Plano ISD Foundation receives $144K grant

Suburban, low-crime and considered property-wealthy by the state, Plano ISD is not at the top of most North Texans' minds if they are asked to think of at-risk students.

But the district's demographics are changing. The district has seen a "dramatic increase" in economically disadvantaged students in recent years, with 27 percent of its students qualifying for a free or reduced lunch, said Carlos Sastoque, executive director of the Plano ISD Education Foundation.

Thanks to a $144,000 grant from Communities Foundation of Texas, 93 teachers at Armstrong, Bowman and Carpenter middle schools will receive training for a college readiness program for at-risk students known as AVID -- Advancement Via Individual Determination.

"We have determined that these are the students that don't have the mentoring they need and the support from their families and their parents," Sastoque said. "They're also the ones who score the lowest on testing. ... As a result, we're trying to make sure that they stay in school and that they're prepared."

The grant will enable the district to expand the program, which is already available for students in grades 4-5 and 7-12, to the three campus' sixth-graders for the first time.

Texas Sen. Florence Shapiro, who serves on the Communities Foundation of Texas board and is a former Richardson ISD teacher, said engaging students at the middle school level is critical for ensuring future success.

"The saying goes, 'They drop out in the sixth grade, they walk out in the ninth grade,'" she said. "So if you can teach it a different way, if you can attract their attention a different way, if you can keep them motivated in a different way -- and this is all the teacher's responsibility -- then you have a much better chance of preventing them from dropping out of school."

Through the AVID program, teachers are individually trained to help students with the kind of note-taking and organizational skills associated with college success. Students will also be able to tour college campuses during the school year, Sastoque said.

"[Current AVID students] have gone on the tours and [kids on campus] will see their shirts and say 'I was an AVID student,'" he said. "So it really makes the connection for them to be able to say, 'If someone else can do it, [I] can do it, too.'"

The grant to the Plano ISD foundation is one of more than $2 million in education grants distributed by the Communities Foundation of Texas for at-risk middle schools in North Texas.

The grant program, which started this year, is complimentary to the organization's Educate Texas program, which has provided grants for high school college readiness programs since 2004, said Sarah Cotton Nelson, chief philanthropy officer for Communities Foundation of Texas

"Between 1970 and 2000, the rate of attrition between ninth and 10th grade has tripled, and Texas has among the worst attrition rates," she said. "... If we can change the mental and academic preparedness of students while in middle school, even if they are beginning to exhibit signs of being at-risk in sixth grade, we perhaps can circumvent the ultimate outcome of them dropping out during that great leakage point."

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