Developmental Studies Center
Encyclopedia
Developmental Studies Center (DSC) is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Oakland, California
that was founded in 1980 by current president Eric Schaps
. DSC develops and disseminates literacy and community-building programs for use in elementary schools, and literacy, mathematics, and science enrichment programs for use in after-school environments, as well as provides professional development services tailored to each program. DSC develops its programs with the goal of helping schools and after-school sites create caring, supportive learning environments that help all children acquire the academic skills they need to be productive and successful, and as well as build and deepen their understanding of, and commitment to, values such as kindness, helpfulness, personal responsibility, and respect for others.
DSC reaches over 25,000 new classrooms each year and supports itself largely through earned revenues. To date, DSC's programs have been adopted in a highly diverse range of over 4,000 schools and 5,000 after-school sites across the United States, including Title I schools serving low-income and minority youth. DSC’s lessons are designed so that the students are the ones doing the hard work of thinking, talking, and interacting in the classroom. Teachers learn how to increase student talk time, ask more and tell less, and acquire a broad cache of effective teaching strategies on which to draw. The lessons are designed to tap into students' innate motivation and curiosity and to engage 100% of the students 100% of the time. Rigorous evaluation studies have shown that DSC’s programs improve students’ academic achievement, strengthen their pro-social inclinations and skills, and reduce their involvement in problem behaviors including drug and alcohol use.
Formative evaluation is key to the creation of all of DSC’s programs. Programs are developed with extensive feedback from panels of teachers who pilot program lessons. The lessons are revised based on feedback and on classroom observations. The revised lessons are then field-tested by entire faculties in a diverse set of schools, and are again revised before final publication.
Through questionnaires, surveys, interviews, and/or focus groups, DSC's research department conducts ongoing evaluations of staff development offerings and selected program implementation efforts. DSC also collaborates with third-party evaluators to conduct comprehensive outcome evaluations of its programs that assess the programs' effects on students' academic achievement and social/ethical growth. These evaluations have shown that when well implemented, DSC’s programs have powerful positive effects on students, including strengthening their motivation to learn, promoting their academic achievement, and fostering their growth as caring and principled human beings.
A major evaluation of its community-building program for elementary schools (then called the Child Development Project; now called the Caring School Community program), conducted in the 1990s in six school districts nationally, found that students in high-implementing schools, relative to their comparison school counterparts, showed:
A summary of this study is reported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
, which helped fund the evaluation.
Significantly, a follow-up study tracked students from both program and comparison schools through the middle grades and showed that the program had lasting effects on school success and high-risk behavior: While in middle school (where there was no comparable program), former program students showed:
The major finding of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health
was summarized as follows: “Attachment to school and family serve as protective factors against drugs, alcohol use, and violence. The most powerful predictor of adolescent well being is a feeling of connection to school.” The importance of “connectedness” and experiencing a strong “sense of community” in school has been amply documented. For example, compared to more affluent children, low-income children and children of color typically experience less of a “sense of community” in school—less of a sense of connectedness to peers and adults, and less sense of having “voice and choice” during the school day Research further shows that having such feelings of belonging and connectedness are extremely important for all domains of learning. For example, strengthening sense of community significantly enhances academic motivation and achievement; enhances ethical, social, and emotional development; and reduces the tendency to engage in problem behaviors. Strengthening sense of community also promotes school bonding—students’ affective commitment to the school and its goals and values. Each of DSC’s programs integrates a focus on building academic understanding and skills with strategies for creating inclusive classroom and after-school communities characterized by caring connections among students, between teachers and students, and between school and home. Regular use of cooperative learning strategies—partner and small group work—offers students opportunities to work together and learn about, practice, and consciously reflect on values such as personal responsibility, respect, fairness, caring, and helpfulness. Cooperative learning activities also help students build connections to each other and foster their sense of belonging to a school community in which they experience themselves as valued and contributing members.
DSC’s Program Principles guide its development of instructional programs that:
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
that was founded in 1980 by current president Eric Schaps
Eric Schaps
Eric Schaps is founder and president of the Developmental Studies Center in Oakland, California. Established in 1980, DSC creates research-based school and after-school programs that simultaneously foster children's academic, ethical, social, and emotional development.-Biography:Schaps is the...
. DSC develops and disseminates literacy and community-building programs for use in elementary schools, and literacy, mathematics, and science enrichment programs for use in after-school environments, as well as provides professional development services tailored to each program. DSC develops its programs with the goal of helping schools and after-school sites create caring, supportive learning environments that help all children acquire the academic skills they need to be productive and successful, and as well as build and deepen their understanding of, and commitment to, values such as kindness, helpfulness, personal responsibility, and respect for others.
