Since 2002, the Foundation has developed what we think is a progressive collection of educational funds and grant resources to accomplish our goal of addressing significant deficiencies, especially in the area of literacy. Our Donor Advised Funds are expanding each year to encompass a broader cross-section of the population. Annually, upwards of $100,000 is granted through the Foundation to worthwhile youth and educational initiatives that support the ambitions of talented young people on the island of St. Croix.

Model Schools Initiative

In the fall of 2005, the Foundation initiated and launched a comprehensive education initiative at Elena L. Christian Junior High School. Seeking to fulfill our long-term goal of developing a strategic and collaborative approach to improving our public education system, the Foundation identified a collective of literacy-based academic enrichment programs. The core pieces of these programs were chosen based on their proven success in promoting high performing public school students at a nationally recognized school in Warren County, Georgia. As the Foundation strives to take a leadership position in addressing the educational woes in our community, this effort represents a targeted, research-based academic endeavor, which serves to build a model public school.

Beginning in the Middle: Targeting Junior High Students

• The vast majority of student dropouts leave school in, or at the end of, 8th grade.
• While the 2000 VI Census estimates that 17% of youth between the ages of 16 and 19 are high school dropouts, the figure is believed to be significantly higher.
• Widely accepted precepts in academia conclude that public elementary school students are the most critical focus group for remedying systemic academic deficiencies. Subsequently, both locally and nationally, there is a high preponderance of private funds and public academic resources being directed to elementary schools.
• In contrast, organizations like The Gates Foundation, which believes that high schools, “…really are the most troubled part of our education system today,” are now spending billions on public high school reform.
• Junior high and middle schools are increasingly presenting a ripe opportunity to bridge current and significant resource and academic gaps between elementary and high schools.

Why Literacy?

• On the most recent NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) Profiles, only 7% of 8th graders in the Virgin Islands scored at proficient levels in reading. (The national reading proficiency for 8th graders is 31%).
• More recent statistics generated by our local Department of Education, rated reading proficiency levels for 7th graders at the 23rd percentile in 2003. There is no real explanation for the significant discrepancy.
• In the end, poor reading skills equate to poor learning skills, which directly contributes to students falling through the cracks and out of the system.

Model School Initiatives Programming

Phono-Graphix Super Speller
Originally created for elementary school students, Phono-Graphix Super Speller promotes the reading skills through targeted remediation. The program teaches children the phonemic ‘codes’ existing within each word and is increasingly being used by a growing number of middle schools to address poor performance in reading and vocabulary, filling the gap, which standard phonics and/or whole word strategies do not.
Scholastic: Reading Counts
To both supplement and evaluate the Super Speller, Scholastic: Reading Counts and Reading Inventory—computer diagnostic and tracking assessment tools—were purchased and implemented to provide students with the motivation to pursue higher levels of achievement.
Standardized Test Prep
Through a partnership with the University of the Virgin Islands’ CELL Program, the curriculum for a standardized test preparatory course was designed for use by eighth graders at Elena Christian and implemented in February, 2006. For this portion of the Foundation’s Initiative, targeted preparatory workbooks were purchased in such content areas as:

• Reading comprehension
• Critical thinking
• Writing styles
• IOWA test-prep
• General test-taking strategies

Youth Philanthropy
Funded by the Foundation’s Matt Miller Fund, a Youth Advisory Council is currently being developed. With an overreaching goal of exposing young people to the concept of philanthropy and charitable giving, the effort will provide grant funding for students to re-grant. This program will ultimately task students with identifying (and supporting) projects and/or causes within their respective local communities. It seeks to give students additional academic, civic, and/or extra-curricular opportunities.

Administrative Supports

As we become more actively involved with ECJH on this initiative, the Foundation, in our unique capacity to act as a liaison and community facilitator, has offered much more to Elena Christian than just academic programming. Our Education Initiative also consists of administrative supports, including:

Professional Development Opportunities

• Funding the attendance ECJH faculty members at symposiums and conferences focused on Public School Reinvention
• Supplying resources for teachers and administrators on classroom and behavioral management
• Providing training to teachers on reading instruction for struggling readers
• Developing partnerships with the public library and UVI to support the upgrade of ECJH’s school library

Incentive Packages

• Individual student rewards in categories such as attendance, citizenship, leadership, most books read, highest grade point average, greatest gains in reading scores, etc.
• Teacher, parent and administrative rewards in categories such as, innovation in teaching, excellence in classroom management, and leadership.

Community Engagement

Our Initiative represents a targeted, research-based, academic endeavor, which serves to build a Model Public School—an ambitious goal, yet one we believe that together our community has the will and the capacity to reach. The next phase of our Initiative focuses on creating a vision for the future, utilizing the Rigor/ Relevance Framework conceived by the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE). According to ICLE, none of America’s public school students will be academically prepared for life after school without the three new ‘R’s in education, namely;

Rigor: all students need the chance to succeed at challenging classes, such as algebra, writing, and chemistry.
Relevance: courses and projects must spark student interest and relate clearly to their lives in today’s rapidly changing world.
Relationships: all students need adult mentors who know them, look out for them, and push them to achieve.

Moving forward, the Foundation seeks to build on ICLE’s principle to ensure that our efforts in the area of education address systemic problems in our local public schools. Bringing relevant stakeholders in education to one table, we plan to work collaboratively to determine needs, clarify objectives, and identify available resources. The Board and staff of the Foundation, firmly believe that collectively this community can define our needs and in turn, successfully implement the changes necessary for lasting achievement.

In the end, nothing we do at the Foundation is possible without the full support of the community we serve. Every tax-deductible contribution to our educational initiative is a vital investment in the lives of our young people.