Aristos Scholars Program Grants for 2006-07

ARISTOS is a Greek work meaning excellent, optimum, the best

The Aristos Scholars Program received 25 grant applications this year. The judges awarded a total of $58,028 to the Project Leaders of nine grants. Listed below are the grants, project leaders, school, and the amount of the awards.

East High Cultural Center	Tara Affolter East High School	$5,448
This grant seeks to address the problem of students falling through the cracks when they attend a large high School. Creating a student-centered space will serve to connect students to school. The Cultural Center will offer academic, emotional, and cultural support. There will be programming for students to explore their own heritage, ethnic backgrounds, and histories while also learning about experiences that differ from their own. Guest artists and community members will conduct workshops and performances with and for students. The Aristos grant will support art supplies, stipends for guest artists, and sound equipment for the Spoken Word Club. Spoken Word is East's youth poetry club that performs workshops at East and throughout Madison.

Just Right Reading Program	Gail Borchers Lake View Elementary	$1,400
This creative proposal will benefit all Lake View Elementary School students. As the school's Library-Media teacher, Gail designed a reading incentive program that will not only encourage students to read more, it will also provide students with their own books. The program is designed to increase students' independent reading time both in school and at home by teaching them how to select books at their appropriate reading level. After students read enough books to reach a personal goal they receive a $5.00 "Book Buck" coupon that enables them to purchase books at the school's annual book fair. All Lake View students, whether they are struggling readers or students who read at or above grade level, will benefit from increasing the amount of time spent on reading material that is at a comfortable level for independent reading. Many students do not have the funds to buy a book on their own. This program gives every child in the school the opportunity to purchase a book.

Leopold Multiage Friday Enrichment	Sara Cutler Leopold Elementary	$4,500
Leopold Elementary School recently began offering multiage programming in grades 1 through 5, including Bilingual classrooms. This grant is designed to increase engagement among the school's multiage students. The grant will be used to purchase equipment and supplies, and support teacher planning, and is built on the belief that students become more engaged in school when they have opportunities to explore and learn about those things that have special interest for them. The Friday Enrichment Program will also raise the level of collaborative planning and teaching among the educators who work with these students. Students from multiage classes across the school will engage in self-selected workshops that are co-planned and co-taught by members of the multiage team. Relationships among students across grade levels and between students and the various workshop staff will be strengthened through participation in the Enrichment Program.

West High Freshman Advisory Team: Each One Teach One	Heather Lott West High	$6,000
Ninth grade is perhaps the most challenging year for many students. This grant will help 9th graders successfully adjust to West. Ninth graders will participate in a Freshman Advisory class that is taught by West juniors and seniors. The class is intended to help 9th graders understand the school's expectations, learn how to access available supports and opportunities, and provide informal tutoring. The grant will support training for 100 upper classmen, giving them a background in social and intellectual development, curriculum training, and the leadership/mentorship skills they need in order to work successfully with 9th grade students.

Literacy Leadership Capacity Building At East High	Sharon McPike East High	$10,000
A critical awareness of the need for a comprehensive and coordinated literacy program at East, prompted the grant author to develop a grant that will support training for the East Literacy Commission. The Commission, composed of interdisciplinary, multi-grade teachers and administrators, will guide the total school literacy improvement effort to enhance student academic achievement. The training will build leadership capacity among the Literacy Commission members, providing comprehensive knowledge of effective literacy practices so that Commission members will become literacy advocates and school leaders. Dr. Judith Irvin, a nationally renowned University of Florida professor and Director of the National Literacy Project, will lead the Commission through the literacy planning process resulting in the creation of a literacy action plan. East has been invited to pilot a high school literacy planning protocol and potentially become a national model for secondary literacy development.

Simultaneous Translation Equipment For LaFollette	Kolleen Onsrud LaFollette	$4,500
English Language Learner students are over-represented in the percent of suspensions and truancies at LaFollette. This grant will develop a sense of community among English Language Learner students. It will support the acquisition of simultaneous translation equipment that will allow students to be engaged and participate in the same experiences as all other students without the barrier of language differences. The equipment will serve as a tool to enable more accurate communication at many school functions as well as within classrooms on a regular basis. Some of the uses for the translation equipment are: in classrooms, at group presentations, monthly Latino parent nights, Career/College night, Junior conferences, scheduling demo night, school plays and musicals, and at assemblies.

China & the Environment: An Integrated Curriculum	David Ropa Spring Harbor	$6,280
China is the longest existing culture in the world, and fast becoming a world leader in the area of technology, manufacturing, and economic power. The project will produce an integrated curriculum designed for teachers in grades 4-8 that explores China's history, culture, political structure and environment. Funds will cover curriculum development, DVD editing and production, and supplies. The curriculum will contain reading materials at varied levels, graphic organizers, check lists to support long-range writing projects, and visual materials. Assessments will be varied so that each student can show what has been learned most effectively. The curriculum will address standards in the areas of social studies, environmental education, science, and language arts. The UW East-Asian Studies Department is funding the travel of five MMSD teachers to China enabling the teachers to collect the necessary materials for creation of the curriculum. The curriculum will be piloted at Spring Harbor and then shared with all grade 4-8 teachers in the District.

Allis Breakfast Club	Jane Wyngaard-Innes Allis Elementary	$10,000
The Allis Breakfast Club is a focused attempt to address students' engagement, learning, and relationships by increasing students' connections, skills, knowledge, and positive relationships with adults and peers. The ABC Club targets students who are disconnected from school, who are repeatedly referred to the office for disruptive behavior, and who are minimally achieving. Staff will work with students before the school day providing academic support and coping strategies. The grant will fund teacher planning and student transportation. Jane believes that this intervention will be a successful way to support targeted students, and, in turn, may reduce the dependence on special education as an intervention. Parent will be required to sign a contract giving their support and promising their participation. The comprehensive evaluation plan will assess reading, office referrals, student and parent attitudes, and teacher evaluation of student progress.

Creating Support Materials to Implement Standards Based Grading	Jeff Ziegler East High School	$9,900
In recent years elementary and middle school methods of reporting student academic progress have changed to a standards-based system. This grant will develop a standards based grading and reporting system for three high school math courses. The grant will fund work time for teachers during the summer as well as during the school year, and supplies. The project will provide teachers the support materials they need, and inform parents and other stakeholders of the course content standards, how students will be assessed, and how each student is progressing towards meeting the standards. Jeff believes that his project will provide more meaningful student achievement information than the current high school grading system. The initial 9th and 10th grade math classes will serve as a pilot program to demonstrate that standards based grading can be done at the high school level and to provide a model for implementation. The pilot will also provide information on how to communicate these changes to students and parents. The project will include math teachers, English-As-A-Second Language teachers, and special education teachers.

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