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Classroom on Wheels Program
During the last five years the Kauffman Youth Development Institute has developed and evaluated educational approaches that improve learning and socialization skills for at-risk youth. Building on the success of our alternative school curriculum, we have designed a mobile classroom that will allow us to initiate a regional outreach program and to reach a larger number of at-risk students and their teachers in both the inner city and rural areas. We are seeking funds for this program in order to be able to serve the communities that you are interested in supporting. The most innovative facet of our outreach model is it two-phased program:
Children who lack a strong, supportive home life or monetary security are often identified as being at-risk of underachieving in school, which often leads to early dropout. These children need extra attention and have special needs that must be understood by the educators in order to help level the playing field for those already starting with a disadvantage. It is important to remedy these inequalities early in a student’s educational career. For this reason, we are concentrating on the elementary grades and the essential skills of reading and math. Our curricular approach improves at-risk children’s qualitative and quantitative thinking skills, particularly in the context of problem-based learning of essential life skills. BMW Road Rally and Show cars are used as the theme in our reading and mathematics educational materials. This approach has been tested within our alternative school, the Academic/Sports Youth Development Institute, located in Kent, Ohio. Teacher inservice will provide regional teachers with an introduction to both pedagogical strategies and instructional materials that are likely to improve the learning skills of at-risk youth. Our model for inservice is based on successful programs. Teams of teachers are recruited from each participating school. Each team is generally composed of 2-4 teachers and an administrator. These teams become an integral part of their schools development of educational programming for at-risk students. The inservice is basically a train-the-trainers approach. Strategies for the identification of at-risk youth without stigmatization are a crucial part of the summer inservice workshop. During the academic year, the mobile classroom will visit each school with a Teacher Team. Problem-based, real-life learning modules are brought to the schools and the classroom becomes a dedicated and nurturing learning environment for at-risk students. The mobile classroom brings needed resources to the school, while the Master Teachers that travel with the classroom provide continued support for the Teacher Teams. Teacher Teams with questions or concerns can contact us by telephone or e-mail, and 48-hour on-site visits will be conducted when necessary. An important feature of our approach is that after a year, a school’s Teacher Team should be able to take over educational programming for at-risk students in the school. We have a 40-foot trailer and towing vehicle that are fully insured and compliant with state regulations. We also have a complete instructional package designed for outreach to at-risk students, as well as support materials for teachers. Now, we are seeking funding from sponsors who are interested in making a substantive social contribution to improving the educational and life outcomes of at-risk youth. Three sponsor options are available:
Kauffman Youth Development Institute |
