CEA is the steward of a $1.25 million, five-year grant from the NEA Foundation to help us transform some of our most challenged schools into local and national models for teaching and learning.
We call it The 100% Project, and it is one of only three NEA Foundation Closing the Achievement Gaps awards made nationally to help develop teacher-driven professional development and community partnership efforts. United Way of Central Ohio is the fiscal agent for the grant funds and provides vital linkages with community agencies and constituencies.
CEA’s work focuses on the schools feeding into Briggs and Linden-McKinley high schools. In these schools, 7 out of 10 students qualify for free and reduced lunch. Eighty-five percent of the schools are not making federal Annual Measurable Objectives (AMOs). Performance gaps are 12 percent in reading and 17 percent in math.
This grant creates the opportunity for multiple strategies, including increased parent engagement, home visits and greater team efforts by teachers to address specific issues. It also is helping
teachers improve their ability to use student data to pinpoint needs and measure progress.
CEA and the district administration collaborated on the grant proposal, led by Dorothy Wilson, who serves as principal investigator. Wilson retired from CCS and was a first grade teacher, and middle school reading specialist and staff development specialist in CCS for 35 years. She was also as a CEA board member, Capital District President, Ohio Education Association board member, and NEA board member, and a member of the OEA-Retired state board. CEA also honored her with the Helen Jenkins Davis Award during our annual Martin Luther King Awards Dinner.