FOSTERING HIGH-QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL

Immediate Need

Our programming is comprised of areas that make an immediate and daily impact on vulnerable populations in our community. Our comprehensive program, Fostering High-Quality Education for All, was created to impact homeless students, their families, and under-resourced/underprivileged students in Central Florida. Everyone involved in the education industry (teachers, administrators, parents, and students) knows about the severe learning loss that has occurred since March 2020 due to the pandemic. It is projected that the pandemic learning loss could cost students $70,000.00 in lifetime earnings, which equates to 5.6% lower lifetime earnings. Therefore, your support is imperative to our community. We have been working diligently daily to improve the academic impact of missed instructional time while responding to our student's academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs. Your funding will be a beacon of hope for students from low-income families, students of color, English learners, children with disabilities, students experiencing homelessness, children in foster care, and migratory students. Additionally, our comprehensive programming supports literacy and remediation programs throughout our community for underserved students while providing evidence-based, intensive outside-the-school-day learning opportunities and summer enrichment for our students by providing in-person and virtual tutoring services, books, supplies, college prep services, and feeding programs.

About Us

During these unprecedented times, Fostering High-Quality Education for All is honored to support underserved students in Central Florida, help close learning gaps, and provide vital services to elementary, middle, and high school students during these uncertain times. Our organization has prioritized ensuring our programs are "accessible," not just "available," by providing transportation to students. Hence, they have the opportunity to benefit from the innovative programming offerings. Additionally, to execute our relationships and partnerships with individual underserved schools, it is understood that every supplemental activity or program performed will promote equity by making programs more accessible by providing content in sync with student needs and purposefully designing out-of-school-time programs to meet our students' specific and diverse needs. This is done by integrating school-day equity supports into Out-of-School Time programs, such as professional development opportunities, culturally responsive/sustaining programming, and mental health supports.

Post-pandemic, we are committed to supporting remediation and literacy programs to keep our students from falling behind due to the year and a half of academic learning loss from digital learning and school closures during the pandemic. In addition, we provide brand new books to underserved students and books to schools that serve low-income African Americans and students of color to create classroom libraries. Most importantly, we also provide high-impact and high-dosage tutoring to provide targeted tutoring to our struggling population of students who might be struggling more in one subject area than another, along with High-Quality Materials and Supports for intensive outside-the-school-day learning opportunities and summer enrichment programs that will help close learning gaps and address students' academic and youth development needs.

Our tutoring and enrichment programs will impact our students' academic and youth development needs. Our programming will concentrate on literacy, science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), and civics; while being supported by data-driven analysis from assessment results. The personalized attention our students will receive will help pinpoint the root causes of their struggles while bridging gaps that will set up our students for a future of academic success and lead to the goal of improving grade-level reading by the end of our programming. Our literacy programs will engage research-based practices and implement literacy-rich schedules for identified students who would benefit from these additional supports. In addition, our tutors will utilize high-quality materials and practices to ensure every student understands phonics, basic reading skills, vocabulary, spelling, reading comprehension, word meaning, critical thinking skills, and other identified needs.

Our high-school program provides free PERT, SAT, and ACT testing preparation study guides and tutoring, complimentary breakfast and lunch during tutoring sessions, scientific calculators, up to five free college books for their first semester of college, gas cards, paid college application costs, and ACT/SAT waivers. Our high school programming will build critical thinking skills for our student's future higher education and post-high-school career endeavors.

High School Services

Providing strategies, advice, support, and guidance to students and their families from the application process throughout high school makes the best individualized choice for college.
Assisting students in identifying resources for scholarships and financial aid for colleges and universities.
PERT, ACT, and SAT preparation/payment assistance.
Setting short-term and long-term academic and career goals.
Mentoring services.
Armed Forces Recruitment Liaisons and ASWAB test preparation.

Program Goals

Moving our students to pre-pandemic levels and leaving the learning loss in the rearview mirror by utilizing evidence-based, comprehensive, intensive outside-the-school-day learning opportunities for students by providing in-person and virtual tutoring services.
Engaging families by providing translation services for non-English speakers, soliciting parent input in programming, offering virtual meetings to make it easier for working parents to communicate student needs, going door to door in communities to enroll students in programs, and providing family services, including free meals.
Promoting equity by making programs more accessible by providing content in sync with student needs and purposefully designing out-of-school-time programs to meet our students' specific and diverse needs.
Providing books to underserved students to support literacy to combat learning gaps due to post-pandemic education slides.
Providing books to schools to build classroom libraries and supporting literacy programs to combat learning gaps due to post-pandemic education slides.
Aligning program content and staffing with student interests and needs.
Providing consistent and personalized high-impact and high-dosage (offered three or more days of the week) tutoring to struggling, underserved students.
Providing PERT, SAT, and ACT test preparation, including study guides, online access, and tutoring.
Ensuring homeless children have access to education and other services meets the same standards to which all students are held.
Ensuring all high school students of every race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic level have accurate information, tools, knowledge, and opportunities to attend the country's best colleges.

College Prep

Resources:

College Board (SAT) - Information about SAT I and II testing and scholarship searches
ACT Testing - Information about ACT testing, registration, and financial aid.
Postsecondary Education Readiness Test (PERT) - Information about the entry-level placement test required of all degree-seeking students in the Florida College System (FCS) according to Florida Statutes, Section 1008.30, Rule 6A-10.0315.
Fast Web - Provides financial aid and scholarship information.
Florida Shines - Information about FL universities, financial aid, and career counseling.
National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators - Guide to financial aid and provides scholarship searches.
Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) - Provides information about financial aid.