Kids in Iowa’s first after-school Freedom School program at Roosevelt love learning

CEDAR RAPIDS — Kids in Iowa’s first after-school Freedom School program at Roosevelt Creative Corridor Business Academy are increasing their love of reading and learning and building self-esteem.

Sixth-graders in the program meet daily after school. Students spend Monday through Thursday focusing on academics — and fun. Fridays, students get to explore through field trips and guest speakers. Students will receive tutoring, homework help and learn literacy, science, technology, engineering and math and social and civic engagement.

The program is created by the Children’s Defense Fund and strives to give children the opportunity to enhance learning through characters that look like them and have had similar experiences. It builds students’ home libraries, increases their confidence, boosts their interest in social and civic engagement and advocacy and addresses mental health risk factors.

The Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School is rooted in the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project, which provided a reading and humanities curriculum of English, art, creative writing, math and science.

Relaunched in 1993 by Marian Wright Edelman, the program has reached more than 150,000 children since 1995. It’s offered at 182 sites in the United States.

Tanager Place helps children and families in Eastern Iowa overcome challenges and find mental wellness. It offers treatment, outreach and prevention and gives children tools to be successful.

Tanager Place partnered with The Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School program for the first time in 2021 to offer a six-week, free summer school to students in Cedar Rapids.

That year, 20 of the school’s students were tested at the beginning and end of the program. Rather than show summer learning loss, they showed an average increase of a year and four months in instructional reading levels, according to data from the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools.

The Freedom School summer program is being held again this summer at Roosevelt and McKinley STEAM Academy in June and July for incoming sixth to eighth-graders.

Parents interested in learning more about this program are encouraged to visit Tanager's website tanagerplace.org/prevention/freedom-schools or email freedomschools@tanagerplace.org.

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