From the Desk of Kathrin Brewer

We have experienced an exciting few months at APIE as we have solidified our programs, recruited volunteers, and expanded our staffing. Callers to our main APIE number will speak with Grace Gonzales, who joined us as Receptionist and Volunteer Intake Specialist. Grace comes to us with extensive customer support experience at Xerox. Kathy Pham has been promoted to Technology Support Specialist. We welcome Tearson Larum as our College Readiness and 21st Century After-school Coordinator; Sandy Bootz as our Literacy Program Coordinator; and Linda Neavel Dickens, Ph.D., who develops training and evaluation materials. Veronica Luna coordinates our Adopt-a-School program and Helen Moore creates our recruiting and development systems. Each of the employees makes a significant impact on APIE programs, and I am grateful for their intelligence, wit, and hard work.

APIE's expanded staffing has enabled us to increase substantially the number of students we serve across the district with proven programs. APIE Collaborative Study Groups (CSG) have grown from 12 to 40 classrooms this fall, reaching approximately 800 AISD students. CSG in multiple subjects and grade levels allow volunteers to facilitate small groups of students in the classroom during the school day. Most volunteers received three to five hours of content and group process training that provides practical professional and personal development. APIE collaborates with The University of Texas at Austin, St. Edwards University, Huston-Tillotson University, Leadership Austin, SEMATECH, and other community groups to align leadership training and secure reliable and outstanding volunteers.

AISD and APIE still need additional volunteers to help coach and encourage students enrolled in the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program. The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce has paired with Austin ISD and APIE to ensure that 15% more students graduate college-ready. To date, 51 volunteers have committed to join AVID classroom study groups weekly to help juniors and seniors raise their grades and increase their college-entrance test scores above the Higher Education Readiness Component (HERC) standard. We are working together to see that these students, many of whom will be the first in their families to attend college, can avoid taking development classes as college freshmen.

We also are working with two other significant partners: A Glimmer of Hope Foundation awarded a $25,000 grant and Applied Materials Corporation granted $7,500 to support our unique Tech Corps program, a technical help desk that middle-school students run. Thanks to the grantors' generosity, Tech Corps will expand to seven schools this fall, supporting approximately 160 students. We continue to search for additional funding that will allow us to expand to all middle schools in the spring semester. Another technology program, Dell TechKnow, will take place in all 17 middle schools again, resulting annually in 600 student graduates becoming computer savvy and taking home extensive knowledge, a computer, and a year of free internet access. In the near future, we hope to create a technology pathway in collaboration with National Instruments for students to launch their technological education when they begin school. By the time they reach high school, these students will be able to make a career out of their skills or have the preparation needed to pursue that path in college.

This year, mentoring will follow best practices criteria to ensure a fulfilling and beneficial experience for the students, volunteers, and coordinators. Throughout the year, AISD mentor coordinators will convene to share their experiences and practices. APIE and other collaborative volunteer agency staff placed over 1,700 mentors in AISD last year.

The 21st Century After-School program provides a new opportunity for APIE volunteers to collaborate with AISD. This program occurs in five middle schools and takes place for two hours after the school day. The first hour is spent on homework assistance; the second hour, students participate in activities in a chosen area of interest.

With so many ways for volunteers to impact AISD students from weekly sessions to one time projects to Adopt-a-School opportunities, APIE feels grateful for all our community partners-they are key to providing AISD students with the best services possible. I thank the many companies-new and returning-that have accepted the challenge to recruit volunteers from their workplace.

APIE staff has done a great job coordinating and training our many volunteers and getting our programs up and running. APIE's success would not be possible without the support of AISD. The teachers, counselors, parent support specialists, assistant principals, principals, and administrators consistently contribute to making this opportunity possible in their schools so that their students can benefit from the care and knowledge volunteers are excited to share.

Finally, a big thank you to all of our volunteers. Whether you are new to APIE or have a long-term relationship, you are valuable to AISD students, and we are glad you have made the decision to join us. APIE staff look forward to doing whatever we can to make this year a good one for you.

In spring 2006 APIE piloted an innovative math tutoring program based on the research of Dr. Uri Treisman, Director of The University of Texas Dana Center. Due to the success of the math study groups - for students, teachers, and volunteers - APIE has decided to expand the study group model to two other subject areas: college readiness for high school students and literacy for 1st and 2nd graders. This school year APIE will coordinate three study group programs in 15 schools for elementary, middle, and high school students. We are excited about these opportunities and their benefits for AISD students and community volunteers.

College Readiness - APIE will provide volunteers to work collaboratively with small groups of high school students in the successful college readiness program called AVID (Advancement via Individual Determination). Students in this program are primarily first in their families to consider college. AVID students are placed in a college prep academic program and receive a support system to help them achieve good grades in these classes. Participating students acquire training in the skills needed for success in advanced classes such as note taking, organization, assignment tracking, and college-level writing. APIE volunteers will work with junior and senior students for 50 minutes per week, providing in-class tutorial support to help students succeed in their academics and meet the college entrance test requirements. APIE looks forward to contributing to the support and success of students working toward full admission into college.

