Program areas at PEF
Take stock in children (tsic) is a long-term initiative that awards low-income 6-9th graders with a college scholarship at high school graduation, pairs them with a caring mentor and connects them to college and career counseling and supports. By maintaining at least a "c" in all classes, meeting with their mentor, remaining drug and crime free, attending college success planning meetings and graduating from high school, students earn their scholarships. We provide resources and support from the time the student enters the program through their postsecondary attainment for approximately 1,000 students. Since its inception, tsic has maintained a high school graduation rate of 96% or higher.
We award more than 200 scholarships to graduating Pinellas county school students. The scholarships are as varied as the sponsors who fund them. Donors choose their criteria and focus areas such as specific majors, volunteer hours, academic achievement, sports, or financial need. Students apply for these scholarships through the Foundation's website whereby one application runs through a sorting process for all the available scholarship funds. Scholarships may be either one-time awards or renewable scholarships for students who continue to meet the scholarship qualifications throughout college.
We have three initiatives that focus on improving reading proficiency for students are our Pinellas early literacy initiative (peli), reading recovery, and closing the gap programs. Peli strategically focuses on prioritizing improvements in literacy instruction for pre-k and k-2 students. And teachers in eight Pinellas county schools and five community-based pre-k's. Recognizing that a kindergarten readiness gap exists for voluntary prekindergarten (vpk) participants, particularly low-income and minority students, this initiative connects public and private pre-k providers to developmentally appropriate literacy training and coaching. (continued on schedule o)by leveraging high quality professional development with instructional coaching for both pre-k and k-2 teachers, early student literacy gaps will dissipate more rapidly, effectively preparing students for the more rigorous content of grades 3-5. Reading recovery is a highly effective short-term intervention of one-to-one tutoring for low-achieving first graders who are not catching on to the complex set of concepts that make reading and writing possible. Reading recovery is currently in 17 schools that have some of the lowest reading assessment scores in the district. Individual students receive a half-hour lesson each school day for 12 to 20 weeks with a specially trained reading recovery teacher. Closing the gap grew out of research that boys were lagging behind girls in literacy achievement across the nation and in Pinellas county. Teachers are trained in brain-based, research-driven instructional strategies that are resulting in higher achievement for both boys and girls. Over 280 teachers have been provided with this training impacting 4,264 students.
Elevating excellence:elevating excellence provides high-achieving students and their families with a personalized path to college success and includes highly effective psat/sat preparation, individualized academic counseling that involves the parent(s)/guardian and individualized college and scholarship planning and support that includes the parent(s)/guardian. Priority is given to serve 1,000 low income and minority students who are 100-150 points away from qualifying for bright futures. Through the creation of college and career centers in every high school. These centers are the hub of information and support for students and families. Working in collaboration with school counselors, the college and career center teams provide individualized and targeted assistance to navigate the college-going process. Classroom grants: each year, over a hundred thousand dollars in grants are awarded to classroom teachers to create programs that are designed to enhance the classroom learning experience and positively affect their students. Grants range from a variety of stem materials, literacy support, music, art, and much more.academies of pinellas:the academies of Pinellas program is a community-wide initiative aimed at enhancing the high school educational experience by providing an opportunity for students in every high school to prepare for college while, at the same time, pursuing industry-recognized career certifications. It is our belief that we must have a superior educational system to ensure that our school children remain competitive in an increasingly global marketplace. Involving the private sector in our efforts to improve Education is vital to our success.the Foundation hosts a series of program events, such as evening of excellence, which is the annual teacher of the year event, and walker's rising stars, an event to honor the district's top student performing artists, visual artists, and culinary artists with scholarships.
Stavros institute:the gus stavros institute is a state-of-the-art learning complex dedicated to educating students in the free enterprise system. The institute houses two separate and distinct programs:(1) enterprise village teaches fifth-grade students about america's economic system through hands-on business simulations. Each year, more than 12,000 fifth grade students have the opportunity to run a radio station, publish a newspaper, work in a bank, or manage a utilities corporation and many other types of businesses. (2) finance park teaches eighth-grade students personal financial management in a reality-based center. Each year, more than 10,000 eighth grade students learn lessons in personal finance management--an introduction to the world of monetary decision-making.
School-based projects:school-based projects include programs that directly benefit individual schools such as the Pinellas county center for the arts program at gibbs high school, st. petersburg high school's green devil alumni fund, the academy of finance program at northeast high school, and the jacobson culinary arts academy at tarpon springs high school.
District-wide initiatives:school enhancement grants and district-wide initiatives provides financial resources directly to Pinellas county schools to enhance their programs and curriculum.