Woodrow Wilson has scored two big wins in academia. It was chosen for pilot programs with the Honors Development Advanced Placement Incentive Program, and along with its feeder schools, for a $15 million National Science Foundation grant.
The incentive program, sponsored by the O’Donnell Foundation of Dallas, will cost $3.8 million over five years and will eventually include nine Dallas high schools. The program is designed to increase the number of students taking college-level courses and to boost their scores on the Advanced Placement exam, which gives college credit for scores above three. The program also gives students $100 scholarships and will pay their teachers a $2,500 bonus plus $350 for special training, plus additional performance bonuses.
The honors strategy was previously tried by the foundation in Ellis County, where the number of juniors and seniors taking Advanced Placement classes jumped 46 percent. The plan emphasizes courses in English, science and calculus.
The National Science Foundation grant, another five-year program, seeks to link science and math curriculums from kindergarten to senior year by requiring students to take courses in these subjects every year.
Designed to narrow the gap between Anglo and minority students, the grant will pay for teacher training, and encourage the use of computers in the classroom. It begins next fall, along with clusters from two other high schools.
The math and science grant also chose Stonewall, Lakewood, Lee, Lipscomb, J.L. Long, Mt. Auburn, O.M. Roberts, Sanger and Zaragoza. This is a real coup for East Dallas.
Academic Boosters
Other programs recently instituted at Woodrow include the Texas Partnership and School Centered Education, which seek to free schools from excessive bureaucratic directives and give teachers, students, parents and the community more autonomy in curriculum, scheduling and governing of the school.
Also, a full-service medical clinic has been built to serve both Woodrow and Long students, and the Dallas Can! Academy has established a satellite facility at Woodrow to keep drop-outs in school.
To cap off all this good news is the creation of the Academic Booster Club. Its goals are to raise funds to implement programs for student tutoring, academic competition, enrichment lecture series, career fairs and a teacher assistance program that would provide new computers and office equipment.
For information, call Bill Hammond at 823-1725.
Give a Little
Better Kids, Better Dallas, detailed in the last month’s Advocate, was started by Woodrow alumnus Dr. Bob Smith, ’40. The $1 million challenge grant is designed to keep kids out of trouble and reward academic achievement. For information, contact the Greater Dallas Crime Commission at 965-9000.
You can also participate in altruism by taking your recyclables to the igloos in the Woodrow parking lot. Clear and colored bottles and jars, along with aluminum cans can be collected at this site. The proceeds benefit student activities, says Tim Bollinger, a marketing education teacher at Woodrow.
