August 2007 News
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Harding School Receives $50,000 Early Intervention for School Success Grant
Harding School has been awarded a $50,000 competitive, two-year Early Intervention for School Success (EISS) implementation grant to support learning opportunities for students in pre-kindergarten through second grade. The funds will be used to help build the school’s professional learning community by providing professional development and collaboration activities to help the school’s youngest learners achieve academic and social success.
Specifically, grant funds will be used to develop a professional learning community among the preschool through second grade teachers and support staff. The team will participate professional development sessions and receive follow-up coaching in best practices in English/language arts, mathematics, and child development. The team will also meet monthly to align the early childhood program at Harding School. The EISS grant supports the vision and work of a broader professional learning community.
Building strong schools includes building strong partnerships and the Harding Early Childhood Initiative (HECI) is an excellent example of what can happen when people come together around a common cause. HECI is a partnership among multiple stakeholders committed to narrowing the achievement gap by developing high quality early learning experience in preschool through second grade. Members of the partnership include teachers, parents, community members, the principal, Santa Barbara School Districts administrators, professors and the dean from the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education (GGSE). Working together since spring of 2005, HECI has initiated new programs at Harding School. For example, the Bialis Family Foundation provided funding for a new separate preschool/kindergarten playground where students develop social skills and emotional regulation through participation in developmentally-appropriate and structured outdoor curriculum. Through HECI, the GGSE has become a significant partner by providing direct support to classrooms. The HECI vision includes an early childhood major at UCSB with Harding as a lab school.
“We know that the key to promoting high levels of learning for all students begins in the early years and the EISS grant will help us make the critical shift from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning and making the connections between teaching and learning both at the student and adult levels,” stated Dr. Sally Kingston, Harding’s principal.
Harding School is located on Santa Barbara’s Westside. In school year 2006-07, Harding served 571 preschool-through-sixth-grade students, of whom 94 percent are Hispanic, 86 percent receive free/reduced lunch, and 61 percent are English learners.