District Administration - March 2009 - (Page 22)

College Promise the An admissions counselor from Owens Community College works with seniors at Start High School in the Toledo (Ohio) Public Schools, reviewing the application process for Owens and the Free Application For Student Aid. upgrade any student eligible for a federal Pell Grant of any amount to a full scholarship. The University of Toledo extends the same offer for its four-year program to students who have at least a 3.0 grade point average. Superintendent John Foley refuses to squander such educational riches. He’s using his regular public relations budget and going directly to the parents of middle schoolers and underclassmen with a targeted “fill out the FAFSA” campaign. “It’s hard to get your GPA up your senior year if it’s below a 3.0,” he says. “Our community needs to know college is a promise we can keep so that students take the appropriate courses and parents can steer their children in the right direction.” This spring, he’s considering direct mail, along with invitations to parents to accompany their students on campus visits that the district sponsors. Much of TPS’s public relations efforts will be aimed at the FAFSA rewards, which gives Foley a budget to work with without dedicating an amount specifically to this agenda. Part of that department’s budget will go toward printing educational brochures for parents who didn’t attend the college application process. Foley estimates that 400 students, out of about 1,000 to 1,200 graduates, will be eligible this year for the University of Toledo scholarships and another 800 will qualify for the Owens scholarships. When it comes to reaching this audience, Foley 22 March 2009 sees no reason why the school can’t have a 100 percent success rate. “Not every student wants to go to college. But we want to make sure that kids will have the opportunity,” he says. Using Mentors About 10 years ago, students at Azusa Pacific University decided as part of a class project to sponsor a fourth-grade class at a nearby elementary school. The idea was merely to spend one hour a week for 16 weeks helping with homework, playing games, and just being buddies. upper middle-class backgrounds. Yet the sessions are not only full of giggles but of encouragement of specific academic paths the children should start considering to reach their goals. The program culminates in a special college day during which the children eat lunch and tour Azusa Pacific, then walk across a stage in front of their parents to receive a certificate proclaiming them future doctors, firefighters, accountants— whatever careers they have their hearts set on. “We don’t tell them to go to Azusa Pacific, but rather not to shut off the “They were so engaged, you could hear a pin drop—and this was a whole class of kids.” —Alice Farling, senior consultant to Fairfax County Public Schools Flash forward to 2009, and the College Headed and Mighty Proud (CHAMP) program at the Azusa (Calif.) Unified School District in the greater Los Angeles area has grown to eight elementary schools participating in a formalized mentoring program. This generation of fourth-graders and their college student mentors are still buddies, but the focus is on the older students firing up the younger ones to attend college themselves someday. The dichotomy is obvious: The Azusa district’s population is nearly 70 percent Hispanic and many are low-income, while most of the mentors are from outside the region and from opportunity to go to college,” says Cynthia Cervantes McGuire, the Azusa district’s superintendent. “And the ceremony celebration is a wonderful opportunity to encourage the parents. They’re a captive audience for us to give information on how to fulfill a dream.” However, the true magic lies in the age gap between the paired friends. To fourth-graders, the college crowd doesn’t seem as unapproachable or intimidating as adults, McGuire observes, and they bring a lot of energy. “There’s nothing more important than having a connection to somebody—someone paying attention to you,” she notes. District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - March 2009

District Administration - March 2009
Contents
Editor’s Letter
News Update
Health & Fitness
Online Learning
Conversations
District Profile
Administrator Profile
The College Promise
Do Economic Rewards Work?
The SIFication of America
Disciplining Students with Disabilities
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
Tech Disruptions
New Products
Product Focus
New Books
Research Center

District Administration - March 2009