It could have been a summer spent in front of the television, the way so many kids in West Baltimore pass these hot, humid days.
But here is Darlena Green, 13, testing the potassium level of the soil in the community garden she helped cultivate and sampling Swiss chard. Here she is at one of the area's most elite private schools, learning about long division, exponents and the order of operations.
Darlena is one of nearly 400 city middle school pupils whose teachers have noticed their potential and sent them this summer to a new program to hone academic skills and broaden their experiences. Known as the Middle Grades Partnership, the program is trying to prepare promising city children for competitive high schools. It is pairing their middle schools with private schools and universities to provide summer enrichment activities and year-round academic support.
The kids attend a monthlong summer program, generally at the private school campus. After the school year begins, they will continue to receive tutoring and be taken on field trips. Each public-private partnership has its own theme and curriculum, designed by teachers from both schools.
At West Baltimore's Garrison Middle School, where Darlena is entering eighth grade, officials are working with the all-female Roland Park Country School to teach girls about urban gardening.
The public Stadium School in Waverly teamed up with the private Park School in Pikesville to take kids on a four-day trip to Boston, the farthest most had ever been from home. Other sites are focusing on chess, debate and the mathematics of sports. The idea is to improve kids' academic performance by engaging them in learning that interests them, ideally for all three summers they are in middle school.
"It's like a regular school day, but fun," Darlena said, smiling shyly, as she weeded around four types of peppers in a garden that pupils are building behind Garrison and jotted notes in a journal. "If you don't know a skill, they'll teach you."
The program, running at 10 sites this year after a pilot program at three last year, is funded by private donors, primarily the Baltimore Community Foundation and the Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation. Plans are in the works to more than double its size in the coming years, to serve 1,000 city pupils annually, and then to market it as a model nationally.
