Youth Programs

Mission Learning Center offers early literacy programs for 1st through 5th grade elementary school children who are not yet reaching their academic potential. We provide two programs that are designed to dramatically improve reading skills.

After School & Summer Session Youth Literacy Programs

Our after school reading program is taught at two San Francisco sites: 1) Flynn Elementary School; 2) Mission Learning Center reading lab.

The Flynn Elementary school program is offered as a part of an after school enrichment initiative, sponsored by the San Francisco Unified School District's ExCel After School Programs and the San Francisco Department of Children Youth and Their Families SFTEAM. The enrichment initiative provides academic, athletic, and creative components so that students receive a well-rounded after school curriculum.

The Program at Flynn is provided Monday through Friday from 2:40 to 6:00 pm for 1st through 5th grade students of Flynn Elementary.

The Mission Learning Center After School Program at Centro del Pueblo (main site) serves 2nd through 5th grade students from schools throughout San Francisco, who are not yet reaching their academic potential. The program operates Monday through Thursday, from 3:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. A child attends either Monday and Wednesday (or) Tuesday and Thursday.

The summer session is conducted for five weeks in June and July. In summer, a child attends every day Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. — 12:00 p.m. (or) 1:00 p.m. — 3:30 p.m.

About our Youth Programs    top^

The children we serve are not achieving their potential in school, and are often faced with additional stress at home, where approximately 95% live in extreme poverty.

Most of our students enter our program scoring below the 20th percentile in standardized reading tests administered by the SFUSD, and are reading one or two grade levels below expected.

After completing our after school program the majority of children have advanced at least two grade levels in reading abilities, with some children showing improvements of three and four grade levels.

Each student is pre- and post-assessed so that achievement can be measured. Some students have advanced 3 academic years during the course of the seven-month tutorial, and summer program participants have advanced an entire grade level after the five-week intensive instructional program.

The program’s effectiveness is evaluated by an independent consultant who utilizes the individual student assessments, as well as surveys of parents, SFUSD teachers and principals, and our instructors to prepare a program evaluation.

This evaluation is used to monitor the quality of the program and to point out areas for improvement. A credential eligible teacher teaches each class with two trained instructional assistants.

All educational staff receive in-service training in subjects such as teaching literature, remedial education, whole language and phonics instruction.