"Closing the Achievement Gap" Grant

Overview:

During the 2012-2013 school-year LAUSD offered several schools the opportunity to access additional funding to help raise achievement levels for African-American students. The funding provided was used to initiate programs designed to support African-American students and parents, as well as, teacher professional development.

Activities:

Shortly before the Christmas Break I was asked to organize and participate on Cochran’s “Closing the Achievement Gap Grant” team. The team was charged with writing, implementing and monitoring the school’s grant proposal.

The grant team chose a three-pronged strategy. First, we developed a parent education program designed to assist parents/guardians in supporting their students. Second, we organized a study circle of teachers and support staff with the express design of creating a critical mass of teachers/support staff with in-depth knowledge of the research and best practices capable of narrowing the achievement gap. Lastly, we utilized the funding from the grant to support the efforts of the Leadership Project, The African-American Family Network.

The parent education program began with a celebratory breakfast and lecture from Professor Tyronne Howard of UCLA’s Center X. Professor Howard led an enlightening discussion of the issues facing African-American students/families and provided insight into possible solutions. The initial event was followed by an informational dinner for families of the pilot program. Both events were sparsely attended and as a derivative of decisions regarding the PDSA cycles of the Leadership Project, resources were diverted to supporting students and teachers. As such, the final parent event was to be a family trip with the participants of the pilot program to John’s Incredible Pizza.

The teacher study circled covered several Saturday sessions and involved the study of: deficit perspectives, micoraggressions, the education debt and culturally relevant pedagogy and strategies. From these initial meetings, participants were given a foundation to explore the underpinnings and offshoots of the achievement gap. The study circle concluded with participants facilitating workshops as part of a school-wide professional development seminar addressing the achievement gap. Initially, the organizing team had desired to have the school-wide professional development be the venue for distributing to teachers a culturally relevant strategy book with lessons and strategies generated by study circle participants. But, the final session was such a highly moving and deeply educational experience, that the entire study circle decided to deliver the same presented information to the  staff during a school-wide professional development. The decision was a truly organic and democratic experience.

The third aspect of the grant team’s strategy for addressing the achievement gap was directed at providing support for students. The team utilized the pilot program that I was  starting for my leadership project to be the vehicle for supporting students. Please refer to the African-American Family Network – Leadership Project for an in-depth examination of the pilot program.

Reflection

Working on the grant has been eventful experience. The team has been befuddled by low attendance rates amongst parents, inspired by the efforts of our staff and educated about the difficult process of creating change. We have invested many hours towards supporting the school’s community of African-American students/families, but have come to realize that change is long and arduous journey.  Moreover, we have uncovered the reality that genuine change results from coordinated actions.

To our great blessing the achievement grant funding was extended to the 2013-2014 school year. As such, the Achievement Team has decided to focus its effort on the creation of an African-American Cultural Center. The cultural center will serve as the foci for activities supporting students, parents and staff.

Artifacts

• Study Circle Pre-Activity Reflection
• Study Circle Post-Activity Reflection
• Study Circle Schedule
• Flyer for Conference
• Study Circle Participant Lesson #1
• Study Circle Participant Lesson #2
• Study Circle Participant Lesson #3
• Study Circle, School PD - Teacher Survey #1
• Study Circle, School PD - Teacher Survey #2
• Parent Recruitment Event - Literature Hand-out #1
• Meeting Reminder for Study Circle Participants
• Grant Proposal
• Study Circle Recruitment Flyer

CPSEL

• CPSEL #1 - The organizing committee was required to construct and coordinate activities for the promotion of success for all the school's students. The activities executed aimed to support the instructional program in achieving the school's stated goals for student achievement levels.
• CPSEL #2 - One of the streams of focus for the grant team was professional development. The grant team organized and operated a professional development series focused on increasing teacher awareness of student needs. In addition, the grant team utilized the professional development series to avail faculty and support staff of relevant research and practices capable of improving instruction.
• CSPEL #4 - The grant team utilized the provided resources to create a network which supported   collaboration between school, family and community members.