Click here to read a story about this investment in the Daily Camera (paywall).

In September, we opened our Academic Opportunity Fund to provide grants to Boulder Valley School District educators and administrators to meet student needs on an individual, school or district-wide basis. We are proud to share that we have invested over $100,000 this fall to support BVSD students and schools.  

Who applied for funding

Over 60 applications were submitted to the Academic Opportunity Fund from 30 different schools and departments. Geographically, the schools ranged from Nederland and Gold Hill to Broomfield, and everywhere in between. Applicants included school principals and administrators, classroom teachers, and specialists, with an even mix of requests from elementary, middle and high schools.

How applications were reviewed

We engaged the community in this work by bringing in 15 volunteers to examine and evaluate the anonymized application requests and provide feedback on funding decisions. That data was then reviewed by Impact on Education (IOE) staff and final decisions were made.

• The average amount of each funding request was under $2000, though requests ranged from $100 to $20,000.
• 50 applications were funded directly by IOE, and we were able to connect six additional applicants to BVSD internal resources to meet the identified need.

What students and schools need

From school-based tutoring to RTD bus passes to an online math software, our Academic Opportunity Fund supported a variety of student and school needs including funding to:

• run a before and after school high school tutoring center specifically targeted to getting under-represented students enrolled and engaged in advanced courses. 
• purchase IXL Math to help BVSD middle schoolers catch up on the math concepts they may have missed. 
• repair instruments for BVSD for students in financial need 
• provide after school tutoring for students identified as needing additional support
• purchase Spanish language picture books for the classroom library.
• purchase 10,000 RTD bus passes to help ensure transportation is not a barrier to class attendance.

Future rounds of the Academic Opportunity Fund 

The positive response from schools reinforces the need for us to work closely with BVSD and provide supplemental funding to meet student needs. Our community volunteer grant readers were equally encouraged by their experiences learning about the needs of schools and educators across the district. We’ll continue to provide direct funding for school-based tutoring programs and plan to reopen the Academic Opportunity Fund for other needs early next year.

If your school is in need of funding for a tutoring program, please email allison@impactoneducation.org.

Student After Care (SAC) Supervisors and Assistant Supervisors serve a diverse group of students daily at 32 sites throughout Boulder Valley School District (BVSD). From grade levels to academic ability levels to emotional and behavioral health levels, SAC staff must manage each student’s needs and create a safe environment outside of school hours for students and staff.

To help SAC staff manage student needs and their own, we’ve partnered with the City of Boulder’s Housing and Human Services Department to invest $25,000 so two employees from each site can obtain 6 hours of professional development in Calming Kids Mindfulness and Yoga.

What is Calming Kids?

The Calming Kids training will introduce balancing the physical body, calming the energetic body and becoming mindful of thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Easy exercises to loosen the body, breathing practices, and relaxation techniques will be presented for staff to instruct students, as well as, how these tools can support the adult teacher.

Yoga and mindfulness education for the classroom setting provides strategies to support social-emotional wellness and brain integration. Participants will learn a curriculum for elementary age students enabling them to teach and model techniques for students, to assist with academic performance and cultivate a greater capacity for a compassionate community.

Benefits of mental health training

These training sessions will teach SAC supervisory staff how to regulate their own emotions amidst challenging situations and how to teach strategies for students to self-regulate within these same challenging situations.

What happens before and after school impacts the learning and experiences during the school day and at home.

Providing professional development in this area of mindfulness and social-emotional health also signals to SAC staff how much they are valued and appreciated. Our goal is to empower SAC staff with tools they need to succeed and build confidence in their abilities to do their job of taking care of our students outside of the school day.

Future investments

We are committed to meeting the social-emotional needs of BVSD students and educators and continue to seek out ways we can support this integral part of education in Boulder Valley’s schools.

We are excited to announce a new funding source, the Academic Opportunity Fund, to support students and educators in the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) during the 2021-22 school year.

Building on previous successes

During the 2020-21 school year we piloted the Student Academic Support Fund to meet individual student needs on a case by case basis. This pilot catalyzed our movement to support BVSD throughout the pandemic and provided over $25,000 to fund 20 separate grant requests. To expand this successful program to encompass educators looking to innovate within their classrooms and fulfill student needs, we consolidated the Student Academic Support Fund with our longstanding Classroom Innovation Grant funding program. 

Consolidating the Student Academic Support Fund and Classroom Innovation Grants into a single funding source for the 2021-22 school year allows us to meet both student and educator needs on a case-by-case basis.

“As the pandemic continues to disrupt education, we continue to assess the needs of our students and educators. The Academic Opportunity Fund allows Impact on Education to address immediate needs for academic support that supplement district initiatives.”

