Monday, July 18, 2005

By Larry Pakowski, PR Intern

WILMINGTON, N.C. - University of North Carolina Wilmington professors Karen Wetherill and Robert Blundo have received a $299,837.00 grant to fund “Coalitions 4 Success,” a joint venture between UNCW’s Watson School of Education and College of Arts & Sciences. The purpose of the program is to unite a coalition of educators to build the region’s capacity to ensure the success of an increasing diverse group of at-risk students, including those characterized as Limited English Proficient (LEP).

Three school districts will be served by the project, including Brunswick County, which is listed as a high need, at-risk local educational agency by the NC Quest website and North Carolina Census data. The other two districts, New Hanover County and Pender County, are not identified as high need, but the individual schools selected from these districts have been deemed high need by their district officials. West Brunswick and North Brunswick High Schools will participate from Brunswick County, Pender and Heidi Trask High will participate from Pender County, and New Hanover High School will participate from New Hanover County.

A team of 30 educators, including four core subject teachers, one additional teacher working closely with the LEP students, and one school administrator from each of the five schools, will directly improve the educational outcomes of approximately 185 students throughout the five high schools characterized as being LEP.

The goal of the program is to provide the teams opportunities to develop in-depth understanding of their school and students’ needs, to generate a strategic plan and vision for the implementation of the various components of the program in their school, and to implement the program in their school and classrooms. “Coalitions 4 Success” uniquely provides such opportunities for the member schools, in accordance with “No Child Left Behind” legislation. During the past five years the Watson School of Education at UNCW has conducted research on the professional development model, particularly through grants, that in addition to learning community models have resulted in building teacher capacities in teaching, assessment, and leadership. For more information, please visit http://www.uncw.edu/ed/c4s/.