Ep 83 | How to Help Teachers Teach & Students Succeed?

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I want to share another really cool, highly impactful project that was submitted this year and awarded. It's called Visualizing Science, and it was awarded to our district math and science department. So we're affecting a whole lot of kids here. All the elementary schools in the district are going to receive STEM kits and teaching strategies to help with standards that are the most difficult concepts for students to master. Things like air pressure, magnetism, and heat transfer. Yes, they are learning that in elementary school. And the kids will be available for use by all second to fifth graders in the county.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambi County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. Teachers are the eyes and ears of what their students need. But teachers didn't become teachers to observe, they became teachers to do. And behind every successful person is a story of a dedicated educator who took an outside-of-the-box approach to help them learn. But what happens when teachers have great ideas but no resources to implement their techniques? My next guest is the executive director of the Escambia County Public Schools Foundation. And today she's going to share how Grants for Excellence is helping teachers teach and students succeed. Uniting resources and ideas, creativity and collaboration, Joe MacArthur. Welcome back. Thanks, Meredith. Great to be here. So part of your job or your superpower, which is I think what we called it in the last episode, is your superpower, is solution finding. And with Grants for Excellence, you have found a way for it to have a high impact by choosing just three areas, narrowing down on three areas to boost kids in Escambia County. Can you share what those are?

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Absolutely. The focus areas for this year are literacy, low-performing students, and increasing graduation rates. And it's actually part of the state matching grant program, which we can get more into. They have actually five areas, which would include STEM and career and technical education as other areas of focus. But in meeting with district curriculum and instruction and several people around the district, we narrowed in on what the initiatives are for the school district this year and aligned those with this matching grant, Grants for Excellence program to help solve problems there, help students.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

So how from behind the scenes, because that's like also your superpower, is you're like the behind-the-scenes engine that kind of makes stuff that the teachers want to do possible. That's really like the most rudimentary definition of a grant, I think. Absolutely. How did how did you all decide on those three areas? What does that uh look like in Escambia County that made you go, you know what, we're gonna pick these three?

SPEAKER_00 3:13

The state matching grant program has been going on for a long time. And the Escambia County Public Schools Foundation, that was like the main program that the foundation has done for years and years. So that's not new to me. I didn't come up with that idea. I actually sat down with Denny Wilson, the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, and told him about our grant funding from the state and kind of what my intentions were and how we might best use grants for excellence for the biggest impact this year. And this school district is focused on attendance, is a huge issue, and literacy is a huge issue, which leads to increased graduation rates and brings performance of students up that may be low performing. We all know that school grades and all those things are based around student performance. So, how can we help teachers and get them funds to do the things they need to do in their classroom or they want to, that's innovative and different, but they may not have the funding. And so we narrowed it down to those three from the five areas that are available through the state program. And we decided to make the grants this year all what we call high impact grants. We used to fund just teacher grants and then some high impact grants. And we thought making a bigger impact is easier by having more money. So then they can spread not just to one classroom and in fact affect maybe 25, 30 students, or the high school level 100 or whatever. I'm not an educator, but about that. They can do a whole grade level or a whole subject area or a school-wide grant and have a bigger impact. So our grants this year were between $2,500 and $7,500. So that doesn't sound like a lot of money, but to a teacher or to a media center or to a school or a classroom, that can make a big difference. And it usually is used on something that can be reused in the future. It's not just an expendable or consumable product, if you will, that they're purchasing. They're doing ideas and concepts that can go on and be shared.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

So it's not just a one-time only. This is like a step up, like an upgrade that lasts for as long as, in the case of technology, for as long as that technology is relevant or as long as that tool is useful. I think you gave the example when we were talking off-mic of some musical instruments or something. Was it ukuleles?

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Yes, one teacher last year, actually at Pine Meadow Elementary, her grant was to purchase ukulele's for her music students. And we all research shows that music helps with literacy and math skills and reading skills and problem solving skills and all of those things, coordination and focus. And her program was super innovative and it was pretty cool that she got she called it a eucalyptus tree. It had like a stand that they all hung on. And all the kids in the school got access to use those, and she used them in her curriculum that enhanced um what they were doing in the classroom and other subject areas.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

That is I I love the way teachers will take some really outside of the box idea and it just meet kids right where they are. And I I know I said that in the intro, but to me, that is just a skill that I don't know that can even be taught, but it's it's something that needs funding. So I'm glad that this is happening. Can you think of any other examples of where a teacher took an idea that was really outside the box and was able to implement it because of the grant?

