From the December 2009 issue of Our Moment, the UConn Foundation's e-newsletter.
An innovative University of Connecticut program designed to help close the achievement gap in Connecticut public schools has received three major gifts totaling $495,000. After promising results in the CommPACT Schools initiative’s first year, the program has attracted new grants of $250,000 from the NEA Foundation, $195,000 from the Lloyd G. Balfour Foundation an
d more than $50,000 from AT&T.
“People have asked me why AT&T is making this kind of commitment to education, and the answer is really simple: It’s in our best interest. We need all of our schools to answer the challenge of creating the next generation of American workers, a workforce that is ready to compete in our new always connected economy,” says Ramona Carlow, president of AT&T Connecticut. “As a business community, we must become more involved in helping our young people, our teachers and our administrators.”
CommPACT (which stands for community, parents, administrators, children, and teachers) is led by the Neag School of Education’s Institute for Urban School Improvement. The program brings together the community of stakeholders—students, parents, teachers, unions, superintendents and principals—to take part in reforming their own schools. National education experts and researchers at UConn collaborate with them to identify problems, choose new practices, implement those solutions and analyze the results.
“CommPACT Schools is gaining national attention because we are the only reform program in the country that brings together all stakeholders with a major research university to reform our most challenging urban schools so that all children, regardless of their backgrounds, have access to schools to prepare them for success and competition in a global society,” says Director Richard Schwab, a founding member, dean emeritus of the Neag School and professor of educational leadership.
The program is currently working with eight urban schools in Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, New London and Waterbury. CommPACT got off the ground in September 2008 with an investment from the Neag School, $475,000 from the state of Connecticut and an initial $250,000 grant from the NEA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the country’s largest teachers union.
The NEA Foundation’s new $250,000 gift marks its second straight year of support. This year’s gift was part of $1.2 million the organization distributed across the country to groundbreaking union-community partnerships that are taking comprehensive approaches to close achievement gaps.
“We believe these projects show great promise,” says Harriet Sanford, president and chief executive officer of the NEA Foundation. The benefits of the initiative are that it’s based on “collaboration that is grounded in research on best practices, driven by educators, supported by the community, and focused on improving student performance and creating sustainable systemic reform.”
The Lloyd G. Balfour Foundation (Bank of America, N.A. trustee) is dedicated to education reform in New England to shore up pipelines for student success from grammar school through college.
“We are pleased to partner with UConn’s Neag School of Education to provide children in Connecticut’s urban schools with a high-quality education and to close the achievement gap. This work exemplifies the Lloyd G. Balfour Foundation’s mission of promoting college readiness and access for underserved populations in New England,” says Michealle Larkins, vice president, grantmaking program officer, philanthropic management, Bank of America, N.A.
For more information about supporting the CommPACT Schools initiative, please contact the UConn Foundation’s development department.
