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July 5, 2008 - 10:10PM
Tempe teachers get trained to help at-risk kids
Christina Vanoverbeke, Tribune
Beginning this summer, teachers and principals in Tempe will receive mentorship about how to best serve a population with high risks for failure in school - poverty, language barriers being the two biggest - through a program that aims to help them beat the odds that are against them.
The Tempe Elementary School District governing board recently decided to become the first elementary district in the state to become a Beat the Odds partner with the Center for the Future of Arizona.
The center was begun by Lattie Coor, and is a nonprofit think tank that aims to come up with solutions for improving student achievement.
Marjorie Kaplan is the new director of the Beat the Odds initiative and she said the group looked back to last year when the program had been implemented in 27 individual Valley schools.
"It really seems to be working well," she said. "We'll be running the data this year to show exactly how it's working, but from everything we've been hearing, it's been positive."
So this year, the organization decided to expand its efforts by concentrating on just one school district and, with mutual interest from both parties, Tempe Elementary was decided upon.
As a Beat the Odds partner, district spokeswoman Monica Allread said the district will commit to the principles of the program and provide support for the partner schools.
The center will provide mentors, support and professional development for 14 of the district's schools broken into a two-year group and a one-year group. They will also be collecting copious amounts of data in order to assess what is working and what is not.
The two-year group includes Gililland and Holdeman. The one-year group includes Aguilar, Arredondo, Carminati, Curry, Evans, Frank Laird, McKemy, Nevitt, Scales, Thew, and Wood.
The selection of the one-year group was made using free and reduced lunch status, AZ Learns labels, and other factors such as ongoing programs and initiatives, Allread said.
Board president Jim Lemmon said he is excited about the opportunity for the Tempe schools to participate in the program.
"Not only because our highly trained professionals said it is a good program that made sense, and I trust them," he said. "But because I've been going around to schools, seeing the latest and greatest we have to offer and we need to be more consistent in what we're teaching and demand higher standards."
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