LA Expands Afterschool Student Smart Program

Los Angeles Public Library’s (LAPL) Student Smart program, which helps middle and high school students improve study skills and SAT scores, is expanding system-wide.

With support from the Princeton Review, LAPL will grow the free program in response to growing requests from parents. Some 133 programs will be offered— 56 seminars and 77 SAT practice tests—an increase of more than 46 percent over the previous year.

“We have received more calls this year from parents about Student Smart than past years, and they say they want to take advantage of this program because they cannot afford to pay for similar programs during these hard economic times,” says Georgette Todd, director of LAPL’s young adult services. “We have expanded the number of workshops and seminars because of the demand.”

The program allows students to attend PSAT and SAT seminars and take SAT practice tests, a package that generally costs several hundred dollars. It also teaches techniques to improve test scores, study habits, writing,and skills for college preparation.

More than 200 students from four middle schools attended Student Smart’s third-year launch event, held October 16 in the central library’s Mark Taper Auditorium. The schools are part of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s initiative, “Partnership for LA Schools,” which seeks to improve reading and writing skills at ten city schools.

The program is open to all middle school and high school students and more than 10,000 students have taken advantage of it since its launch. Supplementing the service, libraries will offer more PSAT and SAT books and other study materials. The schedule of seminars and practice test sessions is available online at www.lapl.org/studentsmart.