The General Electric Foundation has awarded grants ranging from $750,000 to $1 million to four inner-city high schools for programs designed to double the number of their students who go on to college.
Valley High School in Albuquerque, N.M., will receive $750,000, and Aiken High School in Cincinnati, North Division High School in Milwaukee, and Western High School in Louisville, Ky., will each receive $1 million. The grants will be paid in installments over five years.
The grants are the foundation’s largest ever to individual schools.
Each school will use the money differently, said Phyllis McGrath, the program manager for ge Valley High School will establish a magnet school on its campus; Aiken High School will enhance its mentoring program; North Division will institute a comprehensive K-12 program; and Western High School will concentrate on restructuring and teacher empowerment.
Because volunteers from ge will work with the students, Ms. McGrath said, the foundation looked for schools near the company’s plants and offices.
The foundation, which has committed $20 million for the program over the next decade, expects to add new schools annually.
The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation has awarded five urban districts up to $400,000 each over two years to challenge low-achieving middle-school students.
The five districts receiving the assistance are Baltimore; Louisville, Ky.; Milwaukee; Oakland, Calif.; and San Diego.
The districts will use the funds for such measures as eliminating tracking of disadvantaged students, putting low-achieving students into accelerated classes; and requiring students to repeat only the courses they fail.
Eight high schools have been chosen as sites for “corporate academies” under a program sponsored by the Burger King Corporation, the U.S. Justice Department, and Cities in Schools.
Using the Cities in Schools model, the academies will bring together an array of existing public and private resources to offer internships to students, jobs and skills instruction, specialized counseling, and child care.
Each high school will serve up to 125 students. The Justice Department is providing a $1 million grant to initiate the program.
Academies will open this fall in Miami and Palm Beach County, Fla.; Columbia, S.C.; San Antonio, Tex.; Philadelphia; and Inglewood, Long Beach, and Sacramento, Calif.
Sites for two other academies, which will open by February, will be named shortly.--rrw
