2011 TCASN Grantees

SEED GRANTS (three-year stepped, recurring funding)

Bradley County Schools:  $163,185 (2,018 students)

Bradley County Schools, located in rural southeast Tennessee, serves a predominately at-risk student population with over 75 percent of its students coming from an economically disadvantaged background. The district created college planning seminars for high school juniors that took place on college campuses, offered ACT prep classes and ACT teacher professional development training, expanded college visits to include parent visits, paid for one college application fee per student, produced a quarterly career/college newsletter, developed college access events for students and parents, and created 8th grade transition workshops that focued on developing college aspirations, the middle-to-high school transition, and study-skills.

Hamilton High School (Memphis City Schools): $170,000 (927 students)

Hamilton High School, located in South Memphis, serves a predominately African-American community with over 90 percent of its students identified as economically disadvantaged. Hamilton developed a year-long college readiness program for all of its 9th graders, hosted a senior seminar, paid for one college application fee per student, developed peer groups, offered ACT prep courses and FAFSA assistance, provided additional tutoring support, and offered college developmental courses to help reduce remedial coursework in postsecondary education. The school also hosted monthly student/parent seminars to create a college-going culture for students and their families in order to ease the transition to postsecondary education.

Metro Nashville Public Schools: $167,720 (1,729 students)

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) focused its project on two high schools: Pearl Cohn and Maplewood. Pearl Cohn and Maplewood serve predominately African-American communities and over 85 percent of the students are economically disadvantaged. MNPS assessed the college access needs of both schools by developing a task force composed of teachers, counselors, students, administrators, parents/caregivers, district leaders, and community partners. Upon completion of the need analysis, the task force identified community organizations that offered resources and programs to help meet the identified needs and strengthen the college-going cultures in these two schools. In the third year, the project expanded to two additional high schools.

MODEL PROGRAM GRANTS

Union County Board of Education: $38,700 (821 students)

Union County, located north of Knoxville in rural Tennessee, used TCASN funding to continue and enhance college access and success programs and services initiated through a federal GEAR UP grant that ended June 2011. Sixty percent of Union County High School’s student population was identified as economically disadvantaged. Through its Model Program Grant, the school plans offered student achievement workshops, financial aid and college transitions workshops, college adventure nights, college visits, and a summer bridge program.

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Educational Opportunity Center: $39,996 (1,000 students)

UTC Educational Opportunity Center, a federally funded TRIO college access program, serves first generation, low-income students in Hamilton, Marion, Sequatchie, Bledsoe, and Grundy counties. TCASN funding was used to expand current services and provide targeted services to homeless youth, youth in foster care, and military connected families. Additionally, federal budget cuts had limited the staff’s ability to travel to the outlying communities it served, but through the Model Program Grant UTC EOC was able to continue to provide college access services to these areas.

Memphis City Schools – Trezevant Career and Technology Center:  $40,000 (40 students/40 families)

The Summer Health Science Institute, in an effort to help meet the workforce needs of the health sciences employment sector, expanded its enrollment to include freshmen and sophomore students interested in health careers who did not meet the current entrance requirement of a 3.0 or higher grade point average. Freshman took high school credited courses in health science education and rising sophomores took courses in forensics. Academic supports, enhanced classrooms, and mentors were also provided to students. Additionally, students visited postsecondary education institutions, focusing on college awareness, college options, and the college-going process.

CATALYST GRANTS

In Full Motion: $15,000 (600 students/150 parents)

In Full Motion, Inc. (IFM), located in Nashville, provides academic tutoring, mentoring, leadership and college preparation to at-risk youth who have the hopes and dreams of becoming productive citizens. IFM used TCASN funding to purchase an online tool that improved the organization’s data tracking and program evaluations, resulting in better documentation of program effectiveness and success.

Perry County School District: $13,508 (364 students)

Seventy-one percent of Perry County School District, located in rural South Central Tennessee, is considered economically disadvantaged. The district purchased the Cambridge ACT Prep Classroom Package and a mobile computer lab to help raise student ACT scores and reduce the number of graduates taking remedial courses.

Brainerd High School: $9,847 (293 students)

Brainerd High School, compared to other public schools of Hamilton County, had one of the highest indexes of poverty, the highest dropout rates, the lowest college enrollment rates, and the lowest ACT scores. TCASN funding helped provide new technology in the school’s college resource room and an updated set of ACT study guides.

White County High School: $14,984 (1,250 students)

Located in Sparta and serving as the only high school in the county, White County High School had a 2010 college-going rate of 44 percent. WCHS purchased a mobile learning lab and a library of apps tailored to help increase the college-going rate and smooth the transitional pathway. This customized technology allowed WCHS to provide an individualized learning environment to all students, while also meeting professional development needs of teachers. Additionally, teachers used the lab to mesh curriculum between academic and career-technical education classes.

Milan Special School District: $15,000 (2,259 students)

Milan Special School District is one of five school districts in Gibson County, located in rural Northwest Tennessee. MSSD appointed a veteran senior high school counselor to the position of college access counselor, demonstrating the district’s commitment to increasing college access and success. MSSD used TCASN funding to develop a strategic plan of operation for its newly created College Access Program. The strategic plan included the identification of stakeholders and partners in the community, the development of a policies and procedures of operation manual, the collection and analysis of data, and the creation of a sustainability plan.