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Greetings!
I'm excited to share with you how well our senior class of 2011 is progressing with their Road to College. This week we found out that five Uplift students who applied to the Dell Scholars program advanced to the semifinalist stage and that all five of our National Merit Semifinalists advanced to the finalist stage. These are leading scholarships programs and a true testament to the caliber of students coming out of Uplift schools.
More than 60% of our seniors have already been accepted to at least one college or university, and letters of acceptance are coming in every day. If you are interested in being a part of our college matriculation festivities for our students, the Uplift College Signing Day on May 24 at 9:30 a.m. is an event you will definitely want to attend. For more information on how you can help underwrite this special event for our seniors, contact Deborah Bigham for more information.
Lastly, I hope you will take a moment to check out these videos of our students in action: Summit International Goes Super Bowl and VIP Quadrilateral Stories. They're great examples of how Uplift keeps learning relevant for students.
Shine through,
Yasmin Bhatia, CEO
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| News & School Highlights |
| · Uplift expanding partnership with Teach for America (TFA)
Uplift plans to place 42 TFA teachers in 2011-12, up 68 percent from 2010-11. This will bring TFA teachers to more than 20 percent of Uplift's total teaching force. Read the press release here.
· Dallas Business Journal names Heights Prep as finalist for best business deal of 2010
Read Dallas Business Journal story here.
· State cannot afford to shortchange public education
Read the article by Uplift founder Rosemary Perlmeter in the Dallas Business Journal here. |
· North Hills and Peak receive five-star ratings from Texas Comptroller's Office
North Hills Preparatory and Peak Preparatory both received a five-star rating from the Texas comptroller's office in its Financial Allocation Study for Texas (FAST). The study looks at both TAKS score improvement and expenditures to evaluate how effectively districts and charter schools are operating. Statewide, only 43 of the more than 1,200 districts and charter schools received the top five-star rating, with 25 percent of five-star acknowledgements going to charter schools. Read the press release here.
Check out the FAST study online here.
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Two new schools opening for 2011-12
Uplift expanding to 19 schools next school year
This coming summer Uplift will open the doors to its two newest schools, expanding our network into new neighborhoods within Dallas and Irving. Specific details about each school's location, name and grades served will be announced in March.
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 The Class of 2011: College Acceptances
$5 million in scholarships awarded to-date
College acceptance season is in full swing at Uplift. Our students have been accepted to nearly 90 colleges and universities and received more than $5 million in scholarships. Click here to see a short video of one of our seniors talking about what it was like to receive his college acceptance letters. Here are just a few of the schools our students have been accepted to: Arizona State University, Auburn University, Austin College, Baylor University, Berklee College of Music, Kansas State University, Loyola University, Oklahoma State University, Purdue University, Southern Methodist University, St. Louis University, Texas Christian University, Texas A&M University, Texas Christian University, University of Michigan, University of North Texas, University of Oklahoma, and The University of Texas. For the full list, visit Uplift's Facebook page.
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 2011 Uplift Science Fair
Finalists from each school compete in a network-wide championship on Saturday, March 5
Over the past month, Uplift students in grades 3-12 have been competing in qualifying science fairs at their schools to prove that they have what it takes to win the Uplift-wide Science Fair on Saturday, March 5.
Each school selected finalists to represent their campus as the schools go head to head in Uplift's first network-wide science competition. Some of their projects topics have included: Fire Proofing, Light Growth, Bacteria, Fruit Battery, Floating Eggs, Music & Plant Growth, and much more.
The finals will take place at Williams Preparatory on Saturday, March 5. The event is open to the public and runs 1:30-4:30 p.m.
Click here for more details and to RSVP. |
 Advocacy: Write Your Legislators
Share your support for Uplift with the Texas Legislature
The 82nd Legislative Session of the Texas Legislature began on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 and runs through Monday, May 30, 2011. We hope you will join us and get involved to make a difference in the future of charter schools and education statewide. This is an important session as the state is facing a $27 billion revenue gap, and we want to ensure that charter schools fair well in this session. We hope you will support our mission by writing your legislators to express your concerns for the following areas. 1. The possibility of funding cuts for charter schools. Currently charter schools already receive approximately 12-20% less per student than traditional public schools. A cut in funding for our charter schools could have dire consequences for Uplift Education's ability to grow. Schools grow with the student body, which means we build the grades as needed. If our funding is reduced we could be crippled from building classrooms for the proceeding grade for our scholars. 2. Charter schools receive no facilities funding. This means students miss out on some activities that could be available if their school had a gymnasium and auditorium. Encourage legislators to allow charter school the same access to bond guarantees through the Permanent School Fund that traditional public schools have. 3. Charter facilities leased by a private owner should have the same exemptions from real property taxes as private schools currently have. This would be a tremendous financial savings for charter schools; funds could be funneled to education and not taxes. I urge you fight for this tax benefit for charter schools. Click here to look up your legislators' contact information. |
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| Bottom Line |
100 percent of Uplift Education seniors graduate and are accepted to college. |
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