Community+Outreach

Below are descriptions of do grants submitted for funding through SUTEP. I apologize for not getting this information to you prior to submitting the grant, but we got the information for the grant on a Tuesday and it was due that Friday. I will leave to propsals up for two weeks. Feel free to comment on either. I've created discussions for each. The Hillcrest Science Nights you were informed about. The Imagination Library was submitted with Rhonda Sizemore. I will attach a link to the main Imagination Library site.

**// Project Rationale //**
This project meets the needs of a special population of our children who live in public housing by inviting their parents to become actively involved in their education. Family Nights at the community center in the nearby public housing project (Hillcrest) will get parents actively engaged in literacy and science activities and help them understand the way we teach and learn and give them strategies to work with their children at home. Materials for activities will be provided as well as simple materials to read about our instructional program. Through the integration of literacy with science students and parents will have an opportunity to work together in discovering science concepts while strengthening reading skills. In addition, families will be given materials to work with at home. Those materials will include doable at home science experiments related to those completed during the science nights. Students will each receive a book related to the topic of the experiment for each science night. Books will vary in levels to address the multi-aged groups of students who will participate in science nights. The well documented achievement gap makes community based programs such as these a necessity. African American students at Isaac Dickson Elementary continue to be the lowest performing subgroup in our school community. Hillcrest Science Nights will provide an opportunity to actively engage parents and students in structured activities with an abundance of teaching professionals to assist and instruct in science and literacy (specifically strategies for using non fiction text and text features). Establishing school and community connections through Hillcrest Science Nights will aid in fostering collaborative relationships between teachers, parents and students that extend beyond the walls of the classroom. These relationships will help to encourage parents to become more involved with and feel more at ease within the school environment. In addition, this program will demonstrate to students that parents and teachers share a common goal in advocating for student success. By equipping parents with the similar, and sometimes the same, strategies as those being used in the classroom, this program will assist in creating consistency between school and home.

**// Potential for school/university collaboration //**
Through Hillcrest Science Nights Dickson and WCU could collaborate on ways to break through the hidden communication barriers and racial stereotypes that prevent teachers from going into the community but also prevent minority parents from participating. This would also support the current Drop Out Prevention Grant that Western and Dickson are collaborating on and help to strengthen those goals. We know that Western seeks diversity experiences for your students. This would be a wonderful opportunity for WCU students to experience diversity first hand. This experience would be particularly valuable for those students majoring in education.

**// Enhancing Student Leaning and 21st Century Skills //**
This program will clarify for parents the magnet theme of our school and reduce the stigma that experiential means unstructured. Parents will be able to witness the effects that learning by doing has on the interest level of their children and how that interest creates a desire to use literacy skills to seek information. Science nights will be standard based thereby exposing parents to and helping them understand Standard Course of Study objectives. These science nights will assist in developing parents who can support their children at home and who are engaged in the learning of their children. This can help the schools make a tremendous difference in the academic achievement of students. Monthly family nights will be held in the Hillcrest community center. Each night will focus on a specific science concept with instruction focused in groups for kindergarten through 2nd and 3rd through 5th grades. A typical science night will begin with a whole group mini lesson introducing the topic for that night. After the mini lesson students were split up into groups to investigate the science concepts presented that night. In one group kindergarten through 2nd grade will have a read aloud with students interacting with the text through observations and questioning. In the second group 3rd through 5th grades will have parent and child/teacher collaborative investigations. All discussions, read aloud and investigations will be curriculum based. Dinner will be served prior to the start of mini lessons. The relaxing atmosphere of the community center will itself address one of the 21st century skills creating authentic learning in a learning environment that accommodates the needs of both students and teachers and is inviting to parents. This will empower parents and students to take ownership of the learning environment, and it encourages teachers to move from the isolation of the classroom to the more collaborative shared space of the community center. In addition, these science nights will promote rigor, relevance and relationships. Instruction will be rigorous and teachers will communicate high expectations for all involved. Science investigations will be relevant to want students are studying in school. This will increase the knowledge for those students in attendance and the increased exposure to the curriculum adding to their background knowledge and enabling them to relate to classroom learning and encouraging them to speak up and participate more in class. These nights will also enable teachers to establish relationships with parents and students outside of the school building demonstrating that teachers care beyond the four walls of the classroom and are willing to avail themselves to ensure student success.

**// Impact //**
Isaac Dickson has hosted science nights in Hillcrest from 2004 until 2008. Most of the years that we have hosted this program it has been funded through SUTEP. Both the teachers and the parents involved in previous years expressed how these nights were instrumental in encouraging struggling students to speak up and be more active in the classroom setting. Ultimately, science nights have the potential to assist in creating life long learners who are critical thinkers and problem solvers. Approximately 22 of our children live in the Hillcrest Community. In addition to serving our children we hope to solicit new families for next year, thereby increasing our minority population and enhancing our partnership with our neighbors. Through science nights we hope to build a strong school/community bond which would also empower minority parents to become more involved with the school environment by creating relationships based on positive interactions.

**// Evaluating the project effectiveness //**
Attendance will be the formative evaluation and test results will be the summative evaluation. This past school year only 45.2% of our African American students tested proficient in both math and reading and 42 % tested proficient in science. Our hope is that this program will students assist in raising that percentage to at least 65% in math, reading and science. In addition, we will conduct surveys to have parents and student evaluate the effectiveness of the program.

**// Need for Grant Funds //**
At the present time we do not have any funds available for this program. We are in the process of applying for other funds, but in order for us to be able to start in January this grant is essential. In fact, if we don’t get the grant the program will not be able to start until we find other funds. 