Quality Standards for Expanded Learning Programs

Student Hires Program Quality Standards

All Student Hires programs align with the quality standards for expanded learning programs in California. To ensure we are continuously improving, our programs are guided by a continuous quality improvement cycle focused on student success.

Safe and Supportive Environment

Safe and supportive environments are one of the most important factors of any expanded learning program. Throughout all of our programs, Student Hires creates a safe and supportive environment through program design, staff-level policies & procedures, and participant-level policies & procedures. 

Health, Safety and Behavior Policies and Procedures

To ensure we are producing a safe and supportive environment, Student Hires works closely with school site staff to create health and safety procedures that align with our expanded learning programs. Health, safety, and behavior policies are shared with school staff, participants, and families prior to a program beginning. All program participants are screened for health and medical needs prior to a program beginning.

Staff Policies and Procedures

Staff training and development are at the core of our programs. Student Hires staff members for our expanded learning programs are college students that are skilled in the type of program that they are teaching. Our staff receive a customized training program to ensure they are constantly developing as student-educators. At the core of our training is an emphasis on relationships with participants and families. Student Hires staff members begin programs by focusing on building trust between themselves and the students they are teaching. By establishing trust upfront, our team creates a secure foundation to begin teaching. Throughout the program, staff continue to nurture relationships and identify each student's unique strengths, interests, and learning styles. Each team member contributes to a positive climate by holding high expectations for behavior and achievement. Student Hires staff are trained to remain calm, patient, and empathetic when faced with disruptive or unsafe behavior.

Program Participant Experience

Each program particpant's experience within our programs is our number one priority. Student Hires staff members are trained to make students feel welcome and safe within our programs. By leveraging the value of peer-to-peer mentoring and connection, our team members create a close-knit community within their classes. Student Hires extends the family-like nature of our program by developing one-on-one relationships between staff, families, and program participants. Throughout the programs, team members work with their students to establish mutually-understood behavior guidelines and customized code-of-conducts.

Active and Engaged Learning

Students within a Student Hires program are exposed to a variety of hands-on and project-based activities that prepare them for future careers and allow them to develop foundational skills. Student Hires has expanded learning programs that expose students to S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math), computer science, engineering, financial wellness and entrepreneurship, and other academic intervention programs as well. 

Hands-On Project-Based Experience

Our lessons are grade and age-appropriate. Students regularly work in small groups to accomplish projects within class. Because of this, the majority of our S.T.E.A.M. Curriculum consists of project-based activities that encourage students to interact, cooperate, and develop fundamental skills. Throughout project-based activities, students are encouraged to hold each other accountable for the benefit of the entire group. For older students, our program material is driven by the needs of employers in our community. This gives our students the chance to engage in real-world projects that they would typically experience while on the job. 

Student Hires After-School Program Activities

Student Hires programs include an academic assistance period, an educational enrichment period, and an organized physical activity element. Academic assistance periods allow students to develop collaboration and critical thinking skills. Collaborative grouping strategies are created to ensure students collaborate when working on homework, engaging in physical fitness, and when working on educational enrichment activities.

Skill Building

Student Hires educational literacy and educational enrichment activities are designed to build positive life-long skills for students. These skills include leadership skills, communication skills, grit, and other foundational skills. Student Hires utilizes social skills lessons and interactions to develop foundational knowledge for our younger students. For older students, career-based skills are developed in a variety of areas including computer science, information technology, and engineering. These skills are a necessity for the demands of our technological infrastructure. Through this skill building, Student Hires can connect these students with future valuable job opportunities. 

Group-Based Activities

Our programs are dominated by group-based activities. Group-based activities allow students to learn the basics of interacting within a group. Students are encouraged to work towards a common goal or project within their groups and are often encouraged to present their group projects upon completion. 

Youth Voice and Leadership

Throughout Student Hires programs, students have the opportunity to express themselves, their viewpoints, and interests to influence Student Hires programming decisions. 

Program Design

Prior to beginning a program, Student Hires accounts for youth voice through a survey system. This survey system allows students to actively express their interests and concerns. This influences Student Hires program design prior to the start of the program. Student Hires program leaders work closely with their classrooms to develop customized code-of-conducts at the start of the year. These code-of-conducts are designed to ensure students remain safe and supported during their time in the program. This also gives students ownership in the decision-making process.

Creating Student Leaders through Opportunity

Student Hires intentionally creates leaders by providing opportunities to lead. These include:

• Youth-led activities and programs
• Class leaders and program-wide leaders
• Activities and programs focused on leadership development
• Student internship and shadowing opportunities

Healthy Choices and Behaviors

Students are encouraged to make healthy choices and behaviors when interacting with their peers, school staff, and families. Through repeated and intentional interactions with students, Student Hires team members instill positive choices through reflection and modeling. 

Promoting Positive Choices through Social Emotional Learning (SEL)

Student Hires programs implement enrichment activities that focus on social and emotional learning. Our social and emotional learning activities help students develop a range of skills including courage, perseverance, honesty, respect, and gratitude. Student Hires utilizes research-based social emotional learning and character education curriculum. This curriculum provides students with positive character development activities that develop thoughtful, healthy, and kind human beings. It also incorporates the SEL competencies of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

Healthy Food Choices for Students

Student Hires after-school programs include a supper component that is coordinated with our district partners. The supper component lasts for 20-30 minutes. Supper provided is composed of healthy nutritional options that align with the district's standard food menu.

Diversity, Access & Equity

Student Hires program leaders and staff come from the same communities that they serve. By working closely with local colleges and universities, Student Hires is able to quickly staff its programs with members of the same communities that we are serving.