DSC reaches over 25,000 new classrooms each year and supports itself largely through earned revenues. To date, DSC's programs have been adopted in a highly diverse range of over 4,000 schools and 5,000 after-school sites across the United States, including Title I schools serving low-income and minority youth. DSC’s lessons are designed so that the students are the ones doing the hard work of thinking, talking, and interacting in the classroom. Teachers learn how to increase student talk time, ask more and tell less, and acquire a broad cache of effective teaching strategies on which to draw. The lessons are designed to tap into students' innate motivation and curiosity and to engage 100% of the students 100% of the time. Rigorous evaluation studies have shown that DSC’s programs improve students’ academic achievement, strengthen their pro-social inclinations and skills, and reduce their involvement in problem behaviors including drug and alcohol use.
Mission and Research
A nonprofit institution since 1980, DSC’s work has been supported by $80,000,000 in grants from over 60 different philanthropic and governmental sources. That funding has enabled DSC’s mission of developing educational materials that promote academic learning while also fostering children’s social, emotional, and ethical growth. Over the past ten years, the effectiveness and scalability of DSC’s programs have driven a 2000% increase in the rate at which the programs are adopted by schools and districts. In turn, that increased adoption rate has driven a near-complete reversal from grant dependence to organizational self-sufficiency. These programs have been extensively and rigorously evaluated and have been recognized as exemplary by, among others, the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Character Education Partnership, and the National Association of Elementary School Principals.Formative evaluation is key to the creation of all of DSC’s programs. Programs are developed with extensive feedback from panels of teachers who pilot program lessons. The lessons are revised based on feedback and on classroom observations. The revised lessons are then field-tested by entire faculties in a diverse set of schools, and are again revised before final publication.
Through questionnaires, surveys, interviews, and/or focus groups, DSC's research department conducts ongoing evaluations of staff development offerings and selected program implementation efforts. DSC also collaborates with third-party evaluators to conduct comprehensive outcome evaluations of its programs that assess the programs' effects on students' academic achievement and social/ethical growth. These evaluations have shown that when well implemented, DSC’s programs have powerful positive effects on students, including strengthening their motivation to learn, promoting their academic achievement, and fostering their growth as caring and principled human beings.
A major evaluation of its community-building program for elementary schools (then called the Child Development Project; now called the Caring School Community program), conducted in the 1990s in six school districts nationally, found that students in high-implementing schools, relative to their comparison school counterparts, showed:
- a greater sense of the school as a caring community
- more liking for school
- stronger academic motivation
- more frequent reading of books outside of school
- stronger commitment to democratic values
- better conflict resolution skills
- more concern for others
- more frequent altruistic behavior
- less use of alcohol
- less use of marijuana
A summary of this study is reported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is the United States' largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care; it is based in Princeton, New Jersey. The foundation's mission is to improve the health and health care of all Americans...
, which helped fund the evaluation.
Significantly, a follow-up study tracked students from both program and comparison schools through the middle grades and showed that the program had lasting effects on school success and high-risk behavior: While in middle school (where there was no comparable program), former program students showed:
- higher grades in core academic classes (English, mathematics, science, social studies)
- higher achievement test scores
- a greater sense of community
- higher educational aspirations
- more liking for school
- greater trust in and respect for teachers
- greater involvement in positive activities such as sports, clubs, and youth groups
- less delinquent behavior
Programs and Services
DSC’s programs incorporate the latest research on effective teaching and learning and are aligned with national standards and those of key states. For in-school use, DSC has created language arts programs that focus on decoding (i.e., phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency), reading comprehension, vocabulary, spelling, and writing. DSC has also developed reading, mathematics, and science enrichment programs specifically designed for use in after-school environments. Aligned professional development is offered for each of these programs.The major finding of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health
National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health
The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health is the only nationally representative study of adolescent sexuality, which has spawned over one thousand peer-reviewed publications on many issues related to adolescent health and sexuality, and other adolescent health risk behaviors.The Add...
