Past Grants

Baltimore City Public School System/ National Academic League .

For support of the 2008-2009 National Academic League in 26 Baltimore City public middle schools. The league, engaging more than 600 students, provides extracurricular, interscholastic programming in an atmosphere traditionally associated with athletic events.

Greater Homewood Community Corporation, Inc.

Two grants for expansion of the Experience Corps tutoring and mentoring programs in Baltimore City public elementary schools identified as “low performing.” Currently, 325 Senior Corps members, paired with classroom teachers, work in 19 Baltimore City elementary schools, providing one-on-one remediation, assistance with classroom logistics, and classroom- management support 15 hours per week.

University of Maryland Baltimore County

In continuing support of an evaluation of the Core Knowledge Preschool Program at St. Vincent de Paul Southeast Head Start centers. The evaluation measures the effectiveness of the Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence in the areas of language development and early literacy, math reasoning and number sense, social skills, visual arts, music, and readiness to learn. The sample of Southeast Head Start Center children, 70 percent of whom are Spanish speaking, will be compared with a control group, half of whom are Hispanic. Once the children enter kindergarten, follow-up studies will track the academic progress of the two groups.

Core Knowledge Foundation

Two grants in support of the Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence Initiative in four Baltimore City Head Start Centers for March 2007 through June 2008. The initiative provides teacher training covering the implementation of language, social, mathematical reasoning, and number sense skills; leadership development; Core Knowledge resources and supplies; effective responses to issues of educating children with English as a Second Language, and collecting a comprehensive student baseline data for ongoing assessments of each child.

New Leaders for New Schools

For continued support of the New Leaders-Baltimore program created to recruit and develop school principals for Baltimore City public schools. The four-year program provides recruiting, training, and placing of a minimum of 40 principals in the schools over a three-year period. Each participant attends a six-week Summer Foundations Institute, undertakes a year-long, full-time residency with a mentor, then after placement, is given two years of professional development, coaching, and support.