August 2002
ACEE Launches National Service Effort to Increase Literacy Achievement in High Poverty Austin Schools
On Tuesday, August 27, 2002, Dr. Mary Ann Rankin, Dean of the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, will swear in 55 AmeriCorps members as they begin their year of national service in the Austin Independent School District. Forty members are current UT students, while the others are recent college graduates from all over the country who dedicate themselves to a year of full-time service. The AmeriCorps members will be part of a larger federal, state, and local initiative to increase the literacy achievement of students attending five low-income schools in Austin. The AmeriCorps induction ceremony is scheduled to take place at 4 p.m. at the LBJ Library and Museum (8th floor Atrium) at 2317 Red River, on the UT Campus.
AmeriCorps is a national service program, often referred to as the domestic Peace Corps, that provides people of all ages an opportunity to perform a year of community service in return for a modest (minimum wage) monthly stipend and financial aid for college tuition and/or student loans.
AmeriCorps for Community Engagement and Education is comprised of 55 AmeriCorps members (most are UT college students or recent college graduates) who commit a year of their lives to national service. Members receive intensive training and ongoing support from on-site literacy specialists. Members each provide research-based, one-to-one bilingual literacy tutoring to 3-8 children twice a week. They also become valued partners in the classrooms to which they are assigned, helping support the teacher's literacy program in many ways. Additionally, the members do monthly service projects in the school communities and promote parental involvement in the life and work of the schools through science- or math-based family learning events conducted at each school.
Highlights
There are many features of this project worthy of the community's attention: the collaboration among federal, state, and local agencies, the improvement of children's literacy achievement, the program's success in creating and training future teachers for AISD, and the presence of national service programs in Austin. Of the 160 ACEE members who have participated in ACEE since 1997, over 50 have gone into teaching. AmeriCorps member's commitment to children, their passion for service, and the sacrifice they make to serve the Austin community are less visible, but equally important features of the project.
In his State of the Union speech, President Bush challenged all Americans to dedicate a time in their lives to service. These young people have taken seriously the President's call to national service. Each of them will contribute between 300-1700 hours of service to participating schools between August, 2002 and June, 2003. This adds up to approximately 7000 hours of service for each participating school. The value of this infusion of talent, energy and commitment into low achieving schools in Austin is immeasurable. Project school communities and the larger Austin community are unaware of the program as well as the service AmeriCorps members perform. Programs like ACEE are important to Austin, but cannot be sustained without community recognition and support. It is vital to educate the community to ensure they are well informed of the contributions AmeriCorps members are making to increase student achievement and support local schools.