Allison Billings – Executive Director, Impact on Education

While other program dollars continue to support large-scale district initiatives including assisting with supplemental instruction across grade levels in math and reading, we know we know students sometimes face immediate needs for academic support beyond what BVSD is able to provide.

Needs we anticipate funding

The Academic Opportunity Fund is highly flexible and may support targeted tutoring, software licenses, transportation expenses, class fees, educator curriculum, materials for classroom use or other needs that stretch beyond what BVSD is able to provide.

“From my own classroom teaching experience, I’ve seen how even the most effective district initiative cannot possibly impact every single student. I value how this Fund singles out and meets unique individual and small groups of students’ academic needs.”

Jen Biegen – Program Coordinator, Impact on Education

The application form asks applicants to make sure their need is aligned with the most appropriate resource, whether it be Impact on Education or another BVSD or community organization.

How to request funding

The first application round is open now and will close on October 3. We anticipate opening subsequent rounds this fall and encourage those looking for funding to keep an eye on our website.

This year’s Summer Shuffle program looked unlike any other year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but the goal remained the same: preparing local preschoolers from low-income families for Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) classrooms. We’re so grateful we were able to have students learn in person by limiting our class sizes and following the BVSD health and safety protocols.

How the Summer Shuffle program works

Three Boulder Housing Partner (BHP) sites were selected to host a summer class, and each was staffed by a bilingual lead instructor and a bilingual paraeducator who delivered literacy, numeracy, and executive functioning instruction to BHP pre-schoolers and incoming kindergarten students. 

For five weeks, the classes met for two hours each Monday through Thursday, serving 31 children total from three to six years of age. In addition to the curriculum, kids were able to play outside and receive a take-home snack each day. New to the program this year, students were provided with their own copy of a new book each week based on the weekly curriculum theme as well as arts and crafts materials and supplies the families could keep for future use. 

What we learned this year

• Class attendance averaged 60% across the three sites with parents and caregivers attributing absences to inconsistent work schedules or transportation issues  
• 70% of the children made at least one point of growth on the BVSD TS-Gold Kindergarten Readiness Assessment*
• 82% of the students in the program could write their names on their own at the conclusion of the program
• 80% of the participants will continuing preschool enrollment or enrolling their child in preschool or kindergarten for the first time during the school year 2021-2022

What’s next for kindergarten readiness

We are working on plans for an expanded summer program in 2022 that will broaden our reach to more pre-K kids and to more communities. If you would like to help prepare our youngest learners for school, please reach out to Darcy to learn more or make a gift.

*The BVSD TS-Gold Kindergarten Readiness Assessment measures literacy/letter recognition, numeracy/number recognition and counting, and executive functioning skills necessary to engage productively and positively in a kindergarten class.

Our local K-12 students returned to classrooms last week, and preschoolers start on Monday, August 30. Everyone can feel the excitement, the anticipation, and the pure joy of being back at school.

On Friday, August 20th, hundreds of Boulder Valley community members came together (in person and virtually) to help Impact on Education ensure that all of these students have a great school year. We’re incredibly grateful for the sponsors and donors who joined and supported us.

Together, we raised nearly $250,000 to strengthen Boulder Valley’s public schools.

Impact on Education has big plans ahead, including a major investment to provide supplemental instruction for students to make up for unfinished learning from prior years and initiatives to ensure more students are prepared for college and careers.

At the gala we were touched to hear stories about students whose lives were positively and directly impacted by our work. And our keynote speaker, Erik Weihenmayer, took our theme, Together We Climb, to new heights. As a former educator and world-renowned athlete and adventurer, he spoke about the importance of teams in classrooms and in life, and he inspired us all with his incredible story. Every student will encounter barriers throughout their life much like the challenges Erik faces living and adventuring without sight. Erik reinforced the importance of our work as alchemists to eliminate the barriers standing in the way of student success.

We take this message to heart and are starting the school year off committed to helping all students find their paths to success. We wish every student and educator a wonderful school year!

Students and educators are excited to return to classrooms this week, and we’re proud to help ensure every student is equipped for success.

Students across our community have come to rely on Crayons to Calculators to provide a positive start to their school year, and 2021 was no exception.

This year was one of the most critical for the Crayons to Calculators program as more families found themselves needing assistance due to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. For health and safety reasons, we ran a modified program again this year, collecting monetary donations to purchase backpacks and supply kits, instead of having items donated and assembled by volunteers. Our partners at BVSD and SVVSD handled the logistics and ensured that each of more than 100 schools received backpacks and supplies for every student in their building facing financial hardship. 

We exceeded our Community Challenge goal of raising $25,000 and together with our Title Sponsor Western Disposal we collectively raised $250,000 to purchase and distribute school supplies to the students who need them most. We’re so proud of this and your dedication to our community.

