Post Foundation aims to expand after-school initiative 

HERBERT L. WHITE | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Ashley Park Elementary School teacher Ashley Williams (left) and principal Joline Adams  say the Charlotte Post Foundation’s after-school program  have led to improved student proficiency in math and reading.

Personalized learning is at the core of a Charlotte Post Foundation initiative to improve reading and math proficiency among elementary school students. 

The after-school program at Walter G. Byers and Ashley Park supports small-group tutoring sessions at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ Title I campuses. Teachers target literacy and math intervention tools in groups of no more than 10 students over two days of instruction per week. Instruction sessions are three hours in duration and take place from January through May to prepare for end of year testing. 

“The program was put in place in schools that needed help with children that were performing below grade level,” said Post Publisher Gerald Johnson, the foundation’s CEO. “When we came in, we basically said ‘we will allow you have an after-school program in your school where you take your teachers and you assign the students that need this education more than anybody else, and we gave them a limit of the number of students. They go into the classrooms with teachers that they already know. The teachers already know them, and the teachers basically have the time to spend with them to help them grow in terms of their educational need.”

The partnership has made an impact in helping students succeed, said Ashley Park Principal Joline Adams, who was an administrator at Walter G. Byers School when the program launched. 

“When I was the assistant principal at Walter G. Byers, at the time (it) was a low-performing school and very similar pre-K-8 school to Ashley Park – high needs, especially with literacy and the gaps in literacy,” she said. “What was needed there’s not enough time in the school day [for], so that partnership with The Charlotte Post at both Walter G. Byers and Ashley Park providing that additional support with resources to provide after-school tutoring, specifically in literacy … impacts every aspect of our kids’ experience in school.

“I think that has been a core to the growth that we experienced when I was at Walter G. Byers, to also now here at Ashley Park.” 

The results are promising. Ashley Park has realized stellar results in two years, going from failing to average in large measure due to the after-school boost. The change has been steady and consistent, which pleases Adams.

“We went from an F to a D, or the previous two years ago, and then last school year we went from a D to a C,” she said. “In two years, we’ve gone from an F to a C, and that is in strong part of our partnership with Charlotte Post and the after-school tutoring and literacy.

“We don’t have the official growth scores reports yet from the state for this past school year, but the year prior we were top 5% in the state overall for growth, and in fact, we not only grew, we grew 100% for all subgroups … and either exceeded or met their growth, which is amazing.”

After-school tutor Ashley Williams likens the improvements to mastering a life skill. As students become proficient, that success transfers to other subjects. 

“The joy for me is when they realize that they’re passing and they get it,” she said. “They can read a text and that score pops up and they’re proud of it and they’re like, ‘oh now I’ve got it.’ Just seeing the joy on their faces … when it clicks for them, they know it, and it’s exciting to see them when they finally they get it.”

The Post Foundation aims to expand the roster of campus partners with a goal of adding two more schools by the end of the 2026-27 academic year. Applications have been sent to Title I schools to determine the best fits and corresponding leadership commitments.  

“We’ve learned that we can’t put a program in a school where the principal isn’t dedicated to it and working hard to make sure she gets the right teachers and the right overseer of the program to make the program work,” Johnson said. 

The after-school commitment is intentional, but so is the process behind getting students involved in the initiative. Student progress is measured three times a semester using an assessment system to track data across four skill areas: foundational skills, informational text, literature, and language. Teachers analyze data trends and adjust instruction as needed.

“We were very strategic about the kids that we selected to be able to attend,” Williams said. “They absolutely love going down and having the snack time for the program, and kids are begging to come to the after-school program. We pick students based off their skills, and we have a lot of different teachers who have different strengths. Those kids are able to rotate between teachers and work on certain things they need help with.”

Said Adams: “We worked with our teachers and our staff to identify the kids who needed it. Based on data, who are the kids that, even though we’re providing core instruction or providing … interventions or enrichment, who needs more? 

“Then we also looked based on data who are the teachers that can take depending on this group of students who can grow these kids – who have proven track records of data and growing these kids at the highest level.”

Said Johnson: “In the regular classroom setting, teachers don’t have time to slow down to help these children learn at the rate that they need to learn because they’re dealing with kids that learn at a regular rate, kids that will learn at an exceptional rate, and kids that are slow learners. What this program really does is take these slower learners and put them in an atmosphere with other slower learners, and the teachers actually can teach them at a level and a rate that they are capable of learning. It basically gives them an opportunity to grow these children in a setting that could help them grow, and we pay the teachers to do that.”

The tutors make the students aware of what they need to improve, and the approach needed to get there. 

“We’re very transparent with the children,” Williams said. “We’re open and honest with them about where they are, and we let them know ‘these are your strengths.’ But, just like strengths, every single person has weaknesses. I tell the kids my weakness, for instance, would be reading an informational text. I don’t like reading informational text, so we tell them what their strengths are, and then of course we let them know what their weaknesses are, and we phrase it in a way that you know this is what you need to work on to take yourself to the next level.”

Since its launch 10 years ago, Johnson said the initiative has evolved with how the state measures academic achievement. The program’s original goal – empower teachers to tutor in small groups with measurable reporting of student results – works.

“The school system changes systems for measuring growth of kids, so we’ve learned over time we have to be flexible enough to allow them to use the testing modules they need to use, and not try to dictate how that works,” he said. “We’ve learned that the more we stay away from how they’re going to do the process in terms of measures and trust it, then we won’t have any problems with how this thing works. We also learned that it requires the right principal and the right coordinator of the program to make it work.”

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