December 8, 2010
Austin, TX – An estimated 15,000 local students will benefit from a one-time $1,000,000 grant to The Blueprint for Educational Change™ and RAISEup Texas partners from the Dell Foundation. The goal of RAISEup Texas is to build college and career readiness in all students through the transformation of teaching and learning in eight middle schools across the Central Texas region. This grant will help implement the Strategic Instruction Model/Content Literacy Continuum from the University of Kansas-Center for Research on Learning as the basis for whole-school reform in eight middle schools.
“We are excited to receive this tremendous support from the Dell Foundation,” said Susan Dawson, executive director of the E3 Alliance. “This generous grant offers a unique opportunity for school districts within our region to coordinate and improve instructional practices for middle school students to deepen critical thinking and problem solving skills.”
E3 Alliance is a regional education non-profit that uses objective data and focused community collaboration to align our education systems so all students succeed and lead Central Texas to economic prosperity. Together with literally dozens of community partners, E3 Alliance facilitated The Blueprint for Educational Change as the Central Texas community’s strategic plan to build the most successful educational pipeline in the country to ensure our competitiveness and quality of life as a region. RAISEup Texas is a collaborative regional effort that supports the Blueprint by eliminating achievement gaps and improving overall teaching and learning in middle schools, where data tells us far too many students aren’t reaching their potential.
Don Deshler, University of Kansas said, “Our work with the partners in this collaborative effort has been an extraordinarily unique experience. In the hundreds of projects that our center has engaged in during its existence, we have never dealt with a group of professionals who are so committed and passionate about making changes to existing practices to improve outcomes for learners.”
“The Dell Foundation has long been focused on linking arms with local organizations to tackle the issues that influence the ultimate success or failure of our youth and our community,” said Trisa Thompson, vice president of Dell Corporate Responsibility and chair of Dell Foundation board of directors. “Education tops the list of critical priorities, which is why we’re investing in the vision of RAISEup Texas.
The RAISEup Texas grant is one of several special grants totaling $2.5 million recently awarded by the Dell
Foundation. Grant recipients are in key Dell U.S. communities and address education and health and
human services needs for children and families.
Meria Carstarphen, superintendent of Austin ISD said, “It’s especially important to us that this is a
collaborative regional approach among all of our districts. We are all concerned about middle school
teaching and learning, and by working together, we can learn from each other and share best practices
faster and further, impacting literally tens of thousands of students across the region to be successful in
high school, college, career, and life.”
Grant partners include Education Service Center Region XIII, University of Kansas-Center for Research on
Learning, regional collaboration leader E3 Alliance, and six partnering school districts: Austin, Eanes, Hays,
Leander, Round Rock, and San Marcos ISD’s.
About the Dell Foundation
The Dell Foundation, the corporate grant-making foundation of Dell, awards grants to 501(c)3 organizations
located in or serving communities where Dell employees work and live. The foundation is focused solely on
supporting children’s issues, particularly in the areas of education, digital literacy and health and human
services.
