TechMission Corps Los Angeles

TechMission Los Angeles Program Description:

TechMission Los Angeles is one component of the TechMission Corps (TMC) program, an AmeriCorps program where we place TechMission Corps Members in pre-existing K-8 (age 5 – 14) afterschool and teen (age 14 – 18) programs to support those programs. TMC Members provide technology instruction and support academic enrichment activities to these programs, with the overall goal of increasing academic performance, setting goals and expectations for higher education, and mentoring participants towards the fulfillment of those goals. These program Sites are all located in economically disadvantaged, minority communities serving mostly African American and Latino constituents. 

We launched our TechMission Corps program in 2004 with 20 FTE AmeriCorps Members, placing 15 Members in Boston Sites and 5 Members in LA Sites.  The goal of the program at that time was to infuse these afterschool programs with technology. The majority of these program Sites had computer labs, but the labs weren’t being used to their full potential because there was no one qualified to teach technology, and no funds available to hire a qualified teacher. It was incumbent upon the TMC Members to provide at least an hour of technology instruction a week, to help students gain the skills they needed to achieve at the same level as their non-minority counterparts.

 Realizing that many of our program Sites were understaffed, we have adjusted the K-8 program focus to include technology and academic enrichment equally; TMC Members will provide at least one hour of technology and/or online safety instruction as well as provide homework help and 1-to-1 or group tutoring as needed. We have adjusted the teen programs to more fully integrate a focus on higher education. 

The TechMission Boston (TMB) program through a partnership with the Higher Education Resource Centers (HERC) of the Emmanuel Gospel Center, provides participants with 1) test-taking skills - to help students pass their standardized tests; 2) SAT prep – to help students do well on the SAT exam; 3) mentoring – towards college readiness helping students realize the need for post-secondary education 4) application assistance – to ensure that students are properly filling out college applications,  scholarship applications and financial aid forms, etc. and 5) encouragement – to help students in the final stretch realize their dreams of going to college (many of them as first generation college goers). We would like to more formally integrate this portion of the program into our Los Angeles Sites.

There is a great need for programs for at-risk high school students to enable them to graduate high school and go to college: 1) the national drop-out rate is around 5%; however, in LA the rate is around 25% -- Black and Latino males are the most likely to drop out; 2) disparities in academic achievement for low-income youth and for Black and Latino youth are prevalent in Los Angeles. The California Department of Education reports the percentage of Black, Latino and White students passing both the English Language Arts  and Math portions of the Exit Exam are 45%, 49% and 79% respectively; 3) according to the US Department of Education, only about 70% of high school students nationwide graduate high school; in LA the graduation rate is only 41%.  In LA, 32% of Black and Latino 4th graders failed both the English Language Arts and math exams in 2005, compared with only 10% of white students. The National Assessment of Educational Progress reports that students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and many children of color consistently achieve below the national average in math and language skills, with the gap widening as children continue through their school years, demonstrating a need for afterschool programs providing education achievement activities.