11
Interventions and Grant Writing
Patricia Wooten
American College of Education
Course EL 5723
Dr. O’Mara
July 24, 2021
Community Schools and Wraparound Services
Description
When applying for this kind of intervention, one must understand that a community school is a physical place that relies on community services. The partnership would include links with high-quality oriented academics and health and social services to realize results focused on an integrated approach. The intervention is necessary for a community with low-income families, which borders well with the bottom-line approach (Chang, 2011). The intervention will target the various children whose parents cannot afford college fees or other necessities to improve their learning. The introduction of the intervention across various community setups has led to improved learning, and linking it with the bottom line intervention plan would ensure the neediest students perform and transition into colleges. The strategy not only intervenes in terms of academic learning but also provides other social services to the learner. The idea behind it is that students do not only need quality academic intervention, but they also require more than that. Learners need access to shelter, food, healthcare, and social learning support. In addition, the caregivers need access to a variety of coordinated one-stop services to access services that support the learners’ academic growth (Castrechini & London, 2012). The paper will discuss Community Schools and Wraparound Services in conjunction with a bottom-line intervention plan for students transitioning to college, which will offer incentives to students who might feel hopeless of joining due to a myriad of challenges they face.
Website Link
Bartlett, N. A., & Freeze, T. B. (n.d.). Community Schools: New Perspectives on the Wraparound Approach. Exceptionality Education International. https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/eei/article/view/7765.
Intervention
The strategy would help the children from vulnerable backgrounds and help them transit into college. When learners are taken through intervention such as support of positive behavioral interventions such as restorative justice linked to learning, they would improve their academic achievement and lower the rate of school suspensions, dropouts, and expulsions. The committee chose the program because it would fit in helping the needy to be in school and improve their academic performance. They could be living in poor shelters where they lack some necessities, which greatly impacts their academic performance (Chang, 2011). The program addresses the challenges through capacity building and change of culture.
Community Schools and Wraparound Services plan positively impacted college enrollment and students’ transition into college. It ensured students were well armored with the necessary skills to attain the grades necessary for college enrollment. The focus was on students from low-income households, especially most who were the first to enroll in college in their families. The intervention offered expertise on students to apply for college and financial aid while selecting high-quality education at affordable higher learning institutions. The plan also aids the students accepted into these colleges for up to six years. College enrollment and degree completion offer the best pathway for success. Statistical evidence of 2018 had already shown that college degree holders received higher median weekly earnings by 57% than diploma holders. Despite this, the students showed immense improvement, especially those who enrolled for the intervention four-year course take an average of six years to complete the course. The two-year course took an average of three years due to various challenges. The problem has caused concern that led to several programs being initiated to intervene and help the students complete the courses within time (Oakes, Maier & Daniel, 2017). The intention is to ensure that the students are tutored and given the best social amenities to ensure that they qualify for the bottom line intervention plan and ensure the other learner not falling under this category receives the best education system.
Effectiveness of Intervention
Community Schools and Wraparound Services is an intensive plan that offers advice to students from low-income households. Most of the students from low-income households are the first to consider joining college. The intervention plan intends to offer the students to join high-quality and affordable colleges while at the same time offering financial advice. For those students who manage to join the target college, the intervention plan proceeds to offer financial services to them for six years. The eligibility to qualify for the program would include a high school GPA of at least 2.3, 200% below family income, and belonging to the first generation to enroll in a college. The students are first admitted to an Access program which helps the students to apply for college. The advisors work with the students to identify the college and then complete the application and submit it (Bartlett & Freeze, 2018). The students are advised to attend colleges in three states as Massachusetts, Illinois, and New York. The program begins at the end of junior year for the target students. The students who are offered the opportunity to attend the colleges based on this program find reprieve and finish the degree within the stipulated time. The student finds social support, financial support, and other incentives to stay in college.
The outcomes in the program showed that there was an increased college enrollment, especially in 4-year universities, and persistence in college. Barr and Castleman (2017) conducted a randomized control trial on 24,422 students on two cohorts (2016, 2015) showed the three outcomes. Community schools offer onsite tutoring and mentoring centers. They also offer emotional and social support, including learning, positive discipline strategies, community, and parental engagement. The intervention will only work if key features are implemented to derive these effects. In addition to the overarching research, certain aspects of the learning facilities need to be thoroughly researched to show the positive outcomes. For example, thorough research is needed to ascertain the gains achieved through the process. The efficiency of the process is crucial as it aids the performance of the students. Students have immensely gained due to the expanded teaching process, which includes tutoring of the students. The intervention is also efficient because the engagement of parents and the community impacts greatly on student performance. The students were able to gain much, leading to lower grades retention and fewer years spent in special education (Chang, 2011). English learners were also found to gain in English language development exam scores for the learners. Health, social services, and community engagements improved wraparound academic achievement.
