The CFY Digital Learning Program
CFY’s Digital Learning Program is a whole school/community initiative that helps students, teachers, and families in low-income areas fully harness the power of digital learning. This initiative extends classroom learning to the home, encourages self-directed learning, and deeply engages parents in the whole process.
To implement our program, CFY works hand-in-hand with public middle schools in low-income communities. Once a school is selected we offer our program to all sixth grade students, along with their families and teachers. In subsequent years, CFY again serves the incoming sixth grade community, and also the teachers of the advancing sixth grade students so that they too can take full advantage of the program.
CFY has chosen the sixth grade as the entry point for the program because this is the pivotal year in which (a) children begin to disengage from academics, (b) parents begin to feel less capable of helping with increasingly complex homework assignments, and (c) academic achievement begins to decline.
The core components of CFY’s Digital Learning Program include:
Training for families and teachers
- Family Learning Workshops where parents and their children learn together about a wide range of digital learning activities and experience a learning partnership model that they can continue in the home
- Professional development and online tools for teachers so they can make learning more engaging within the classroom and extend learning beyond the classroom and into the home
Home technology access for families
- Home access to technology resources including a free home computer loaded with educational software that becomes the child’s to keep, free online subscriptions to additional educational software, and 24×7 bilingual help desk support
- Information about affordable broadband options which, combined with our focus on the educational relevance of broadband, promotes adoption and effective use of online resources including CFY’s K-12 platform, PowerMyLearning
CFY selects partner public schools through a rigorous application and interview process. To qualify, schools must have 75% or more students eligible for free or reduced-cost lunch. The program has demonstrated significant impact on student achievement, student engagement and parental confidence.
Find out more about how your school can become a CFY school.