Thank you for helping us provide school supplies to over 11,000 students in two school districts. We couldn’t have done it without you!

The partnership

In early 2021, we facilitated a $30,000 investment from the Arly Kruse Educational Foundation to fund targeted in-school and after school catch up tutoring for students at Alicia Sanchez Elementary School and Escuela Bilingüe Pioneer Elementary, both in Lafayette.

How the tutoring was structured

Each program selected the students using literacy and math assessment data and teacher recommendations as well as attendance data to ensure reliable and consistent participation. Because Alicia Sanchez enrolled fewer students than expected, only $21,375 was allocated this spring to provide targeted tutoring to 44 high needs elementary students to improve their academic skills and future success. The remaining funds will be used to implement a similar program in fall 2021. 

Escuela Pioneer Bilingüe Elementary began an 8-week tutoring program in March for 23 students in 3rd and in 4th grade. One BVSD educator worked with each grade level, using iStation to deliver literacy instruction and Dreambox to deliver math instruction.

Alicia Sanchez Elementary began an after-school tutoring program for 21 students in 2nd and in 3rd grade. The curriculum was delivered by A La Carte Learning Solutions, a virtual 35-lesson tutoring program, using a structured literacy curriculum delivered by a low (3:1) teacher-to-student ratio. Although the curriculum was designed to be delivered in person, it was delivered virtually with students logging on from school to connect in small groups with their tutor.

Tutoring results

Pioneer 3rd grade students met for two hours per week and focused on math instruction. Fourth graders also met two hours per week but divided their time between math and literacy instruction. Third grade math assessment scores increased over 30% on average, with all students gaining at least 17%. Fourth graders gained an average of 13% on their reading assessment and 17% on their math assessment.  

Alicia Sanchez Elementary School’s after school tutoring program data indicated that 85% of students showed growth. 58% of the students grew a grade level or more, with the balance growing between .5 and .9 grade levels in their reading.  

The plan for the fall

The Arly Kruse Education Foundation partnership with Impact on Education offered an opportunity to evaluate two different ways of delivering tutoring to students who need additional instruction. Although students showed growth using both models, the success of the Escuela Bilingue Pioneer model was more cost effective while demonstrating similar student outcomes as those of the Alicia Sanchez program.

As a result, Impact on Education is planning to expand upon the model from Pioneer to reach more elementary school students in the 21-22 school year. We are also exploring ways to provide this supplemental instruction during the school day to ensure that we can reach all students who need the additional support. Stay tuned for details!

Summer Shuffle Prepares Early Learners for BVSD Classrooms

Many of the children in this year’s Summer Shuffle program are learning in person for the first time. It’s a big change for the kids and a positive start to their preschool or kindergarten experiences this fall. We know that the wide gaps in educational achievement start very early, and our Summer Shuffle program, a partnership with Boulder Housing Partners, offers the critical early interventions that make a huge difference.

Summer Shuffle is a bilingual program that delivers literacy and numeracy instruction to low-income youth living in public housing in Boulder. Approximately 30 preschool age students are spending 20 days of their summer learning important skills such as letter recognition, counting, name-writing and so much more!

What’s different about this summer

The program is smaller this year, primarily to make sure both students and parents were comfortable with their kids learning in person. In addition to the smaller class sizes, masks are required and parents fill out daily health screenings.

“Kids are having so much fun being with other kids and not on the computer,” says Kathy Luna, the lead instructor for the program. “I’m hearing from parents that their kids are waking up early (in the summer!) because they’re so excited to go to school.”

Each week, students focus on a unit, such as insects, trees, buildings, water, and music, that provides a new book, activities, and introduces school supplies. This year, hands-on activities, including art, are what the kids are most interested in. Each student gets to take home a new book each of the five weeks, one of which is written in Spanish, and at the end of the program they get to take home their box of school supplies and a white board.

Getting students ready for classrooms

While the program focuses on building literacy and numeracy skills, our instructors are also preparing students for the classroom by cultivating executive functioning skills and teaching them about healthy behaviors like hand-washing.

“In just two weeks, my daughter has learned how to socialize and talk with other kids. She starts preschool in August and this program has really helped her.” 

The mother of a 2021 Summer Shuffle participant

This element feels extra important this summer considering how many of the kindergarten students have never been in a formal learning environment and would otherwise be walking into a classroom for the first time next month. These preschoolers, who learned remotely last year, are improving at writing their name and reinforcing simple skills such as holding a pencil to write and cutting with scissors.

We’re excited to see these kids learning while having fun with friends and neighbors, and to see kids getting back into the rhythm of school.

