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CFISD uses grant to increase number of college-bound students
By VALERIE JONES
With the help of a grant from Houston A+ Challenge, Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District has begun implementing its plan to increase the amount of its students attending college.
CFISD is one of five school districts selected by Houston A+ Challenge and National College Access Network to participate in the Preparing to Dream initiative, which aims to improve parent and student awareness of and engagement in college-bound activities and programs.
The initiative was funded by a $3.54 million planning and implementation grant from Houston Endowment and a $142,000 grant from TG.
“Each school district gets $225,000 over a three-year-period to implement their program,” said Melissa Davis, director of public affairs for Houston A+ Challenge. “The money was given to districts that were already doing this kind of work. We wanted to accelerate the things they were doing.”
During the 2007-2008 school year, a 27-member team from CFISD analyzed district demographics, student data and current college access programs.
Results from an event put on for the Cypress Lakes High School community showed that 69 percent of students and 86 percent of parents wished that the school district had provided more information about college.
CFISD plans to create an infrastructure that will guide, connect and coordinate strategies for developing a college-going culture. For this reason, the district is establishing a College and Career Center at Cypress Lakes High School to serve all students and target low-income, first-generation students.
Dependent upon how successful the plan is will determine the amount and source of future funding for college and career centers on other high school campuses in the district.
“The Preparing to Dream grant process served as the catalyst that we needed to access, catalogue and coordinate all of the practices that we had depended on to serve the needs of our college-bound students,” said CFISD superintendent David Anthony. “We learned that our efforts were not focused and that we had not shared best practices.”
Anthony said the district now sees that the end result of the project will allow all students to receive the benefit of identified best practices.
“This is an exciting opportunity to work with others in our district to enhance programs and services that help students access post-secondary opportunities, especially first-generation and low-income students,” said Marie Keith, director of College and Career Readiness. “We look at this grant project with a broader view – we see this initiative as something that will eventually impact the whole district.”
CFISD is one of five school districts selected by Houston A+ Challenge and National College Access Network to participate in the Preparing to Dream initiative, which aims to improve parent and student awareness of and engagement in college-bound activities and programs.
The initiative was funded by a $3.54 million planning and implementation grant from Houston Endowment and a $142,000 grant from TG.
“Each school district gets $225,000 over a three-year-period to implement their program,” said Melissa Davis, director of public affairs for Houston A+ Challenge. “The money was given to districts that were already doing this kind of work. We wanted to accelerate the things they were doing.”
During the 2007-2008 school year, a 27-member team from CFISD analyzed district demographics, student data and current college access programs.
Results from an event put on for the Cypress Lakes High School community showed that 69 percent of students and 86 percent of parents wished that the school district had provided more information about college.
CFISD plans to create an infrastructure that will guide, connect and coordinate strategies for developing a college-going culture. For this reason, the district is establishing a College and Career Center at Cypress Lakes High School to serve all students and target low-income, first-generation students.
Dependent upon how successful the plan is will determine the amount and source of future funding for college and career centers on other high school campuses in the district.
“The Preparing to Dream grant process served as the catalyst that we needed to access, catalogue and coordinate all of the practices that we had depended on to serve the needs of our college-bound students,” said CFISD superintendent David Anthony. “We learned that our efforts were not focused and that we had not shared best practices.”
Anthony said the district now sees that the end result of the project will allow all students to receive the benefit of identified best practices.
“This is an exciting opportunity to work with others in our district to enhance programs and services that help students access post-secondary opportunities, especially first-generation and low-income students,” said Marie Keith, director of College and Career Readiness. “We look at this grant project with a broader view – we see this initiative as something that will eventually impact the whole district.”
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