2007-2008 Project SAVE Grant Program

Abstract

Abstracts are posted as submitted by the Project SAVE award winners
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School District Name Lyons Central School District
Address 10 Old Clyde Road
City Lyons / State NY / Zip 14489
Contact Person Alia Henton-Williams / Telephone with area code 315-946-2200 ext. 2015
E-mail Address / Fax with area code 315-946-2205
Place an ‘X’ in the appropriate focus area(s)
xPre-K-4
x Grades 5-8
x Grades 9-12
Place an ‘X’ in the appropriate curriculum area(s)
Arts / Mathematics
Career Development & Occupational Studies / xPhysical Education
English Language Arts / xScience
Family & Consumer Sciences / xSocial Studies
xHealth Education / xTechnology Education
Languages Other Than English
Project SAVE Grant 2007-08 Abstract:

The proposed project will provide instructional programs promoting civility, citizenship and character in disconnected students in grades 3 through 12 in four school districts: Lyons, Clyde-Savannah, North Rose-Wolcott and Marcus Whitman. Disconnected students lack access to or participation in academic and social support at home and/or in school and social environments. These students typically do not participate in optional academic, recreation or social enrichment programs and are characterized by lack of commitment to school and community, high levels of alienation and rebelliousness. The collaborative venture includes Big Brothers Big Sisters, and the Partnership for Ontario County as well as local and regional environmental groups, (e.g. Friends of Montezuma and Savannah Dhu), businesses and State and local government agencies to address a common goal of providing coordinated programs to reduce risk factors in disconnected youth. The project will provide vital resources to assist the three Wayne County school districts to reach this goal utilizing the experience of Marcus Whitman schools as a “mentor” school. Over the past six years, Marcus Whitman has implemented and served as a demonstration site for the School-Based Mentoring program and Project STREAM. Whitman is also one of the original sites for development of the Yes Pa character education program. The project is intended to create a coordinated program by sharing the knowledge and experience of each collaborator to develop existing programs and implement the missing components.

There are four major component programs in the comprehensive approach to promoting civility, citizenship and character are: School Based Mentoring, Project STREAM (Service Through Recreation Education and Mentoring), Yes Pa Character Education Program, and We the People-Project Citizen. The programs will serve approximately 20 students at each level in each school. Thus, the four schools will serve 80 elementary schools students (Littles), 80 middle school students in Project STREAM, and 80 high school students (Bigs). In year one, 20 ninth grade students at Marcus Whitman will participate in Project Citizen and in year 2-3, the three remaining districts will participate. Our project focuses on the following five goals.
Goal 1: Through service to others, students will learn civic values, citizenship responsibilities, positive character traits, and cross-cultural understandings of other students. Goal 2: Students will build bonds, and learn responsibilities and attachment to one another, their schools, and their communities. Goal 3: Through service learning and traditional instruction, students will be exposed to and experience the value of citizenship, as well as examine ethical questions and challenges. Goal 4: Students will reflect on questions of respect, personal responsibility, honesty, tolerance, integrity, courage, caring, courtesy, dignity and justice. Goal 5: Implement “best practice” character education models using professional development, qualified instructors, with support from local lead environmental organizations and higher education institutions.
The outcome evaluation uses a vigorous quasi-experimental design in which school counseling and instructional staff identifies a pool of disconnected students. From this pool, students are selected randomly for participation and the remaining students are included as the control group. Key measures include the Big Brothers Big Sisters Teacher Rating Form, which includes ratings on 18 characteristics representing competence, confidence and caring and Student Risk and Protective Factor Survey, which has items on numerous factors, attitudes and behaviors.

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