Culturally Proficient Schools

Student Hires strives to provide culturally responsive practices to promote each student’s academic success and well-being. Our team establishes a positive climate between our programs and the rest of the school community. Throughout the school year, our team communicates high expectations and constantly engages students throughout the learning process. By incorporating families into the mix, we are able to further establish a positive school climate that welcomes collaboration amongst our team, parents, school staff, and students. Because our team comes from the same diverse perspectives of the communities that we serve, we are able to develop close-knit relationships with the students within our programs. This in turn allows students within our programs to feel comfortable expressing themselves and their diverse backgrounds.

Quality Staff

Student Hires is committed to creating a diverse and upskilled future educator pipeline for your district. As districts and community-based organizations across California scramble to solve staffing challenges, Student Hires alleviates this issue by creating direct partnerships with local colleges & universities. Some colleges that we currently hire from include Cal Poly Pomona, Chaffey College, California State University San Bernardino, and San Bernardino Valley College. By creating these partnerships, we can quickly staff our programs with students who are on their path towards earning their teaching credential.

Student Hires Future Educator Certification Program

Once we are able to hire these students, we immediately enroll them in our Future Educator Certification Program. This program brings all of the essential elements of teaching and working in education into one online program that allows our staff to become certified and ready to work in your district. We intend to transfer these staff into working in your district after completing a certain number of work hours in our programs. Student Hires is committed to providing ongoing and comprehensive training for all of our staff. Because of this, we provide biweekly one-on-one meetings with all staff members to assess performance and set goals to continuously improve the quality of our programs.

Clear Vision, Mission and Purpose

In an effort to continue our mission of educating and connecting students with valuable future job opportunities in careers or colleges, Student Hires delivers project-based educational programs to assist students in developing the skills necessary to be productive citizens. We focus on delivering projects that develop a student’s leadership skills, communication skills, grit, and other foundational skills through social skills lessons and interactions.

Vision

Our vision is to transform the education system through one-of-a-kind programs that uplift communities. By catering to the whole student and providing their entire family with a range of support, we have the power to transform communities and capitalize on the value of compounding opportunities. 

Mission

Student Hires was founded with one mission in mind: to connect students with valuable job opportunities. We do this throughout all of our work. In all of our programs, we hire local college & university students. They serve as the foundation for our workforce, allowing these students to gain valuable job experience that can transform their entire career outlook. Given that Student Hires is currently offering expanded learning programs led by local college & university students, every program that we create is the creation of the compounding value of opportunity for the disadvantaged communities that we serve. It takes one opportunity to transform the outlook for a career and for an entire family as well.

Collaborative Partnerships

Student Hires brings the community together to create unique learning experiences for students and families. Through our existing partnerships with local employers and community-based organizations, we are able to provide immense value to the district and students that we serve. Student Hires collaborates with community organizations to deliver innovative workshops, provide additional family support, and connect with our students. With our network of local employers, we are able to engage our youth in career-based opportunities to ensure they are exposed to skilled trades that they can potentially pursue in the future. 

Chambers of Commerce

Student Hires is an active participant in many Chambers of Commerce including the Chino Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce.

Learning Experience Beyond Traditional Boundaries

Student Hires programs extend the learning experience beyond traditional boundaries through our network of partner organizations. Our network allows us to offer a variety of additional features that come at no added cost to your district. This includes a system of support for families and additional enriching educational activities that are available online. These collective services extend the learning experience of our students beyond the boundaries of where and when.

Continuous Quality Improvement

Student Hires utilizes the continuous quality improvement cycle to assess our programs, plan, and improve the quality of our programs. 

Monitoring Program Success

To monitor program success, Student Hires facilitates a survey system for students and parents. Each survey system allows Student Hires to track satisfaction levels and gain specific feedback that students and parents would like to see implemented within the programs. 

Continuous Staff Development and Training

To ensure staff growth and development, team members conduct self-assessment of individual performance on a daily basis. Through the Student Hires Future Educator Certification Program, these team members also gain ongoing professional development and future educator training throughout the course of their work. Team members regularly engage their classes by discussing the quality of programming and activities. At the end of a school day, all team members share updates and feedback about programming, class participation, and other data as needed. As information is obtained, site coordinators provide feedback to program coordinators to implement the changes needed to make site-wide improvements in programming and other areas.

Site Program Plan Review

The Student Hires leadership team evaluates the program plan on an annual basis. The implementation of the program plan is evaluated continuously throughout the school year through site walkthroughs and surveys. Student Hires conducts student and parent surveys at regular intervals throughout the year to gather feedback on program effectiveness.

Program Management

Student Hires programs are designed to ensure effective collaboration between afterschool program management and school site staff. 

Student Hires Programs Staff Structure

Most Student Hires programs operate with the following staff structure. Each program consists of a designated program coordinator who oversees the program. In general, the school site has a designated site coordinator as well to directly oversee the program on the school site. Depending on the amount of students being served, there may be 3 or more program leaders on any individual school site. For smaller expanded learning programs, there may only be one program leader operating the program on a school site. If funding permits, our sites also have an assistant program leader that help facilitate student sign outs, assist with routine paperwork, and build valuable relationships with families. 

Sustainability

Student Hires is actively seeking public and private partners to ensure our sustainability in the long-term. Through innovative campaigns and services offered to the community, Student Hires will make strides in transforming the teacher pipeline throughout California and the educational system throughout the United States. If you are interested in joining us on this mission, please become a partner.