By Brittany Marcum & Liz Steinhauser

On Wednesday December 10th, partners and staff of the Blackstone Innovation School celebrated a virtual ribbon-cutting at the unveiling of EBSCO, one of the most sophisticated academic databases in the nation.  Blackstone students, faculty and administrators now have access to this incredible resource which provides millions of documents, articles and tools that are geared for students from kindergarten through eighth grade. Blackstone Principal Danielle Morrissey and other Blackstone staff spoke about the value of this tool as the school prepares students to be civic leaders and life-long learners. This gift of a permanent subscription to EBSCO was made possible thanks to the school's flourishing partnership with St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. 

In 2010, the Boston Public Schools designated the Blackstone as a "turnaround school," due to its failure to meet various measures of educational success, including student scores on standardized tests.   The turnaround status brought in new administrators, a new teaching team, and a new strategic plan which emphasized the importance of family engagement and community partnerships.  St. Stephen's Episcopal Church was poised and ready to become one of the Blackstone's most active community partners. St. Stephen's hosts the B-READY Afterschool Program which serves 220 students every school day with academic and enrichment programs; sixty of the youth participants are Blackstone students.   An improved school was in the interest of St. Stephen's because of its relationships with these youth and their families. In addition, as the Rev. Tim Crellin, Vicar of St. Stephen's, put it, "St. Stephen's believes that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. And the Blackstone School is our church neighbor. We want to participate in the process of making the Blackstone an excellent neighborhood school."

Over the past five years, organizers and leaders of St. Stephen's have convened a broad and diverse partnership of partners. More than twenty faith-based and secular organizations have worked together tirelessly to transform the school, support teachers, and improve the learning environment.  This effort, along with dedicated work of educators, students and many other community partners, has been successful, as the Blackstone met all of its goals and has transitioned out of turnaround status and become an Innovation School. 

One of St. Stephen's key contributions to the school was the transformation of a dusty, poorly lit storage space with out-of-date books and encyclopedias into a state-of-the-art library. After more than a decade without a functional library, the Blackstone now has one of the best libraries in any BPS elementary school. The library has a collection of 10,000+ relevant books and an online and searchable catalog that allows teachers to use the library for lesson planning. A dedicated team of volunteers welcome students five days a week for read-alouds and book loaning to students. For many of the students, this is their first experience being able to take out books. New volumes and resources are added to the library on a regular basis, thanks to the generosity of this team who come from Parish of the Epiphany in Winchester, Friends of the Blackstone, and the Simmons Graduate School of Library Science.

While great progress has been made to the school's library, there was still room for improvement, especially in its nonfiction collection. Now, thanks to EBSCO Information Services, students and teachers have access to a millions of reliable academic journals, magazines and other nonfiction resources at the click of a button. The database also will enhance the resources available to teachers, allowing them to find specific materials to supplement lesson plans and project assignments. The Blackstone's EBSCO package is specially designed with student-friendly search engines to teach young scholars how to navigate the online world of information with success and integrity.  With this new resource, Blackstone teachers have a new and important tool to prepare students to be global citizens who are ready for a 21st-century job market.