Research done on the effectiveness of the intervention showed that there was improved student performance. The socio-economically disadvantaged students around the community areas would benefit greatly from the intervention. The intention is to ensure that there are enough fiscal, labor, and facilities needed for the community schools to thrive and be effective. They must put the key features and critical mass in place to ensure that the plan works. In addition, overarching studies of certain key aspects of the institution studied alone showed a positive influence on the results. According to the intervention, other benefits include fewer years spent by students in special education, gains in English language development, and more development in the way learners achieve their objectives. Wraparound services on academic learning such as health and its social services link with improved academic results (Oakes, Maier & Daniel, 2017). Emotional learning anchors the positive behavioral traits such as restorative practices leading to further academic improvement, including rates of suspension, expulsions, and other students leaving the school before finishing.
Resources (fiscal, physical, and human)
The existence of health clinics as a fiscal facility will enable the program to be implemented smoothly. The student will have to access comprehensive health services that include having the physical facility on site. The program will bring in partners to enable the offering of comprehensive health services. The meals are already available for the students. The meals would ensure that the students can cope up with the rigorous educational training. Other needed human labor would include the community school director, social worker, tutoring staff, and family engagement coordinator. The existence of virtual tutors, college coaches, and experts in mental support would make the intervention more efficient (Chang, 2011). The program will assist the covered students if their families have social problems such as immigration and health. Other partners are the education system, the non-profit department, and the various government agencies.
Conclusion
Community schools will therefore rely on a set of partnerships. The other partners needed to ensure that the comprehensive health services are offered would include the other clinics around the school. Other requirements would ensure that the required facilities needed for the program are outlined and made available for the students. Provision of meals is another aspect of making the intervention successful. In addition, the committee chose the program due to its efficiency in not only addressing the academic aspect but also the community in supervising the learner. Most of the time, the student finds it hard to concentrate in class due to the various challenges when they go back home. There are significant learning gains, especially for disadvantaged students. The students achieved the results due to expanded learning time which adds to the tutoring time. The key aspects of the program, such as frequency of parenting, engaging the community and family that led to student academic improvement leading to lower grades detention.
GRANT PROPOSAL
Dear Mrs. Surname
May this cover letter introduce you to the program we have initiated to help the socially disadvantaged learner in the district. The program will identify the learners coming from a poor background and lack necessities, including health covers. Students’ performance is directly linked to the support from the community and the stability of parents. The program wants to look at the various strategies that will directly impact learner performance, low-grade retention, access to health mentoring, and tutoring. We are requesting you $25000 to add to the other proposal budget we have already requested.
Your support will duly be appreciated and noted. Apart from your contribution as a first citizen, we would like your input before the program begins. You will be requested to be the patron of the selected students and add your valuable experience during training and their journey of academic improvement.
Hoping
Committee S
Executive Summary
Identify the students in need of extra education to improve their academic abilities. The schools in the district will go on with the normal educational program while the program will take the identification through the intervention. The program would have included all the students, although we decided to include the most vulnerable students.
The targeted students are those students in the community who were socially disadvantaged and lacked the necessary support to be comfortable. The students were chosen from various schools in the community and assigned mentors. Coaches and tutors to boost their academic performance. The student’s first interview was to determine why they were underperforming and then taken through intervention.
The budget for the intervention was laid out and then used to hire the necessary experts to help the students. They included mentors and tutors for the learners, bills for their clinic visits, and also offsetting basic family credits. The program included the student’s parents in the learning process where they were subjected to the clinic visitations and helped secure employment to ease the burden laid on the kids.
As the indications of the bottom-line plan, the strategy would help children from vulnerable backgrounds and help them transition into college. In addition, when learners are taken through intervention such as support of positive behavioral interventions such as restorative justice linked to learning, they would improve their academic achievement and low the rate of school suspensions, dropouts, and expulsions.
