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Great Schools Partnership |
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The mission of the Great Schools Partnership is to serve as a catalyst, think tank,
incubator and start-up funder for making Knox County Schools globally competitive. |
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The Children's Reading Foundation launched in Knox County | |
The Great Schools Partnership believes that early literacy is a key component in helping children succeed in school. As part of this literacy effort, GSP has partnered with The Children's Reading Foundation to form a local reading foundation and launch a Knox County reading awareness campaign. The Elgin Foundation is providing the initial funding for the campaign.
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Tennessee First Lady Crissy Haslam speaks with Sam E. Hill preschoolers as part of the May 16th early reading initiative. |
On May 16, Tennessee's First Lady Crissy Haslam traveled to Knoxville to deliver the keynote address for the kickoff celebration of our local reading campaign. The community has rallied behind this campaign, and Knox County Commission, Knoxville City Council, the Town of Farragut, Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, and the Knox County School System have all passed resolutions supporting this campaign. The resolution, which echoes the goals of the literacy campaign, states, "We support the goal of having 90% of our students reading at or above grade level by the end of third grade. Additionally, we urge parents and caregivers to read aloud with their children at least 20 minutes a day from birth."
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Dr. Jim McIntyre, Mike Strickland, Indya Kincannon, Mayor Dan Brown, and
Mayor Tim Burchett sign the early reading resolution. |
The kickoff coincides with the end of the school year and the launch of the Knox County Public Library's summer reading campaign. The summer is a great time to promote reading with your child and through the library's program, children and parents can check out free books and receive incentives for reading during the summer months. Click here to register for the library's summer reading program. | |
| AVID prepares students for tougher course work | |
In 2006, the Great Schools Partnership funded AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) at four Knox County middle schools. The program is a college-readiness system designed to increase the number of students who successfully enroll in four-year colleges. AVID targets the middle tier of students -- those with 2.0 to 3.5 GPAs -- who want to go to college and have the desire and willingness to work hard. AVID is an elective course that provides academic support through tutors; instruction in writing, reading, collaboration, note-taking, and organization; and motivation to pursue excellence through cultural and college field trips, classroom guest speakers and team building activities. Through AVID, students are prepared to enroll in more honors classes while in high school.
The first schools to offer AVID were Cedar Bluff Middle, Northwest Middle, Vine Middle and Whittle Springs Middle. With the local success of this national program, other Knox County Schools found ways to offer AVID, either through Title I funds or grants. Presently 5 more schools offer the program -- Austin-East High School, Bearden Middle School, Gresham Middle School, South-Doyle Middle School, and West High School. Learn more about AVID.
As part of the program, each AVID program exposes its students to college campuses through college visits. This May, Bearden Middle School AVID coordinator, Heather Mounce, decided to go one step further by taking AVID students on a 3-day bus trip to different campuses in Virginia. The students visited Radford University, Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia and Washington & Lee University. In addition, the students made cultural stops at Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, and the Virginia Natural Bridge.
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Bearden Middle School AVID students tour Radford University |
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BMS AVID students at Virginia Tech |
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Thank you to our many partners . . . | |
The Great Schools Partnership's many programs are funded through generous gifts from our community partners. This month we would like to highlight some of those who have seen the value in investing in the Knox County Schools.
- Great Schools Partnership board member Randy Boyd is also the CEO of Knoxville based Radio Systems Corporation. Besides funding the Full-Service Community School Collaborative Project at Pond Gap Elementary, Randy has recently committed to funding the use of iPad2s at the Knox County STEM Academy, which will open in August 2011 in the L&N Building at the World's Fair site. The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Academy will be on the cutting edge of technology with the use of electronic tablets instead of conventional textbooks. In addition, Randy is giving the 5th grade students at Pond Gap Elementary and the students at SMG Magnet Technology Academy the opportunity to experiment with using the iPad2 as a learning tool. Randy's generosity was a feature story in the May issue of Knoxville Magazine.
- Oak Ridge based Pro2Serve, headed by CEO Barry Goss, donated to the Knox County Schools Teacher Mentoring and Induction Program. This program provides mentors to first year teachers. The program's goal is to ease the transition for a new teacher during their first year of teaching. A University of Tennessee conducted study shows that the program has decreased the attrition rate of teachers by more than 40 percent during their first five years.
- Many thanks also for the generous support from the Cornerstone Foundation, Home Federal Bank, Mary Ellen and Steve Brewington, Rich Ray, and Wes Stowers.
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Thank you for funding the movement to take Knox County Schools from good to great! |
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If you are receiving this update, you are a member of the Great Schools Partnership and its efforts to take the Knox County School System from good to great! Help us by forwarding this email to your friends and colleagues and ask them to also join our organization. At the bottom of this email, there is the ability to forward this update -- we hope you will do so! |
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Great Schools Partnership
912 S. Gay Street, L210
Knoxville, TN 37902
(865) 215-4501
www.GreatSchoolsPartnership.com
Virginia Babb
VP of Membership Development
vbabb@greatschoolspartnership.com | |
Click HERE to join the Great Schools Partnership
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