Harford Schools Awarded Grant to Support Military Students

From Harford County Public Schools:

The Harford County Public Schools (HCPS) Grants Office, in conjunction with Roye-Williams Elementary School in Havre de Grace, recently applied for, and was awarded, a $300,000 grant called EAGLES AIM from the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). The grant, which began September 1, 2009, and will run through August 31, 2012, was established as part of the Promoting Student Achievement at Schools Impacted by Military Force Structure Changes program.

Funds from this grant will provide intervention for reading and math to the military children at Roye-Williams Elementary School, which is home to many students from military families including the children of Department of Defense civilian contractors and Aberdeen Proving Ground. The idea behind this program is to focus on working with military children, who are believed to often develop special needs because of how frequently they change school districts. The bulk of the work will be in the Roye-Williams Elementary School extended-day program that will run Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons from dismissal until 5:15 p.m. The students will receive two 45-minute instructional sessions, one for reading and one for math. The intervention programs the school will be using are: Fundations, Imagination-Station, ReadAbout, DreamBox Learning and Do the Math. The particular programs each student experiences will depend on the needs of the student. Students grades two through five are also participating in First in Math classroom teams (see www.firstinmath.com).

Two HCPS employees, Pamela Tabor, Ph.D., math specialist at Roye-Williams Elementary School, and Sharon Kachur, math intervention coordinator, recently went to Arizona for the grant kick-off conference, where they reviewed the grant evaluation and DoDEA requirements.

The DoDEA grant funded approximately $30 million to schools across the country, providing education to military children. The awards were based on military student enrollment and ranged in size from $300,000 to $2 million, depending on the number of military students at the target schools. While the aim is to enhance the education of military students, the funds may be used to raise student achievement for all students at the target school. Projects funded by the grant will enhance student learning opportunities, student achievement and educator professional development at military-connected schools that are experiencing significant military growth between 2007 and 2009 due to force structure changed based on the Report to Congress. For more information on the program, visit http://militaryk12partners.dodea.edu/reference_2009grants.html.