The program chose the Community Schools Wraparound Services strategy because it was effective. The intervention achieved desired results due to expanded learning time which adds to the tutoring time. In addition, the key aspects of the program, such as frequency of parenting, engaging the community and family, led to student academic improvement, leading to lower grades detention. There are significant learning gains, especially for disadvantaged students. The fiscal resources in terms of clinic facilities, educational halls, and other facilities will make the intervention more successful. Other requirements would ensure that the required facilities needed for the program are outlined and made available for the students. Provision of meals is another aspect of making the intervention successful. The meals are already available for the students. The meals would ensure that the students can cope up with the rigorous educational training. Other needed human labor would include community school directors, social workers, tutoring staff, and family engagement coordinators.
Need Statement
The performance of the disadvantaged students necessitated an intervention because of the problems that the students are facing. The students from disadvantaged social backgrounds would need extra attention to ensure that they get the best education.
Goals and Objectives
Increased academic performance
Less low grades retention
Increased collaboration between schools and community
Access to comprehensive medical cover for the students to boost their learning abilities.
Mental health support
More enrollment to colleges through bottom line approach
Methods
The hiring of more mentors and coaches to walk through the chosen children in their academic journey. The children will be sorted according to their academic abilities and social-economic backgrounds to ensure they get the right diagnosis. Each group of five children will be assigned a mentor, a coach, and a tutor. Every parent will be required to be part of the mentorship. The mentors will work closely with the child and have home visits to ascertain what the child exactly lacks. After all the requirements have been ascertained, the children will be grouped to ensure similar needs to achieve the desired objectives—introducing a comprehensive medical plan that will cover the students so that they focus on their students. Medical clinics will be held once in three months in conjunction with neighboring willing medical clinics.
A committee of applications will be set up comprising the community direction, school head, district medical officer, and a selection of parents. In the first month, the mentors will visit all the identified students’ homes, meet them in class, analyze the results and talk to their teachers. They will then present a report to the committee that was set up. The student will then be presented in front o the committee to determine the authenticity of the report tabled. After agreeing that the student needs to be included in the program, h/she will be assigned a mentor, a coach, a tutor, and a clinic that will offer comprehensive medical care. The program must aid the improvement of the socially disadvantaged students rather than all other students. Therefore, although it is necessary to include all the students, the intervention would be for the target students and their families.
Evaluation of Program
The committee will write periodic reports on every student where each student will have a budget assigned to him until the effectiveness of the intervention is noted. The parents will be part of the evaluation. Medical reports, fees charged, and the report will correctly log in the several clinic visits for auditing. In addition, the program would avail academic performance reports to check the target students’ progression.
Conclusion
The program chose Community Schools and Wraparound Services intervention plans because it was effective. In addition, the key aspects of the program, such as frequency of parenting, engaging the community and family, led to student academic improvement, leading to lower grades detention. There are significant learning gains, especially for disadvantaged students. The budget for the intervention was laid out and then used to hire the necessary experts to help the students. They included mentors and tutors for the learners, bills for their clinic visits, and also offsetting basic family credits. The program grant draft proposal would ensure that the intervention plan is well executed and will include all the necessary steps to steer the learners to new academic heights.
Community Schools Wraparound Services
Organization name:
Programme name: Improving academic performance for Disadvantaged Learners
PROJECT BUDGET
QTY
EXPENSE ($)
Direct Personal Expenses
Mentors
5
3,580.00
Tutors
20
18,250.00
Clinic Officer
7
5,350.00
Community Director
1
1,250.00
Supervising Teachers
5 for every School
10,800.00
Training
7 days
3,500.00
Trainee Benefits
7days
5,210.00
Sub-total Personnel
46690.00
Other Direct Costs
Clinic Consultation fees
3 months
15680.00
Program Supply Requirement
N/A
5,000.00
Travels
550.00
Training Site Expenses
7 days
3,500.00
Report Updates
N/A
12,00.00
Sub-total
25930.00
Total
72,620.00
References
Bartlett, N. A., & Freeze, T. B. (2018). Community schools: New perspectives on the wraparound approach. Exceptionality Education International, 28(2).
Castrechini, S., & London, R. A. (2012). Positive Student Outcomes in Community Schools. Center for American Progress.
Chang, T. (2011). Maximizing the Promise of Community Schools: Streamlining Wraparound Services for ESEA. Center for American Progress.
Oakes, J., Maier, A., & Daniel, J. (2017). Community Schools: An Evidence-Based Strategy for Equitable School Improvement. National Education Policy Center.
The post 11 Interventions and Grant Writing Patricia Wooten American College of Education Course appeared first on PapersSpot.