SPEAKER_00 6:46

I have a lot of ideas. I want to tell you one more that's kind of really out of the box. It's music related too. And then I want to get into some specific ones that one was last year and two are this year. Another one was very unexpected, and it was a a grant requ in the category of literacy. An elementary school wanted to do a drumline. A drumline? With drummers and whatever the flag people are called. The color guard or flag or flag. I think color guard. It exposed several students to the program. It wasn't a huge program, but they thought that teaching character and you have to show up on time and manners and working together and rhythm, excuse me, and all of those skills that come with that. And the success was amazing. Attendance was like a hundred percent because they didn't want to miss ColorGard or Drumline Day. They had a big performance at the end. They cared about how they looked and they their grades improved in all subject areas. I mean, it was just like, whoa, this really cool idea. Who thought a drumline in elementary school? I have goosebumps. Right, right. And I mean, the kids were then like trying out for middle school band. And we all know music is a program that increases perform student performance in every area. So that was a really cool program. I read about that this morning, so I wanted to share that too.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Wow. I yeah, I would have never thought drumline for literacy. That's really incredible. Now you mentioned earlier that uh grants for excellence is a matching grant. Why does that matter?

SPEAKER_00 8:17

For the Florida State matching grant program, is through the state legislature. They divide money amongst the Florida Education Foundations, the counties that have them, to be spent on grant programs through the state. So we are part of the Consortium of Florida Education Foundation, and our grant amount annually is determined by our student count, something called an FTE. And typically our amount of funds is between $75,000 and $85,000 based on our student count in Escambi County in the enrollment. And what that means is in order to get that $77,000 this year, the foundation had to raise an additional $77,000 and use those dollars on the same thing we are asking the state to give us money to fund. So for the Grants for Excellence program, we usually give all the money to that. And this year, working with my board of directors, I determined that I wanted to use some of the funds for other things, but we could still award $100,000 in 17 grants and support those other programs as well. So on my end, my role in that is to garner support in the community, the business community, help people understand what we do with grants for excellence so we can have that $50,000 in the bank to give out when they the state sends us our check. So that's kind of how that works. And it's really important that, you know, people understanding what we do at the foundation and how critical their involvement is and how it can make a difference in their child's life. I mean, some of these grants impact thousands of students. So that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

What do you think people misunderstand about how the grant process works?

SPEAKER_00 10:05

I think they don't know that we have it. Honestly.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

I'm glad we're here that we're talking about it.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Exactly. And I we, you know, some of the goals coming up with the program are we want more teachers to apply and have higher quality applications. And one of the things we plan to do over the summer is teach teachers basic grant writing techniques, best practices, what makes a grant, how to measure results and how you to predict success. And all of those things that data is really important. The state wants that back and as part of our report to them. And the community doesn't really know it. How many parents out there know that their student is in a classroom where their teacher got a grant and they're doing this really cool project and they had no idea that the foundation paid for that? So and that's pretty awesome. So parents out there ask your kids if they're doing something cool at school, and there's a chance they might have gotten a grant in that school.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Is there a certain window that these grants have to be submitted every year? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

We open the grants in this summer, probably about a few weeks before school starts, or maybe right around the time school starts, and put the application out there with instructions and ideas and that kind of stuff. And they have until usually about a month to six weeks to get their grants written and submitted. And then we have a review committee within our foundation, which are it's completely blind. They cannot identify their school with a name, a mascot, anything. So it's completely blind. And the committee comes together, and I do not judge them, and nobody in my office judges them. We just put the review committee together and they have a rubric and go through and score them, and then it's announced right around October 1st, and they have to expend all of their funds by the time we leave for Christmas break and do a mid-year report. Now they may not have completed their project yet, but they've hopefully have been purchasing products to do all the materials they need to do their projects. And sometimes they can't because they are perishable, so they need to buy in this second semester for a project. I mean, we get that. But then they have to all the projects have to be completed and results reported usually end of April, first of May. So they don't have end-of-year test scores. So they have to be innovative and how innovative in how they're gonna measure their results and their data to send back to me. So it is a process.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Because it's not the test scores in the traditional sense, the data can be extracted early in the process, like the drumline example that you gave. Immediately, or not immediately, but I mean, I would say months. Halfway through the process, the teacher saw attendance rise, participation, literacy outcomes. So the individual grades of other projects that were happening were, I assume, also improving, which is pretty incredible. And that's part of, you know, why those outside of the box measures work because it allows kids to see their education in a refreshed way.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Absolutely. And they can do, teachers can do a pre and post-test, like what do they know before? You know, this is what I'm trying to do with this. What do they know before we start this? And then make their own post-tests and have the results at the end. I want to share another really cool, highly impactful project that that was submitted this year and awarded. It's called Visualizing Science, and it was awarded to our district math and science department. So we're affecting a whole lot of kids here. All the elementary schools in the district are gonna receive STEM kits and teaching strategies to help with standards that are the most difficult concepts for students to master. Things like air pressure, magnetism, and heat transfer. Yes, they are learning that in elementary school. And the kids will be available for use by all second to fifth graders in the county. They're also gonna receive nonfiction picture books to reinforce the concepts. It's gonna impact approximately 8,400 students and 420 teachers in our county.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

420 teachers.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

And eight that's 8,400 students. Oh my god, that's a lot of impact.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

