Area schools pursue $30 million grant

By Kathryn Eakens and Rob Heidrick Friday, 02 April 2010

Funding would support middle school education

A consortium of Central Texas school districts announced in March that it plans to apply for a $30 million federal grant to overhaul middle school education in the region.

The Investing in Innovation fund, also known as i3, will pay for a total of $650 million in competitive grants nationwide this fall using funds allocated from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009.

Seven districts in the region would share the grant money if it is awarded: Round Rock, Pflugerville, Leander, Austin, San Marcos, Eanes and Hays.

Specifics on how the funds would be divided among the schools are still being worked out, but the money would go toward developing a new instructional model targeted at grades 6–9, said Susan Dawson, executive director of the E3 Alliance, the Austin-based education research cooperative overseeing the application process.

“It would be a huge, one-time sum of money that could either be frittered away doing the same thing everyone’s always done, or it could be used really strategically to impact student outcomes,” Dawson said. “The data says we’ve all got to look at those middle years.”

Positioned for funding

The applicant school districts are part of a group called the Central Texas Stimulus Education Collaborative, which came together in April 2009 in an effort to attract more federal grant money to the region. The consortium is managed by the E3 Alliance and consists of 10 traditional public school districts, two charter school districts and seven nonprofit foundations.

Last year, the partnership was awarded a $1 million technology grant, which was divided among seven of the districts. Dawson said none of the individual districts would have been able to apply on their own, but by pooling their resources, they were able to navigate the complex process of seeking the grant.

Members applying for the i3 grant have followed similar strategies in the months leading up to the application period, including touring school campuses, identifying areas of need and exchanging ideas about new approaches to teaching.

“Normally, school districts operate somewhat autonomously,” Pflugerville ISD Superintendent Charles Dupre said. “In this case, there’s a clear message that education does equal economics, and our region is dependent upon our students getting a quality education.”

Private match

In addition to federal stimulus funding, the i3 grant relies on contributions from charitable foundations, philanthropists and corporations. The U.S. Department of Education requires applicants to match 20 percent of the award with private-sector donations—which would amount to
$6 million if the Central Texas collaborative receives the full $30 million grant.

The E3 Alliance, on behalf of the districts seeking the grant, is in advanced discussions with the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, the KDK-Harman Foundation, National Instruments, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the RGK Foundation and the Meadows Foundation about contributing to the match, Dawson said.

The application is due May 11, and the districts would have to secure the match before funding is distributed Sept. 30.

“We have to have a good understanding that we’ll get the commitment by [mid-May], when the application goes in,” Dawson said. “If we don’t have a good solid understanding of where that money is coming from, we’re toast.”

Education overhaul

Money awarded under the i3 grant would help implement a new educational model at the middle school level, a period in which many students begin to struggle academically and socially, Dawson said.

“You go to middle school, and you move to that kind of factory assembly-line model of ‘class to class’ and ‘bell to bell,’” she said. “While students experience a whole variety of problems in high school, almost invariably, they are mentally dropping out in middle school.”

To help combat these issues, the Central Texas collaborative hopes to train its educators in a system of teaching called the Strategic Instruction Model. The primary goal of SIM is to help students retain deeper knowledge of the lessons they have learned, Dawson said.

“Everywhere in education, but certainly in the state of Texas, we’re very famous for doing everything a mile wide and an inch deep,” Dawson said. “Kids memorize a thousand facts but don’t actually know how to problem solve in a unique environment by themselves.”

Developed by the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning, SIM is designed to help teachers present information in ways that require students to use critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The model employs strategies such as having students read short passages, identify the main idea and details, and rephrase content in their own words. Students are also taught to visualize what they read and to ask and answer questions as they read.

“If you’re having to learn a bunch of facts but you don’t have a broader conceptual framework to put those facts and details within, it makes learning those difficult,” said Don Deshler, director of the Center for Research on Learning.

Several schools in the region have begun to use SIM methods in their classrooms, and money received from the i3 grant would help spread the model to other schools in the districts applying for funding.

Ridgeview Middle School, one of six Round Rock ISD middle schools currently implementing SIM, adopted the program at the beginning of the 2009–10 academic year.

“One of the big things SIM does is help students make the connection between what they last learned, what they are currently learning and what they are going to learn next. It gives students broad, overarching questions that at the end of the unit they need to be able to answer,” Principal Holly Galloway said. “It reinforces what we call backwards design—designing the lessons to match what we want the students to know.”

C.D. Fulkes Middle School is also in its first year of using SIM, and Principal Nancy Guerrero said the school has already seen a 20 percent increase in students’ benchmark science scores.

Another Round Rock school, Cedar Valley Middle School, was one of the first campuses in the district to implement SIM, beginning with the 2007–08 school year. Since then, the school has gone from an accountability rating of Academically Acceptable in 2007 to Academically Recognized in 2008, and came up just shy of Academically Exemplary in 2009.

Round Rock ISD Superintendent Jésus Chávez said the district’s intent is eventually to implement SIM at all of its 10 middle schools and then at the high school level.

“This is for all students; that’s the beauty of this program. Yes, it helps those struggling kids, but it’s also going to help your middle-performing kids and your higher-performing kids,” Chávez said. “It’s not a situation where it is only for those who are challenged educationally. It’s for the whole class.”