Sharp Literacy

Sharp partners with 49 urban elementary schools in milwaukee, racine and waukesha, serving more than 8,300 students and nearly 400 teachers. These schools are in many of the area's most distressed neighborhoods, evidenced by the fact that nearly 90% of Sharp students come from families that are categorized as economically disadvantaged. The students we serve represent a diverse population; 37% black, 43% latino/hispanic, 9% white, 8% asian and 3% two or more races. Support from generous donors allows us to continue to provide relevant, rigorous steam programming, including educational tour experiences for k3-5th grade students at no cost to the schools.sharp recently adopted a new strategic plan, and one of the identified ways to deepen impact is an integrated steam curriculum that incorporates three pillars: technology integration, project-based learning, and art & design thinking. Sharp's steam program lays the groundwork for a steam-based education, beginning in kindergarten. In k3-k5, students are introduced to physical and natural science concepts gravity, rainbows, force & motion, animals and plants. First and second graders continue respectively with studies of pollinators & pollination and the water cycle. Design through code (dtc 3, dtc 4 & dtc 5) is a 10-18 session program that introduces 3rd through 5th graders to video game design, physical computing, coding, circuitry, engineering and more. This year 2,375 students from over 100 classrooms at 14 schools in milwaukee and waukesha are participating in dtc workshops.established in 2014, Sharp's summer learning program partners with 20+ community learning centers and mps, providing innovative hands-on programming to combat summer slide common to urban students (losing academic progress in summer due to lack of educational opportunities). Our eight-week art and technology-based program serves 1,200 k-6th graders, keeping children engaged and learning. Slp helps address educational disparities, giving opportunities to students from low-income families and provides a purposeful and joyful summer experience.