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Reno, NV - January 21, 2010 -- AT&T and United Way
Worldwide awarded a $50,000 grant to the United Way of Northern Nevada and the
Sierra (UWNNS). This funding is part of
a new initiative designed to help parents and caregivers get more involved in
their child's education.
UWNNS has partnered with the Washoe County School District
(WCSD), the Nevada State Parent Information & Resources Center (PIRC), the
Education Alliance of Washoe County, and the Ready for Life Washoe County to
work collaboratively on implementing a plan to improve student achievement and
increase graduation rates for at-risk students in the WCSD by empowering their
families with the knowledge they need to support their children's academic
achievement.
"The Education
Alliance and Nevada State PIRC are very excited to be one of the fifteen local
partnerships to improve family engagement support to our local high schools,"
said Denise Hedrick, Executive Director of the Education Alliance.
The grant funds will be used for planning and gathering data
to outreach and engage parents. Specific
goals will include strengthening home-school relationships; enabling families
to understand student data so that they can better track and monitor student
attendance and grades; linking family engagement to student learning; and
building the capacity of schools and teachers to engage family involvement in
the community. Teams will be formed at
each of the WCSD high schools and will include an administrator, counselor,
teacher, and parent.
About The Washoe
County School District: The Washoe County School District includes
the Reno/Sparks metropolitan area, Incline Village, Gerlach, Empire and
Wadsworth, Nevada. The District provides each of its 64,000 students with a
superior education in a safe and challenging environment and is committed to
graduate every child career and college ready.
For more information
visit: www .washoecountyschools.org. Follow us on Twitter.
"The Washoe County School District is committed to making
the district accessible to all parents. We know parents are a child's first
teachers. We are pleased to be partners with United Way and the Education
Alliance to assist parents with understanding how schools work so that they may
fully support their children's efforts to achieve academic excellence," stated
Dr. Heath Morrison, the Superintendent of Schools for Washoe County.