was summarized as follows: “Attachment to school and family serve as protective factors against drugs, alcohol use, and violence. The most powerful predictor of adolescent well being is a feeling of connection to school.” The importance of “connectedness” and experiencing a strong “sense of community” in school has been amply documented. For example, compared to more affluent children, low-income children and children of color typically experience less of a “sense of community” in school—less of a sense of connectedness to peers and adults, and less sense of having “voice and choice” during the school day Research further shows that having such feelings of belonging and connectedness are extremely important for all domains of learning. For example, strengthening sense of community significantly enhances academic motivation and achievement; enhances ethical, social, and emotional development; and reduces the tendency to engage in problem behaviors. Strengthening sense of community also promotes school bonding—students’ affective commitment to the school and its goals and values. Each of DSC’s programs integrates a focus on building academic understanding and skills with strategies for creating inclusive classroom and after-school communities characterized by caring connections among students, between teachers and students, and between school and home. Regular use of cooperative learning strategies—partner and small group work—offers students opportunities to work together and learn about, practice, and consciously reflect on values such as personal responsibility, respect, fairness, caring, and helpfulness. Cooperative learning activities also help students build connections to each other and foster their sense of belonging to a school community in which they experience themselves as valued and contributing members.
DSC’s Program Principles guide its development of instructional programs that:
- set high expectations for children
- provide important and engaging learning opportunities
- create a caring community of learners
- systematically scaffold teachers’ learning
- assist the principal in providing effective leadership
- tightly align with professional development services
In-School Learning
DSC has created research-based in-school programs that are designed to support teachers’ learning as well as students’, so that teachers with varying levels of experience can implement them successfully. These programs include:- The Making Meaning® reading comprehension program for grades K–8
- The Making Meaning® Vocabulary program for grades K–6
- The Being a Writer™ program for grades K–6
- The SIPPS®—Systematic Instruction in Phoneme Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Words—decoding intervention program for struggling readers in grades K–12, that is also used as a basic instructional program at grades K–3
- The Guided Spelling™ program for grades 1–6
- The Caring School Community® community-building program for K–6. Caring School Community has been designated as a “select” social and emotional learning program by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and as a research-based drug abuse prevention program by The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The program is also included in the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices and endorsed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (SAMHSA). As reported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, two evaluations funded by the federal Department of Education (one in San Francisco and one in St. Louis) found that schools implementing the program reported significant positive change in students’ academic achievement, feelings of belonging, sense of classroom as a community, and significant drop in discipline referrals, compared to schools that had not implemented the program.
Learning After School
DSC offers after-school enrichment programs that are focused on reading, math, and science. Specifically designed for out-of-school settings, these programs provide opportunities to build academic skills in ways that don’t feel like school. These programs include:- AfterSchool KidzLit® reading enrichment program for grades K–8
- AfterSchool KidzMath™ mathematics enrichment program for grades K–6
- AfterSchool KidzScience™ science enrichment program for grades 3–6, developed by The Lawrence Hall of ScienceLawrence Hall of ScienceThe Lawrence Hall of Science is a public science center featuring hands-on exhibits and activities. Located in the hills above the University of California, Berkeley campus, LHS is also a resource center for preschool through high school science and mathematics education.Established in 1968 in...
- Math Explorer for grades 6–8, created by the San Francisco Exploratorium
- Science Explorer for grades K–3, also created by the San Francisco Exploratorium
Professional Development
DSC supports each of its programs with tailored professional development services that have been fashioned to be seamlessly integrated. Professional development is provided by educators who themselves are experienced, skilled program implementers, providing workshops, follow-up visits, and online courses that offer both conceptual and practical guidance.Funders
DSC has been funded by the following:- The Annenberg Foundation, Inc.Annenberg FoundationThe Annenberg Foundation is a private foundation that provides funding and support to non-profit organizations in the United States and around the world...
- The Atlantic Philanthropies (USA) Inc.Atlantic PhilanthropiesThe Atlantic Philanthropies is a private foundation created in 1982 by US businessman Charles F. "Chuck" Feeney. The Atlantic Philanthropies grant-making supports health and social projects in Australia, Bermuda, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United States and Viet Nam...
- The Robert Bowne Foundation, Inc.
- Booth Ferris Foundation
- The Annie E. Casey FoundationAnnie E. Casey FoundationThe Annie E. Casey Foundation was started in 1948 in Seattle, Washington, by UPS founder James E. Casey and his siblings George, Harry and Marguerite. It was named in honor of their mother. The foundation moved to Baltimore in 1994....
- Center for Substance Abuse PreventionCenter for Substance Abuse PreventionThe Center for Substance Abuse Prevention is an agency of the United States government under the Department of Health and Human Services and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration...
, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - The Danforth FoundationDanforth FoundationDanforth Foundation is one of the largest private non-for profit foundations in the St. Louis Metropolitan region. The foundation has 1.5 billion USD in assets as of 2003. Established in 1927 by Ralston Purina founder William H. Danforth and his wife, the Danforth Foundation grants funds...
