Federal
Agencies Announce First Round of School Turnaround AmeriCorps Grants
$15 million
over three years to 13 organizations that will annually place more than 650
AmeriCorps members in dozens of the nation’s lowest-performing schools
WASHINGTON,
DC -- An innovative partnership to help improve the nation’s persistently
underachieving schools took another step forward today as the U.S. Department
of Education (ED) and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS)
announced the first grants for the new School
Turnaround AmeriCorps program.
This
announcement comes two days after President Obama created a new federal
task force with representatives from cabinet agencies to identify
additional ways that the public and private sectors can partner together to
support national service as a strategy for tackling national priorities. School
Turnaround AmeriCorps is an example of the kind of collaboration the task force
is seeking to expand.
Launched
in February 2013, the School Turnaround AmeriCorps program is designed to
support the placement of a dedicated cadre of AmeriCorps members in
persistently underachieving schools across the country. School Turnaround
AmeriCorps members will be placed in schools implementing school turnaround
interventions as required by ED’s School Improvement Grant (SIG) program or as
required through Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) flexibility.
Members will help keep students on track to graduate by working to increase
student academic achievement, attendance, and high school graduation rates;
improve college and career readiness; and provide college
enrollment assistance and advice.
“In
order to ensure that every student receives a quality education, we need to do
all that we can to turn around low-performing schools across the country,” U.S.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. “Today’s announcement highlights the
progress the Department and CNCS are making to increase educational
opportunities for thousands of students in disadvantaged communities. As this
important partnership continues to move forward, it will remain focused on
using innovative strategies to help schools put children on the pathway to
success.”
The
program supports organizations that serve low-performing schools around the
country, including those in rural areas, and expands on the efforts of Together
for Tomorrow, an initiative between ED, CNCS, and the White House Office of
Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
“This
partnership illustrates how AmeriCorps members can play a pivotal role in
addressing our country’s most pressing educational challenges, “ said Wendy
Spencer, CEO of CNCS. “These AmeriCorps members will work with teachers,
parents, and school administrators to develop the best ways to ensure students
succeed inside and outside the classroom.”
Each
year more than 650 School Turnaround AmeriCorps members participating in the
initiative will support a variety of intervention efforts aimed at addressing
the unique needs of each SIG and Priority school. The 13 awardees will place
members in approximately 70 schools in urban and rural communities across the
country. Members will support turnaround interventions in 14 states and the
District of Columbia. School Turnaround AmeriCorps will leverage an anticipated
$18 million in grantee match funding in addition to the $15 million in federal
funds during a three-year cycle. The 13 awardees were selected from 66
applicants from around the country.
The
School Turnaround AmeriCorps partnership reflects ED and CNCS’s commitment to
increasing opportunities for students in disadvantaged communities by providing
a high-quality education. Through the SIG program, ED has invested over $5
billion in more than 1,400 of the country’s lowest-performing schools since
2009. Currently, CNCS programs have a presence in a quarter of schools eligible
for SIG funding nationwide.
School
Turnaround AmeriCorps will be supported by an initial investment of $15 million
in public funds from both agencies over a span of three years. CNCS will seek
to raise additional private funds to contribute to this effort. In addition,
AmeriCorps members who complete their service in the program will qualify for
the Segal AmeriCorps scholarship, which could total $1.5 million a year for all
participants.
The
following programs will be funded:
-
Austin
Independent School District (Texas) AmeriCorps members
will provide dropout prevention services in Austin, Texas, through
activities to increase learning time; improve community engagement; and
support the social, emotional, and behavioral health of students, their
families, and the community.
-
Berea
College (Kentucky) Partners for
Education, Knox Central High School, and Leslie County High School have
created PartnerCorps, an AmeriCorps program that will support and sustain
school turnaround efforts at both high schools by utilizing AmeriCorps
members as mentors, college advisors, and family connectors to engage
low-income and rural students.
-
Blackfoot
Community Center (Idaho) AmeriCorps members
will serve as classroom facilitators for 280 seventh- and eighth-grade
students from Snake River Jr. High, providing tools for family and
community engagement, establishing a school culture and environment that
improves school safety, attendance, and discipline, and addressing other
non-academic factors that impact achievement.
-
City
Year (multi-state) AmeriCorps
members will partner with schools in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, and the
District of Columbia in support of turnaround strategies by improving
conditions that help students persist in and complete school.
Members will tutor, mentor, and coach 1,900 targeted K-9th grade students,
promote a positive school climate and family engagement, and provide
extended-day learning.
-
Communities
in Schools of Miami (Florida) AmeriCorps members
will provide tutoring, mentoring, and student support services to increase
educational achievement at five low-performing Miami-Dade County Public
Schools.
-
Denver
Public Schools (Colorado) will use AmeriCorps
members to tutor students to increase math proficiency at five elementary
and middle schools in the system.
-
Detroit
Parent Network (Michigan) AmeriCorps members
will be placed in six high schools in Detroit with the Project Graduation
drop-out prevention program designed to improve student graduation rates
and college enrollment. Members will serve as academic
coaches/advisors; provide individual and family coaching; organize
parent/student academic and college nights; conduct workshops on
graduation requirements, ACT preparation, and college selection; and aid
in the completion of federal student aid and college entrance
applications.
-
Duluth
Area Family YMCA (Minnesota) True North
AmeriCorps will place members in two SIG recipient elementary schools to
support teachers in the classroom, connect in-school with out-of-school
programs, and build site capacity to leverage volunteers for program
sustainability.
-
LearningWorks (Maine) AmeriCorps members will serve an estimated
1,805 elementary and high school students and 2,290 family and community
members through providing extended-day learning, one-on-one tutoring, and
fostering community and family engagement.
-
Minnesota
Alliance with Youth AmeriCorps members will serve
six schools in the communities of Minneapolis and Brooklyn Center, MN, to
support 600 students in sixth through 10th grades at risk of dropping out
of school. Members will leverage an additional 300 volunteers in this
effort that is projected to put 1,800 youth back on track to graduate on
time.
-
ReNEW
Schools Achieving College Readiness through School Turnaround Support (Louisiana) AmeriCorps members will give academic
support in six low-performing, high-poverty New Orleans schools. The
members will target approximately 2,000 at-risk students from pre-K
through 12th-grade with actions to boost academic gains in literacy and
math, increase attendance, and improve student behavior.
-
The
Springfield College School Turnaround Initiative (Massachusetts) will place AmeriCorps members in nine
schools in Springfield, MA, serving 500 at-risk students to implement
targeted interventions to improve attendance, academic achievement in
literacy and math, behavioral/social-emotional health, and academic
engagement.
-
Teach
for America School Turnaround AmeriCorps
(multi-state) plans to utilize 86 members as teachers in low-performing
schools to improve the educational outcomes for more than 2,000 students
in Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, and Tennessee. The AmeriCorps
teachers will set high expectations for their students while building
their commitment to educational equity.
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The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through its Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, Social Innovation Fund, and other programs, and leads President Obama's national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information, visit NationalService.gov.
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