The ALPHA Partnership - Our Prototype
In Spring 2004, the former Office of University-School Partnerships started a concerted effort to coordinate existing partnership programs and facilitate the creation of new partnerships in order to establish a successful and effective framework for continued, long-term community collaboration within a five-year time frame. In the Fall of 2003, the university laid groundwork for the ALPHA Partnership which was launched in January 2004. This partnership works with Senator Richard Miranda (D-AZ, Arizona Legislative District 13), the school leaders of the Cartwright Elementary, Isaac Elementary, Murphy Elementary, Phoenix Elementary, Phoenix Union High School, Tolleson Elementary, and Tolleson Union High School Districts. It is the first of many that will leverage university, Pre-K-12, and community resources to enhance Arizona's academic achievement.
Through the ALPHA Partnership, ASU has offered the following opportunities to partner districts.
Plans are underway to reconfigure and expand the ALPHA Partnership in the following ways: 1) Form the Tolleson "family" of districts by including Littleton, Union, and Pendergast along with Tolleson Elementary and Fowler, all five "feeder" elementary districts which form the Tolleson Union High School District; 2) Align ALPHA elementary districts (Phoenix El., Murphy, Isaac and Cartwright) with receiving high schools in the Phoenix Union High School District; and 3) Use this reconfiguration to enable tracking student progress over time in a more-articulated education pipeline.
ALPHA Early Childhood Support
- Professional development in developing an Early Childhood Education Knowledge Base: Healthy Brain Development for School Readiness. This program focused on building a knowledge base for an action plan and implementation of programs for infants, toddlers, and parents with supporting materials in both English and Spanish.
- Through the aegis of the ASU Office of Youth Preparation, Leaps & Bounds - a kindergarten readiness program pilot has been offered in Isaac, Cartwright and Fowler school districts.
- United Way Parent Developmental Kits were disseminated by trained facilitators in English & Spanish.
- The Bridges Program has been implemented in 9 ALPHA partnership schools.
- With support from a federal grant, the Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Grant, the knowledge and skills of early childhood educators who work in communities with a high concentration of needy children are being enhanced via formal training and support.
- ASU Early Childhood faculty are working with partner districts and sharing their expertise in building new learning environments and teaching programs.
ALPHA Teacher Support
TELLA - Teaching English Language Learners in Arizona Institute: An optional, for-credit spring and summer institute to help participants better work with students; participants will have the ability to earn a provisional ESL endorsement and a Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) endorsement from the State.
Student teaching opportunities - Since spring 2005, approximately 190 Student Teachers have been placed in ALPHA districts. These student teachers were provided additional coaching and on-site support to meet the challenges of working in urban districts.
Scholarships - Eleven scholarships were provided for Student Teachers placed in ALPHA School Districts for spring 2004 at an ASU cost of $2,400 per student via the Project TEACH federal grant. Scholarship recipients were required to seek employment in a high-needs district; some seventy more scholarships have been awarded in Spring and Fall 2005.
ASU West's College of Teacher Education and Leadership, in partnership with the Rodel Charitable Foundation of Arizona, is matching Rodel Exemplary Teachers with promising student teachers. In the first year of the partnership, the Rodel Charitable Foundation Teacher Initiative selected 10 exemplary teachers from low-income schools basing their selection on high student achievement scores, principals' recommendations, observation, and interviews. These teachers were awarded a $10,000 U.S. Savings Bond in recognition of their outstanding instructional skills in the classroom, and in exchange will for three years mentor student teachers motivated to learn how to best work with low-income elementary school students.
ASU West's College of Teacher Education and Leadership through the West Valley Think Tank is working aggressively to alleviate a critical shortage of K-12 teachers.
ASU West's College of Teacher Education and Leadership has initiated three "2+2+2" programs with local high schools and community colleges to encourage students to pursue teaching careers.
In 2000, ASU West's College of Teacher Education and Leadership initiated an extremely popular I "Substitute Teaching" course to ease the shortage of substitutes.
AmeriCorps Service Awards were made to student teachers.
Mentoring for Novice Teachers - A pilot program has been developed to mentor beginning teachers working with urban, ELL students with on-site support for new teachers in Phoenix Elementary district.
A group of English Language Learner (ELL) expert teachers from ALPHA districts have worked to develop an Oral Language Protocol for use in K-8 classrooms.
ALPHA Educational Leadership Support
- Southwest Educational Leadership Institute & Follow-Up: A premiere event that featured Peter Senge on "Leaders for Schools That Learn" was offered in February 2004, with collaborative follow-up focused in the Murphy district in Summer 2005.
- Learner-Centered Leadership: Designed cohort program supporting leadership development in the Phoenix Union High School District and other elementary districts, to meet the needs of principals and assistant principals for service in urban and culturally diverse districts.
- Teacher-Leader Certification: For mentor teachers in the BEST program, course work applies to an ASU Teacher-Leader Certificate which is in development.
- Masters Programs: Working collaboratively with ASU Tempe, West campus, and ALPHA Partnership Superintendents, discussions are under way to establish masters programs in educational leadership leading to principal certification, to include tailoring instruction to district needs and co-teaching by superintendents and university faculty.
ALPHA Students, Schools & Families Support
Collaborated with Northern Arizona University and received the state GEAR UP award.
The Arizona Department of Health Services offered a "Health Fair" in the Tolleson Elementary district in April 2004 that attracted over 2,500 children and family members from the area.
Options for Excellence: Advanced placement courses to be implemented at the high school level as a possible foundation for "university high school"-- a "school within a school" at Tolleson Union High School District.
Rodel Community Scholars: An ASU College of Business program to increase involvement of Business Honors Program students in the community - designed to address minority dropout rates and to attract talented, under-represented students to the W.P. Carey School of Business; worked with 120 students at Tolleson Union High School District, currently developing a High School Dropout Recovery Center.
The ASU Downtown Campus' Child Welfare Training Project is a collaborative partnership between Arizona State University's School of Social Work (ASU SSW) and the Arizona State Department of Economic Security (DES), Child Protective Services (CPS). The project began in 1988 and is funded by the Child Welfare Field Education and Student Support Project, a Title IV-E grant. The program's goals are to prepare students in the School of Social Work at the Downtown campus to be competent and effective Child Welfare practitioners who appreciate the diversity of the population of the Southwest as well as to provide the citizens of Arizona with Social Workers who have an understanding of the professional knowledge base and can work collaboratively to promote change.
Young Writers Program: Provides opportunities for the K-12 community (4th through 12th graders) to work with ASU poets and writers in order to build student confidence through creative writing.
ENLACE (Engaging Latino Communities for Education): A summer 2004 university immersion for 50 students who had completed 11th grade and would be seniors in the fall; included four nights/five days of "demystifying" going to college.
The Violence Prevention Initiative (VPI) of the West Campus is a coalition of public and private partners in the Phoenix metropolis committed to developing mechanisms to reduce violence Valley-wide. Public and private partners involved in the VPI include the City of Phoenix, the Arizona Supreme Court, the Greater Phoenix Leadership and the Dial Corporation.
Early Start to College: During summer 2004, a three-day residential, university immersion program for middle school students to help transition to high school and on was offered. One hundred and twenty students from partner districts were sponsored at no cost to the students.
An ELL Community of Practice with representatives from all ALPHA districts has met since Spring 2006 to develop policy papers and advocate for ELL students.
