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NEA Foundation awards grant to close achievement gap in Milwaukee
Posted: 11/18/2009 8:34:20 AM
Milwaukee has been chosen as one of four recipients of NEA Foundation grants to close achievement gaps. The NEA Foundation awarded $591,000 to fund a partnership between the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association and the Milwaukee Public Schools.
From the NEA:
The NEA Foundation announced today (Wednesday, November 18) that it is funding $1.12 million for projects in Milwaukee and Seattle as well as Connecticut and rural Ohio. These projects are all part of the Foundation’s signature Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative, a set of ground-breaking union-district partnerships collaborating to develop and implement comprehensive, sustainable approaches to close the achievement gaps and advance academic achievement.
“We believe these projects show great promise,” said Harriet Sanford, president and CEO of the NEA Foundation. “Although each project is dealing with different challenges, the approach is the same: collaboration that is grounded in research on best practices, driven by educators, supported by the community, and focused on improving student performance and creating sustainable systemic reform.”
The Foundation awarded $591,000 to a partnership of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association and the Milwaukee Public Schools to develop deep professional learning communities, align professional development, and implement university-school partnerships to conduct action research on critical issues at individual schools. The district’s 20 lowest-performing schools, which were selected to participate in the Foundation’s initiative, are predominantly African-American and low-income, with an exceptionally high enrollment of special education students.
“Despite many challenges, including continuing budget shortfalls, and an uncertain political situation, Milwaukee is making steady process. This is due largely to the productive collaboration among the association and district leadership working together to build an infrastructure to ensure deep and sustainable reform that will improve educational outcomes for its neediest children,” Sanford said. “And we are seeing positive results. As of September, eight of the schools are no longer designated as Schools Identified for Improvement, an important step."
The Foundation awarded a $250,000 grant to the Seattle Education Association and the Seattle Public Schools to support their continued work on the Flight Schools Initiative. This effort developed out of the collective bargaining agreement between the Seattle Education Association and the Seattle Public Schools. Working through a structure of feeder patterns of elementary, middle and high schools, the purpose is to re-energize ownership and achievement for neighborhood schools. Similar to all of the Foundation’s Gaps sites, the Seattle partnership works to improve alignment of curriculum and assessments and to build professional learning communities across schools.
The Foundation awarded a second year, $250,000 research grant to the University of Connecticut Foundation and its Neag School of Education to support the ongoing evaluation of the CommPACT Schools Initiative. In its second year, the Connecticut research initiative will focus on academic achievement, union relationships, organizational behavior, and school culture.
In Appalachian, Ohio, the Foundation awarded a $25,000 sustainability grant to support organizational capacity to build deeper partnerships with statewide policy and advocacy as well as potential funding partners to support two of the state’s poorest rural districts.
Based on the success of this work, the NEA Foundation will fund three new sites in 2010.
The NEA Foundation is a nonprofit, public charity created in 1969 and sustained by contributions from educators, corporate sponsors and others. The NEA Foundation offers grants and programs that support educators' efforts to close the gaps in student achievement, increase classroom innovations, salute excellence in education and provide professional development. For more information, visit www.neafoundation.org.