From the very start of the pandemic, we knew disrupted learning would create widespread inequities and learning gaps. We made sure to include supplemental instruction in the launch of our Critical Needs Fund to make sure we could fund opportunities for K-12 students to access additional instruction to catch up on learning they might miss.

This spring, we funded over 10,000 hours of supplemental instruction, providing opportunities for students to receive academic support and additional instruction after school and on Mondays as well as access to ACT/SAT preparatory courses. 

This summer, we are turning our attention to supporting the elementary and the middle school students whose skill levels in core classes are below grade level as well as high school students who need to recover credits they did not pass or did not complete. Doing the learning now will lead to higher growth and achievement in the fall.

Summer learning opportunities

While schools are closed for the summer, many BVSD students are still engaged in learning. The Boulder Valley School District kicked off its Summer Learning program this week for rising 1st graders through 9th grade students. 

With over 1,200 students enrolled, 160 of them, about 15%, are able to attend only because Impact on Education funded before and after child care. This allows all students, regardless of family income, the opportunity to receive safe, supplemental instruction, technology, and curriculum on their grade level.

In addition to summer learning, nearly 1,800 students are making up high school credits this summer, at no cost to them. Any student needing to retake a failed or incomplete course may sign up to take credit recovery courses this summer. While fees to retake high school classes typically cost between $50-$300, Impact on Education is funding all credit recovery courses for BVSD high school students this year with dollars from our Critical Needs Fund. 

Looking ahead

The academic support being offered this summer is designed to help ensure students start the 2021-22 school year on grade level. Work is underway to ensure we meet student needs when school resumes in August and throughout the school year, too. Keep an eye out for our blog or sign up for our e-newsletter for more updates about the ways we are supporting local students.

We’re excited to share that we have awarded up to $24,000 in scholarships to three graduating high school seniors. Applications were reviewed by a group of trained community volunteers, and student winners were selected based upon their academic achievement, financial need, and other eligibility requirements.

“From the number of applications we received for both scholarships to the strength and accomplishments of the applicants, this year highlights both students’ incredible drive to pursue their post-secondary education and goals as well as the deep need for post-secondary resources.”

Jen Biegen, IOE Program Coordinator

Our new Earl & Barbara Bolton Scholarship, is awarded from a $500,000 endowment left to Impact on Education by its namesake. The couple grew up in Boulder County, attended Boulder Valley public schools, and were well known in the community for their love of aviation, history, education, and travel. The scholarship is intended for students planning to study engineering, forestry, nursing, or medicine in the state of Colorado.

Earl & Barbara Bolton Scholarship

The $5,000 Earl & Barbara Bolton Scholarship was awarded to Shannon Blanco, a senior at Monarch High School. Shannon plans to pursue biomedical engineering & the Business Engineering Tech Program at CU-Boulder in the fall. This scholarship award is renewable for up to four years, with the potential to fund $20,000 of Shannon’s college expenses.

“On my service trips and volunteering in my community, I have seen the disparity of medical resources for under-served populations [which has] inspired me to look deeper into people’s access to medical equipment and aid. My overall goal is to transform the accuracy and efficiency of medical equipment to provide more accessible medical aid to those in need, specifically in struggling socio-economic communities and developing countries.”

Shannon Blanco, Senior at Monarch High School

Dennie & Donna Wise Scholarship

One of Impact on Education’s longtime scholarships, the Dennie and Donna Wise Scholarship, was endowed by a former board member to support up to two students a year planning to pursue a vocational, technical, or community college education. 

A $1,000 scholarship was awarded to Maria Garcia Diaz, a senior at Fairview High School and to Rodrigo Marquez, a senior at Boulder High School. Maria plans to pursue child psychology at Front Range Community College in the fall, and Rodrigo plans to pursue law enforcement also at Front Range Community College. This scholarship award is renewable for up to two years, funding a total of $2,000 of each recipient’s college tuition. 

“My goals are to make my parents proud as well as myself…I want to become a child psychologist. I have the opportunity to work in a field where I’m able to not only help others but make other people feel heard. I’m able to use my own life experiences to better understand others and help them know that they’re not alone.”

Maria Garcia Diaz, Senior at Fairview High School

“Since I was a child, my dream has been to become a police officer and help my community, especially the Latino community, my family, and friends. I want to help make changes that can help solve problems, and my goals have been influenced by my parents.”

Rodrigo Marquez, Senior at Boulder High School

We offer these scholarships to support Boulder Valley students in financial need who wish to pursue higher education. We’re able to provide this type of important financial support thanks to generous bequests left to the organization from local community members. If you’d like to discuss opportunities for planned giving, including bequests, gifts from a retirement account, charitable trust, or real estate, please contact darcy@impactoneducation.org.

Connect with Us