- The DuBarry Foundation
- The Ford Foundation
- Google Inc.
- William T. Grant Foundation
- Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund
- Walter and Elise Haas Fund
- The Horace HagedornHorace HagedornHorace Hagedorn was a businessman and philanthropist, and initial passive investor along with others, in Miracle-Gro, founded by Otto Stern . He is largely credited with the success of the company due to his effective marketing schemes...
Foundation - J. David & Pamela Hakman Family Foundation
- HasbroHasbroHasbro is a multinational toy and boardgame company from the United States of America. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States...
Children’s Foundation - Charles HaydenCharles HaydenCharles Hayden may refer to:*Charles Hayden , American financier and philanthropist*Charles T. Hayden , American judge and pioneer*C. Hayden Coffin , English actor and singer...
Foundation - The William Randolph HearstWilliam Randolph HearstWilliam Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
Foundations - Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation
- The William and Flora Hewlett FoundationWilliam and Flora Hewlett FoundationThe William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is a private foundation, established by Hewlett-Packard cofounder William Reddington Hewlett and his wife Flora Lamson Hewlett in 1967. The Hewlett Foundation awards grants to support educational and cultural institutions and to advance certain social and...
- The James Irvine FoundationJames Irvine FoundationThe James Irvine Foundation is a philanthropic nonprofit organization established to benefit the people of California. It seeks to promote social equity and enrich the cultural and civic life of America’s most populous state through its grants in three areas: the arts, youth and education, and...
- The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
- Walter S. JohnsonWalter S. JohnsonWalter S. Johnson was a notable businessman and philanthropistin San Francisco, California. He was one of the founders of theAmerican Forest Products Corporation, a Fortune 500 company in the...
Foundation - Ewing Marion Kauffman FoundationEwing Marion Kauffman FoundationThe Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a non-profit foundation based in Kansas City, Missouri. It has an asset base of $2 billion...
- W.K. Kellogg Foundation
- John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
- Lilly EndowmentLilly EndowmentLilly Endowment Inc., headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana is one of the world's largest private philanthropic foundations and is among the ten largest such endowments in the United States....
, Inc. - Longview Foundation
- Louis R. Lurie Foundation
- The MBK Foundation
- Mr. & Mrs. Sanford N. McDonnell
- The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
- A.L. Mailman Family Foundation, Inc.
- Charles Stewart Mott FoundationCharles Stewart Mott FoundationThe Charles Stewart Mott Foundation is a charitable foundation founded in 1926 by Charles Stewart Mott of Flint, Michigan. Mott was the leading industrialist in Flint through his association with General Motors....
- National Institute on Drug AbuseNational Institute on Drug AbuseThe National Institute on Drug Abuse is a United States federal-government research institute whose mission is to "lead the Nation in bringing the power of science to bear on drug abuse and addiction."-History:...
, National Institutes of HealthNational Institutes of HealthThe National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation... - National Science FoundationNational Science FoundationThe National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
- New York Life Foundation
- Nippon Life Insurance Foundation
- Karen and Christopher Payne Foundation
- The Pew Charitable TrustsThe Pew Charitable TrustsThe Pew Charitable Trusts is an independent non-profit, non-governmental organization , founded in 1948. With over US$5 billion in assets, its current mission is to serve the public interest by "improving public policy, informing the public, and stimulating civic life."-History:The Trusts, a single...
- The Pinkerton Foundation
- The Rockefeller FoundationRockefeller FoundationThe Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
- Louise and Claude Rosenberg, Jr. Family Foundation
- The San Francisco Foundation
- Shinnyo-en Foundation
- Silver Giving Foundation
- The Spencer FoundationThe Spencer FoundationThe Spencer Foundation was established in 1962 by Lyle M. Spencer. The foundation makes grants to support research for areas of education, widely construed....
- Spunk Fund, Inc.
- W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Foundation
- Stuart Foundation
- The Stupski Family Foundation
- The Sulzberger Foundation, Inc.
- Surdna Foundation, Inc.
- John Templeton FoundationJohn Templeton Foundation"The John Templeton Foundation is a philanthropic organizationthat funds inter-disciplinary research about human purpose and ultimate reality. It is usually referred to simply as the Templeton Foundation...
- United States Department of EducationUnited States Department of EducationThe United States Department of Education, also referred to as ED or the ED for Education Department, is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government...
- The Wallace Foundation
- Wells Fargo Bank