$20 million to serve at risk youth

WASHINGTON — During a visit to Sasha Bruce Center, a YouthBuild site in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis announced the release of two national grants in the amounts of $10 million each to serve at-risk youth.

The awards were issued to YouthBuild USA and the National Association of Service and Conservation Corps to support training opportunities for high school dropouts and young adult offenders (ages 18 to 24) nationwide. The two grantees will work in partnership with federal and state correctional agencies, local workforce investment boards and community-based service providers to offer a proven array of academic, employment and other re-entry-focused strategies designed to transform the lives of program participants.

"The grants awarded will improve the employment prospects of disadvantaged youth, young adult offenders and high school dropouts living in high-poverty, high-crime communities who need our support," said Secretary Solis. "The purpose of these grants is to prepare these individuals for employment by increasing the rate at which participants enter post-secondary education and training, and equipping them with industry-recognized job training skills."

Inherent in each award is the understanding that the awardee will be required to competitively select local sub-grantees or program partners to operate the proposed program in a minimum of five high-poverty, high-crime communities in at least two states.

Today's awards were made available through the fiscal year 2009 Department of Labor Appropriations bill. For more information on Department of Labor training programs, visit http://www.doleta.gov.

PA receives $141 million for low-achieving schools

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced that Pennsylvania will receive $141 million to turn around its persistently lowest achieving schools through the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program. These funds are part of the $3.5 billion that will be made available to states this spring from money set aside in the 2009 budget and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"When a school continues to perform in the bottom five percent of the state and isn't showing signs of growth or has graduation rates below 60 percent, something dramatic needs to be done," said Duncan. "Turning around our worst performing schools is difficult for everyone but it is critical that we show the courage to do the right thing by kids."

The $141,090,171 made available to Pennsylvania is being distributed by formula to the state and will then be competed out by the state to school districts. In order for a school district to apply for these funds, it must have a state-identified "persistently lowest achieving" or a Tier III school -- a school that has failed to meet annual yearly progress for two years and is not identified as a persistently lowest achieving school.

However, Tier III schools can only receive funds once all of the state's persistently lowest achieving schools have received funds. Pennsylvania's application, which includes its list of persistently lowest achieving schools, as defined by the state, can be found here: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/sif/summary/index.html.

School districts will apply to the state for the funds this spring. When school districts apply, they must indicate that they will implement one of the following four models in their persistently lowest achieving schools:

• TURNAROUND MODEL: Replace the principal, screen existing school staff, and rehire no more than half the teachers; adopt a new governance structure; and improve the school through curriculum reform, professional development, extending learning time, and other strategies.
• RESTART MODEL: Convert a school or close it and re-open it as a charter school or under an education management organization.
• SCHOOL CLOSURE: Close the school and send the students to higher-achieving schools in the district.
• TRANSFORMATION MODEL: Replace the principal and improve the school through comprehensive curriculum reform, professional development, extending learning time, and other strategies.

Once schools receive SIG funds, they will be able to begin to spend them immediately to turn around schools this fall. States may apply to the Education Department for a waiver to allow them to spend funds over a three-year period. An additional $545,633,000 has been provided for SIG in 2010 and will be awarded to states to fund additional schools in the 2011-12 school year. The department has also made a request for an additional $900 million for the program in the 2011 budget.

Verizon Foundation scholarships

[From Philanthropy News Digest]

The Verizon Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Verizon Communications, has announced $3.3 million in college scholarships to 675 students who are children and dependents of the company's employees.

Awarded in partnership with Scholarship America, four-year scholarships of $20,000 were given to students who plan to attend an accredited four-year institution in the fall. Recipients were chosen based on financial need, academic achievement, and extracurricular activities. Since 2001, the scholarship program has awarded more than $39 million to support the college education of children and dependents of Verizon employees, benefitting more than 2,200 students.

"Education is a key issue for Verizon and our communities," said Verizon Foundation president Patrick Gaston. "Through this scholarship program, Verizon provides a tremendous benefit to our Verizon employees, while also making a significant investment in the development of future leaders."

For a list of this year's scholarship recipients, visit the Verizon Foundation Web site.

“675 Students to Share in More Than $3.3 Million in Verizon Scholarships.” Verizon Foundation Press Release 6/10/10.

STEMester of Service

Youth Service America is accepting applications for the second year of the STEMester of Service program.

Funded by Learn and Serve America, a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service, STEMester of Service incorporates YSA's semester-long service-learning framework to engage educators and students in addressing critical environmental needs and connecting them to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) curricula.

YSA is seeking ten middle schools with large populations of disadvantaged youth to join twenty returning STEMester of Service grantees. STEM schools must be located in one of the twelve states with highest dropout rates: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, and Washington.

The $5,000 grant (which includes travel and training at YSA's Youth Service Institute in Detroit in October) supports teachers as they engage local partners and guide students in addressing local needs through planning and implementing sustainable service projects that will launch on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service (January 17, 2011) and culminate on Global Youth Service Day, (April 15-17, 2011).

Full service community school grants

The Department believes that the full-service community school model can create the needed synergy to bolster efforts to transform persistently lowest-achieving schools into schools that enable all students to meet high standards. This absolute priority supports projects that propose to establish or expand (through collaborative efforts among local educational agencies, community-based organizations, nonprofit organizations, and other public and private entities) full-service community schools, as defined in this notice, offering a range of services. To meet this priority, an applicant must propose a project that is based on scientifically based research--as defined in section 9101(37) of the ESEA--and that establishes or expands a full-service community school.

Each applicant must propose to provide at least three of the following eligible services at each participating full-service community school included in its proposed project:
1. High-quality early learning programs and services.
2. Remedial education, aligned with academic supports and other enrichment activities, providing students with a comprehensive academic program.
3. Family engagement, including parental involvement, parent leadership, family literacy, and parent education programs.
4. Mentoring and other youth development programs.
5. Community service and service learning opportunities.
6. Programs that provide assistance to students who have been chronically absent, truant, suspended, or expelled.
7. Job training and career counseling services.
8. Nutrition services and physical activities.
9. Primary health and dental care.
10. Activities that improve access to and use of social service programs and programs that promote family financial stability.
11. Mental health services.
12. Adult education, including instruction of adults in English as a second language.

Diplomas Now

The PepsiCo Foundation has announced a three-year, $6 million grant to the Diplomas Now collaborative for efforts to address high dropout rates in select cities across the country.

Launched two years ago with a $5 million grant from the PepsiCo Foundation, Diplomas Now combines the resources of City Year, Communities In Schools, and the John Hopkins Talent Development High Schools Program to help at-risk middle and high school students get back on track, graduate, and prepare for college and a career. The grant will be used to expand the program in Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and San Antonio and to establish new programs in other cities, including Detroit.

PA submits for Race to the Top

Pennsylvania’s record of seven years of consecutive gains in student achievement gives the commonwealth a competitive edge in the federal competition for up to $400 million in federal “Race to the Top” funds, Governor Edward Rendell said this week. Learn more.