East Side And Brown Academy Win $100,000 Grants

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posted May 10, 2010

The Public Education Foundation announced on Monday that the Leonore Annenberg School Fund for Children, through a partnership with PEF, has awarded generous grants of $100,000 each to East Side Elementary School and Brown International Academy.

At East Side, where 52% of the student population is comprised of English language learners, the grant will fund a Read 180 Interactive Learning Laboratory. This laboratory will provide students with an immense array of books and reading materials as well as a huge collection of multi-media resources – video clips, audio clips, photographs, computer links – that help reading materials come alive.

More importantly, Read 180 identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each student and provides each student with specific, tailored support that develops the specific skills s/he needs to become a proficient reader.

“Read 180 is a scientifically based program that will help us boost learning for all of our students, including those who are struggling readers,” said East Side Principal Emily Baker. “We can’t wait to see the children’s faces when they arrive next fall and see this wonderful new resource.”

At Brown International Academy, the grant will fund an “I Portal” multi-media learning laboratory. Brown Academy is a very diverse, high-poverty elementary school that is moving steadily down a multi-year path to become an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme – a world-renowned program that has set the highest international standards for students.

“The IB program sets very high expectations about what children should know about other cultures and other nations,” said Brown Principal Lea Ann Burk, “but our children have very few opportunities to learn about the world beyond Chattanooga. The I Portal will transport our students – electronically – to the world beyond Brown Academy.”

The I Portal system includes computers with direct connections to other IB schools around the world, Skype software that will allow students to talk face to face with students at other IB schools in 138 different nations, I-Pods that will let students watch podcasts created by students all over the world, and Rosetta Stone software and headsets that will help children – and parents – learn a second language.

“Students from high poverty schools rarely get such a unique opportunity,” said Ms. Burk. “This will help them as they grow up and begin to compete in the global economy – right here in Chattanooga. With German companies like Volkswagen and Wacker, and French companies like Alstom and Sanofi-Aventis (which recently purchased Chattem), our students really need some exposure to international language and culture. We are very grateful to the School Fund for Children and know that our students will thrive with this vital resource at their fingertips.”

Both laboratories will be developed over the summer and will be up and running as soon as students return for the 2010-11 school year.

As a partner in this work, the Public Education Foundation will provide support and serve as fiscal agent for the grants.

“Both PEF and Hamilton County are fortunate to receive this investment from the Leonore Annenberg School Fund for Children,” said PEF President Dan Challener. “Mrs. Annenberg did much over the years to support PEF’s partnership with Hamilton County schools, and this new support is a tribute to her legacy of helping schools and helping children.”

The Leonore Annenberg School Fund for Children was funded by the late Leonore Annenberg in her capacity as a trustee of the Annenberg Foundation. The School Fund is now a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The purpose of the School Fund is to provide educational resources of immediate and direct value to schools serving children with great need.