Lawrence Family Development & Education Fund, Charter School

CONTACT:

34 West St.
Lawrence, MA 01841
978-689-9863 ext. 23
www.lfdcs.org

Patricia Karl, Executive Director

DESCRIPTION:

The City of Lawrence covers only 7 sq. miles, yet it is home to one-fourth of the population of the Lower Merrimack Valley. During the 1980s, its foreign-born population more than doubled, and today nearly half of Lawrence is Hispanic. Unemployment and school drop-out rates have increased dramatically; both are clearly tied to language disadvantages.

The Lawrence Family Development Charter School was founded in 1995, on a 4.5 acre site with 5 buildings, donated by a company that was relocating. The new school was committed to strengthening families through education, as a way to help rebuild the community. It thus became a kind of center for family education, especially in English as a Second Language (ESL), for practical purposes: better parenting, better schooling, better jobs, and better citizenship.

The school has grown from K-3 into a K-8 public charter school with an enrollment of 512 students. Its most distinctive educational features are: small classes; "two-way language" (i.e., equal instruction in both Spanish and English), and parental involvement in every level and aspect of learning, teaching, administration, and public support, so that the school flourishes as a family and community educational institution. A particular delight has been the enthusiasm of both children and parents for computer-assisted language learning, in which the parents are doubly improving their job qualifications.

Your help is needed in three areas: improving the physical facility to accommodate steadily increasing student enrollment; expanding the computer-assisted ESL program; and expanding the Citizenship Training program for adults--a special community service.

(1997: CULTURE: Education: Formal: Schools)