Literacy Study Groups - APIE has partnered with the AISD Elementary Language Arts team to develop a program and materials to improve students' ability to read with speed and accuracy. The goal is to have students place more emphasis on comprehension and less on decoding. Volunteers model fluent reading and provide opportunities for students to practice reading aloud with corrective feedback. APIE is piloting the program in four elementary schools: Allison, Barrington, Sanchez, and Winn.

Math Study Groups - APIE will expand this successful program to four schools: Akins High, Reagan High, Travis High, and Bedichek Middle School. In this program, volunteers coach small groups of students to collaboratively solve math problems based on a lesson the teacher has presented to the students and the volunteers. The curriculum was designed in collaboration with the AISD Math Curriculum Department under Norma Jost, along with Pam Fails, Director of the Dell Math Academy. Feedback from last year's participants indicated that this program was of high value to students, teachers, and volunteers.

In support of Austin Partners in Education, 150 Deloitte employees applied both brawn and brains to help prepare Akins High School for the new school year. Volunteers tackled multiple projects including painting and landscaping, but also used some of the intellectual capital they apply in their full-time auditing, tax and consulting roles. Projects included ensuring security and privacy of Akins computer systems and re-imaging and updating more than 100 desktop computers essential to Akins as it transitions to a high technology high school. Other undertakings included installing an irrigation system, building picnic tables, mulching and planting, textbook inventory, and refinishing and painting the stage. Deloitte continues to maintain its commitment to Akins High School this year through Junior Achievement, focusing on economic and business curricula for students in grades 9-12, including state of the art, web-based company simulation.

"The Austin area faces important issues and Deloitte volunteers are involved throughout the year serving those needs," said Amy Chronis, Central Texas Managing Partner, Deloitte & Touche USA LLP. "IMPACT Day is a demonstration of that ongoing commitment to our Austin community. We are pleased to support Austin Partners in Education in this project.

"Using our professional skills and intellectual capital in our volunteer endeavors is a new approach to community involvement for Deloitte," Chronis added. "Skills-based volunteering is part of our long-term strategy to have a deeper and more meaningful impact in our communities. We are encouraging our 34,000 accountants, consultants, and other professionals across the country to look for ways they can contribute their expertise."

Featured Partner -- SanDisk

APIE, AISD, and SanDisk began a partnership in spring 2006 that has great potential to benefit AISD students. SanDisk developed the Cruzer Freedom, a rugged USB flash drive designed specifically for students. In addition to storing, sharing, and transferring personal files, the Cruzer Freedom also allows educators to distribute digital learning content like textbooks, course packs, web pages, audio, video, and worksheets directly to students' Cruzer Freedom drives through the Internet. Educators upload digital educational materials they have created through a web-based application program and then assign this content to a class. The students in those classes plug their Cruzer Freedom USB flash drives into their PCs and download these files. The students can then take the content with them to use at home or elsewhere.

During the spring 2006 semester, SanDisk partnered with Dell and APIE to bring this technology to the Dell TechKnow program. Each graduate of the program received his/her own flash drive containing the Dell TechKnow curriculum as well as plenty of storage space for his/her own files. The combination of the computer each graduate took home and this flash drive gives these students the tools to complete assignments at home on a computer and bring them back to school electronically.

This was such a successful pilot that APIE and SanDisk looked for the next partnership opportunity. An enthusiastic school partner was found in Scott Lipton, Director of Johnston High School's Academy of Global Enterprise and Information Technology. SanDisk has trained a number of Johnston teachers and is working with them on a monthly basis to develop digital content. The Johnston staff is also striving to transfer all textbooks into electronic format so that chapters or pages can be assigned to students. According to Mr. Lipton, "Our plan is to get the devices out to our students sometime this semester. The idea of an electronic backpack for students has incredible implications for our students in and out of the classroom. In the classroom, we see this as an efficient and highly accountable way to track assignments. Also, we are predicting that the use of electronic, interactive content will be a motivator for our students. My whole staff is very excited about the possibilities with this project." SanDisk has committed to work with Mr. Lipton and his staff throughout the 2006-2007 school year to make this pilot a success.

City of Austin -- Build a Backpack Contest

The City of Austin held a Build a Backpack contest both to kick-off the school year and to recruit more City of Austin volunteers for AISD. The City departments held a backpack drive and filled over 300 with supplies for AISD students.

Departments went to great lengths in their individualization of the backpacks. The winning backpacks sported unique themes, from "Think Pink" to the "UT Championship Pack." Some backpacks included hand-made bookmarks, personalized notes of encouragement, and even graduation cards.

The event proved to be a great way to start the year for the City volunteers and the schools. In 2005-2006 the City of Austin supplied over 100 volunteers to 44 campuses throughout the district and also supplied the well-filled backpacks. Comments from the schools include:

"Thank you very much for the wonderful backpacks! We are so grateful!"
- Pillow Elementary School

"Thanks so much! We love the ones we received, and they are filled with great supplies!!!!"
- Murchison Middle School

"THANK YOU so MUCH for the wonderful backpacks and assorted school supplies! I will make sure the items are dispersed to students that really can use everything!"
- Walnut Creek Elementary School

City of Austin staff said that the contest was so successful that they plan to make it an annual tradition.