Some 30 Colorado high schools will share in a $10.5 million grant intended to broaden the diversity of students who take Advanced Placement tests.

Helayne Jones, president of the Colorado Legacy Foundation, this morning announced the grant from the National Math and Science Initiative, which is redistributing funds from a federal Investing in Innovation (i3) grant.

The funds will expand on an existing Legacy program and be used to support 30 Colorado high schools and their feeder schools with three-year grants intended to increase Advanced Placement enrollment and achievement in groups of students that typically haven’t participated.

“This program gets results, and it gets results for students who too often don’t pursue advanced classes,” said Jones. “The real focus of this work is achievement gap closing.” She said a small existing program involving seven high schools over the last two years has produced an 80 percent AP enrollment increase and a 53 percent increase in qualifying scores.

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The Colorado Legacy Foundation will channel $10.5 million in federal funding over the next five years to a program that encourages enrollment in Advanced Placement classes to close the achievement gap.

The primary goal of the grant is to improve student performance among traditionally underserved students in 30 high schools. Colorado was one of only two states — Indiana was the other — to receive the federal funding, channeled through the National Math and Science Initiative.

“This is a complex program and so much more than getting kids to take advanced curriculum,” said Helayne Jones, president and CEO of the Colorado Legacy Foundation. “There’s proven research that shows kids who are not performing as well as they’d like benefit from having higher standards and curriculum. There’s a paradigm shift that supports the notion that every child can succeed and should be allowed to succeed in a rigorous curriculum.”

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The Colorado Legacy Foundation will expand its successful Legacy Schools Program to 30 high schools in the next three years, thanks to a $10.5 million grant from the National Math and Science Initiative.

The program, launched on a limited basis last year at seven pilot schools including Pueblo’s Centennial High School, seeks to increase enrollment and achievement in advanced-placement courses by providing support for students and training for teachers.

The Colorado Legacy Foundation supported a pilot of the program in Colorado in the 2010-2011 school year, with seven high schools participating.

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The Colorado Legacy Foundation supported a pilot of the program in Colorado in the 2010-2011 school year, with seven high schools participating.

Read more here.

DENVER — Thirty Colorado high schools will soon be selected to take part in an innovative program designed to turn more students on to math, science and English.

That innovative program, called the Colorado Legacy Schools Program, will be funded with a $10.5 million grant from the National Math/Science Initiative.

The Colorado Legacy Foundation announced confirmation of the grant on Tuesday morning.

Foundation President/CEO Helayne Jones told 7NEWS that the money will be used to replicate a national program called the Advanced Placement Training and Incentive Program.

Jones said, “This program is about getting students that are not traditionally “A” students into those (advanced) courses and passing the test.”

“What this program is about,” she said, “is taking a philosophy that any student who wants to challenge themselves, to delve into curriculum, to learn more about science or math, should be given that opportunity and should be supported.”

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“The Colorado Legacy Foundation is committed to providing strategic support to educators across our state in a way that positively impacts student achievement,” said Dr. Helayne Jones, President and CEO of the Colorado Legacy Foundation. “The Literacy Design Collaborative provides teachers with useful and innovative tools that can bring about real improvement in their classrooms. In addition, we are using this opportunity to take advantage of the intellectual capital available in our state and structuring the workshop so that Colorado educators learn from national experts how to train others in the state.”

The Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) offers a fresh approach to incorporating literacy into middle and high school content areas.  Designed to incorporate literacy instruction within core subjects, LDC allows teachers to build content on top of a coherent approach to literacy. This two-day session introduces educators to the LDC system and provides an opportunity to explore some of its key features and complete an LDC module.

The event includes educators and education leaders from five school districts participating in the Colorado Integration Project.  This project includes thirteen school districts piloting work to implement recent legislation regarding standards, assessments, and evaluations. Lessons learned will be shared statewide as all Colorado school districts work to implement the new requirements.

CLF has engaged a number of local Colorado education leaders to participate in the LDC workshop, train educators on the use of the LDC tool, provide on-site coaching, and engage staffs in professional learning communities focused on the implementation of the LDC modules.

“Research shows that feeling unsafe at school has a direct correlation to declines in academic achievement,” said Dr. Helayne Jones, President and CEO of the Colorado Legacy Foundation. “The Colorado Legacy Foundation is committed to having a positive impact on student outcomes, and we are proud to work with key partners to support school districts in creating safe and welcoming environments for all Colorado students.”

With generous support from the Gill Foundation, this day-long event featured Dr. Dorothy Espelage, a nationally renowned expert in child development and the Associate Chair of the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Presentations regarding bullying and special populations, as well as cyberbullying, were presented by CLF, the Colorado Department of Education, the Colorado School Safety Resource Center, One Colorado and the Anti-Defamation League.