of color and economically disadvantage students.
Factors such as the lack of consistent internet connection, a lack of a conducive learning environment, and lost wages, have all contributed to environments that cannot adequately help students to thrive academically. BIPOC students are also more likely to be enrolled in school districts offering remote schooling compared to their White peers who are more likely to be enrolled in school districts offering in-person schooling.
The ways in which the pandemic has exacerbated existing opportunity gaps have been well documented. In an article published in June 2020, global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company reported that, due to remote learning, Black students may fall behind by 10.3 months, Hispanic students by 9.2 months, and low-income students by more than a year. McKinsey & Company estimates that this would exacerbate existing achievement gaps by 15 to 20 percent.
Experts suggest that out-of-school and supplemental summer learning programs can help ameliorate some of these learning losses. HGSFS worked to address these learning losses this summer during "Horizons@Home" and will continue to do so during our 2021 summer program.
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Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King |
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In the month of January, we remembered and honored Dr.King's legacy. Throughout this difficult year, we were inspired by Dr. King's "Beloved Community". A "Beloved Community" centers around justice, equal opportunity, and love for one’s fellow human beings. Particularly during this time of COVID-19, we must remember to be active participants in building our own “beloved community". We must make sure that our most vulnerable community members are cared for, that our neighbors don't struggle alone, and that we continue to uplift our Horizons and Germantown community. We hope to live up to Dr. King’s ideal through combating racial inequality in our own community and ensuring that equal access to opportunity is afforded to our Horizons scholars. |
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Hello Friends!
My name is Alex Greenberg and I have been serving as an AmeriCorps Vista for Horizons at Greene Street Friends School since August. My role runs until the end of this summer and I have enjoyed getting to know our Greene Street Friends School, Horizons, and Germantown community.
I am a recent graduate of Hobart and William Smith College with a major in Philosophy and a minor in Women Studies. I'm passionate about education equity and the intersection between systematic racism and our unequal system of education.
During my service, I have worked on HGSFS social media and marketing, researched new funding opportunities, assisted with writing grants, and researched topics related to educational inequity.
I'm looking forward to this summer and working with our Horizons team to implement our 2021 summer program!
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Horizons at Greene Street Friends School | Website
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