NCCEP Awards Nearly $200,000 In SBC Foundation Grants to Education Partnerships in Sacramento Region
UC Davis Receives $192,826 in Education Grants to Promote College Readiness for Low-Income Students
Sacramento, California, September 15, 2004
The SBC Foundation — the philanthropic arm of SBC Communications, Inc. — today announced the University of California, Davis, through its educational partnership with Sacramento High School and Esparto Middle School in Yolo County, has been selected to receive $192,826 in education funding to promote college readiness for low-income students.
The SBC Foundation and the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships (NCCEP) supports Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), a federally funded program helping youth from low-income communities prepare for college.
The Sacramento GEAR UP Partnership was developed at Sacramento High School in 2000 to increase the high school's graduation rate, which had reached an all-time low of 54 percent. The education grant aims to assist students in their attempt to pass the newly required California High School Exit Exam by implementing an after-school tutorial program developed by School/University Partnerships at UC Davis. GEAR UP tenth-graders are the first group required to pass the CAHSEE by their senior year in order to receive their diploma.
The funding will also be used develop a database that will help them evaluate each student intervention, and determine how programs can be refined and improved. Eventually, the database and reporting tool can be tailored to assist GEAR UP programs across California and nationally.
The additional grant for Esparto Middle School, administered by the Center for Community School Partnerships located in the School of Education at UC Davis, will support the development of an alliance to bring together university, school and community partners to increase outreach to families and leverage existing resources designed for at-risk youth to increase students' abilities to succeed academically and3 eventually attend college. The school, while consistently raising academic achievement among its students, faces a number of challenges as a third of students speak Spanish as their primary language and 22 percent are from migrant families.
"Experts often focus on the need for intervention in urban centers with high concentrations of low-income students, but the reality is that economically disadvantaged rural families may be even more difficult to reach," said Harold Levine, dean of the School of Education. "This collaboration will strengthen the already excellent work in Esparto to raise student achievement levels and empower the community to prepare its children for excellence in school and life."
Leon Washington, assistant vice chancellor for student affairs at UC Davis, said, "GEAR UP program practices are an effective catalyst for positive impact on benchmarks ranging from standardized test scores to graduation rates. Through the SBC Foundation's generous support, GEAR UP programs will help Sacramento High School and Esparto Middle School students succeed and prepare for a college-level education."
Selected through a competitive grants program managed by NCCEP, the SBC Foundation grants will fund 79 collaborative partnerships across the SBC 13-state service area. Sixty existing GEAR UP partnerships will use the funds to support a variety of community-focused education initiatives, including: after-school programs to help students in math, science, reading and technology; training and assistance for teachers in the use of technology in the classroom; and technology usage to enhance measurements of student achievement and program impact. Funds from the SBC Foundation grant also will seed the establishment of 19 new K-16 education partnerships based on the GEAR UP model.
"SBC's support of education is built on the belief that every child should have opportunities to succeed," said Rhuenette Alums, SBC external affairs manager. "Most of the fastest-growing jobs this decade will require education beyond high school. In supporting GEAR UP, we fund proven effective programs that will provide low-income students with the tools they need to prepare them for lifelong success."
According to a Department of Education study, high academic achievers from low-income families are only one-fifth as likely to enroll in college as similar students from high-income families. GEAR UP seeks to address this disparity through innovative partnerships. GEAR UP, enacted as a result of Congress' passage of the Higher Education Amendment of 1998, encourages students in grades 6-12 to stay in school and apply for college. The program currently serves 1.2 million students nationwide and more than 2,000 organizations currently participate in GEAR UP partnerships, which typically consist of collaborations between public school districts, universities, community colleges, community groups and/or businesses.
The $4.5 million in regional GEAR UP grants is part of a $5 million SBC Foundation grant to NCCEP announced in February. GEAR UP projects funded through the grant program were awarded throughout SBC's 13-state operating area, which includes Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin. A full list of local GEAR UP partnerships receiving grants is available at www.edpartnerships.org.
Education is a primary funding area for the SBC Foundation. In 2003, the SBC Foundation provided nearly $18 million to support education initiatives across the nation. Since 1984, SBC Communications and the SBC Foundation have contributed more than $1 billion to nonprofit organizations and affiliates across the country.
The National Council for Community and Education Partnerships (NCCEP) serves as the national technical assistance provider, annual conference convener and voice in Washington, D.C., for the GEAR UP program. NCCEP, a non-profit organization committed to creating and sustaining K-16 education partnerships, works to increase academic achievement and access to higher education for economically disadvantaged students. By building broad-based partnerships, linking schools and communities, developing new initiatives, supporting proven programs, and using research findings to create successful frameworks for action, NCCEP aims to invigorate the principle of equal educational opportunity for all, and to help improve K-16 education in the United States. One of the primary objectives of NCCEP is to promote academic achievement and encourage education reform in schools, colleges and universities.
The SBC Foundation is the charitable giving arm of SBC Communications Inc. The SBC Foundation supports efforts that enrich and strengthen diverse communities nationwide, particularly those with an emphasis on education and technology and those that benefit underserved populations. SBC Foundation-backed programs are designed to increase access to information technologies, broaden technology training and professional skills development, and effectively integrate new technologies to enhance education and economic development. The Chronicle of Philanthropy and The Foundation Center have consistently ranked the SBC Foundation among the nation's top five corporate foundations. In 2002, the SBC Foundation launched SBC Excelerator, a multimillion dollar competitive grants program that funds nonprofit organizations in their efforts to digitally connect communities.
SBC Communications Inc. is a Fortune 50 company whose subsidiaries, operating under the SBC brand, provide a full range of voice, data, networking, e-business, directory publishing and advertising, and related services to businesses, consumers and other telecommunications providers. SBC holds a 60 percent ownership interest in Cingular Wireless, which serves 25 million wireless customers. SBC companies provide high-speed DSL Internet access lines to more American consumers than any other provider and are among the nation's leading providers of Internet services. SBC companies also now offer satellite TV service. Additional information about SBC and SBC products and services is available at www.sbc.com.
