OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS
We have learned alongside our Community Partners as they have faced challenges, overcome barriers, and achieved extraordinary successes. Find out more about each project and the outcomes below.
YEAR
2011
GRANT CATEGORY
Education
GRANT AMOUNT
$108,400
Organization:
Austin Partners in Education
Project Title:
6th Grade Reading Classroom Coaching
Project Description:
Austin Partners in Education (APIE)’s mission is to create and foster effective community and school partnerships that provide all AISD students preparation for college and career.
With the Impact Austin grant, the 6th Grade Reading Coaching Program will empower 6th grade students to become stronger, independent readers through Reading Classroom Coaching. Classroom Coaches share a love of reading with students, increasing fluency and comprehension for increased learning outcomes. In a new program, Reading Stars, students will work weekly with their Classroom Coach to perfect their reading and will then have the opportunity to star in their own book-on-tape. This program will impact 500 6th graders at Burnet or Pearce Middle schools that are reading below grade level.
Grant Status:
During the grant period, APIE served 700 students, a 40% increase over the stated target of 500 students, resulting in 11,584 student hours of reading coaching.
Based on teacher and volunteer feedback solicited by Shore Research, 91% of volunteers and 100% of teachers believed that students demonstrated heightened knowledge and skills as a result of the RCC program. Moreover, 100% of teachers during the first year of the grant saw improved academic performance on the part of the students involved in the program, while preliminary survey results for the second year revealed that 96% of teachers and 94% of volunteers agreed the program had a positive impact on the students.
The main obstacle encountered during the grant period involved the Reading Stars books on tape initiative, which was significantly hindered due to copywriting issues. While a total of 309 students participated in the program over the two-year period, only 62 of the recorded books were cleared for distribution. Although the number of recordings for distribution to partner elementary schools fell short of expectations, APIE was able to donate 309 copies of books to AISD elementary and middle school libraries as a result of this project.