That's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

And the remote results are gonna be measured by pre and post-test. The expectation is that students will show an increased proficiency of 35 to 40 percent after completing the program with a minimum of 70% proficiency in these hard-to-reach teach areas across the district, which that's pretty impactful too. They were awarded $7,500 through the grant program to supply kits to the entire county. The cost was going to be $20,000, which this they did not have. So without our grant, it would not be able to reach all schools. They would have to pick and choose what schools would get a kit to help teach these skills. So that's pretty cool that we got to be part of and collaborate on another project. Collaboration is a big thing we do at the foundation. We love to collaborate and partner with the district to make an impact, to move the needle on education. That's kind of what we do.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Well, how do you know how to help if you aren't talking with the people who are doing the helping? Right. So that's that's what I like, even from the subject of our previous episode that we did. You have a high, you know, listening to talking ratio. Yes. And I think that's what makes it makes it work.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Right. And I mean, I collaborate across the state and other foundations. And what are you doing with your grant funds? And what are your best practices? And how do you communicate best with your teachers? And, you know, what are the things they need most? And if you if there's a barrier to something, how do you get around it? I mean, so that collaboration at the state level helps too. We are a fairly small foundation and we're experiencing exponential growth in both programs and financial success, which is a great thing. There are some growing pains that go with that. Um, and the outreach and the work we've done over the last almost two years now has really helped with that. If people don't know who you are or what you do, how are they gonna help? So many people don't know that there is a way through a foundation to support local education in Escambia County. Students, teachers, schools, administrators, I mean, and we all talk about education in Escambia County. Here's a door. You can help, and you can help how you want to help. You tell me what you want to support, and I can help you do that.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Yeah, I was just about to ask how people could support, you know, other than knowing about it, obviously, as you said, most people don't even know about it. But uh how can people be a part of that community that is helping to support the kids in Escambia County? Is it just by spreading the word or spreading the word, financial support?

SPEAKER_00 16:54

If they work for a company that um is a large company and supports education, they know that, but they don't know how quite to do that in public education. I'm more than happy to talk to them. A lot of companies, if if employees give, their company will do it, that will match their donation. So that that's a way they can do it. We have a board of 24 community leaders and people that serve on our board, they act as liaisons for these grants, grants, recipients. They actually go to the schools and see the projects and talks to talk to the teachers and get that immediate connect-to-purpose thing that happens. There are lots of ways to get involved. We are parts of fundraisers like the Dragon Boat race races that Northeast Rotoma has and the Navy Federal 5K, other community events that we're benefactor of those funds. So there are lots of ways to participate. And we can direct you to who needs volunteers, our volunteer specific to events. We don't a lot of put on a lot of events because we're pretty lean and mean, but we do participate in a lot of events, and we often need volunteers in those situations. So we're willing to partner. I'm willing to talk to anybody at any time. I'm very I'm really, really passionate about education and what I can do to help change what we're doing here in Escambi County. We're all working really hard. Sometimes I don't think people realize the dedication and loyalty and just incredible grit it takes to teach 38,000 students, all the people behind the scenes that work every day. And to acknowledge that and appreciate that, which our foundation also does, an employee appreciation event, that we don't gain any money, we just raise money and do something to appreciate and support employees. Things like that to support the district in general. This Grants for Excellence program is our largest program. They may or may not have heard about our Tools for Teachers, which is our newest program. And there's just lots to do, and I'm willing to talk about it and share. Do you need any, would you like any more examples of other projects this year?

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Yeah, do you have one more example before we close up?

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Yes. There's one that's gonna be at Montclair Elementary School, which is pretty cool. It's called Success with STEAM. And the goal is to expose fourth and fifth grade graders to career and technical education academies that are available in the district. It's gonna provide hands-on STEAM activities through science and the arts, improve science, math, and reading proficiency levels on their state progress monitoring. And the culmination of the program will include four STEAM Saturdays for students participate in projects and hands-on learning. The impact of the project will be measured through student surveys and proficiency scores. The goals are to increase from 14 to 42% proficient in science district assessments and 12 to 40% for reading, 10 to 40 for math, and have 70% of students increase their knowledge of career and technical academies as they're preparing for middle schools. A lot of those students don't know. You know, I learned to do this at Esteemed Saturday, and oh my gosh, I'm so interested in this. And I want to go to the Aviation Academy now, or I want to go to the entrepreneurship or whatever that they've learned just to go into school on Saturday, which we know is going to help them in all areas of their education.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

That's what I love about the the approach of you uniting with teachers with these grants, is because it's helping in more than one area. It's not just, you know, this is we're talking about science and the science lives in this box right here. We're talking about science that is applied learning through teamwork. And so now you're learning good citizenship, and now you're learning empathy, and now you're learning planning. And there's so many things about how this is implemented through the creativity of teachers that really um brings together the the potential of students, but also the the mind power, if you will, of the teachers. So they're doing important important work.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Teachers are so creative and state standards are so specific and their curriculum is so specific. As long as it's aligning with those standards, this is in the way that they can fund a creative idea to support that. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

We couldn't have said that better. That's so perfect. Well, thank you so much for sharing this. I'm gonna put the link in the episode description so people can find ways to volunteer, participate, and maybe donate. Please donate.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

We can't pay for it if we don't have community support. So absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Well, thank you again. Thank you so much, Meredith. Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Escambia County Public Schools.