Among other learning enhancement capabilities, the grant will allow UCSD undergraduates to individually tutor Pauma students from kindergarten through 7th grade by means of Web-based, live video technology, thereby eliminating the need for tutors to physically travel the 45-mile distance between sites.
The school, predominantly serving North County American Indian and Mexican American communities, “was previously too distant to take advantage of having UCSD undergraduate tutors at its facility to help students with academic skills and to provide them with first-hand knowledge of why it is important to plan for college,” says Loren Thompson, UCSD assistant Vice Chancellor, Student Educational Advancement. Now, tutors can be in immediate, personal contact with Pauma students through a new specially-equipped Outreach Communications Center located on the UCSD campus which allows tutors to see, hear and communicate in writing with pupils, he says.
The grant also adds impetus to other key K-12 outreach efforts currently underway by UCSD in San Diego County through community partnerships, Thompson adds.
Working With School and Community Through Tribal Education Centers
Awarded to UCSD’s Student Educational Advancement office by the U.S. Department of Education, Pauma Elementary's five-year GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) grant will provide or enhance a multitude of educational services, including mentoring and additional after-school academic initiatives for students; computer and Internet training for parents and other adults; school staff professional development, and home visits to parents. A major feature of the grant will be to work closely with American Indian Tribal Educational Centers located on reservation lands to provide academic support and mentoring activities for students after school and on weekends.
Such activities will be closely tied to Pauma Elementary’s curriculum. As Pauma students graduate and move upward into Valley Center High School, GEAR UP program assistance will follow them.
Pauma Elementary, located in the Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District near the Pauma Tribal Reservation, is a K-8 school with more than 260 students. GEAR UP is a national, federally funded initiative designed to provide early college assistance for low-income and underrepresented students starting in middle school or earlier.
Grant Will Support Academic Enrichment as Early as Kindergarten
The Pauma Elementary grant is one of only six GEAR UP partnership grants awarded nationally last year to schools by the U.S. Department of Education, and is believed to be the first GEAR UP grant in the U.S. to support academic enrichment as early as kindergarten. (This marks the third GEAR UP program currently sponsored by UCSD. GEAR UP initiatives by UCSD, in partnership with the California Student Opportunity and Access Program, or Cal-SOAP, are also in place at Gompers Secondary School, and Horace Mann Middle School in the San Diego Unified School District, and at National City Middle School in the Sweetwater Union School District.)
The grant's funding enhances an emerging partnership between UCSD and other important entities, including the Pala, Pauma and Rincon bands of Luiseno Mission Indians and the La Jolla band of LuiseZo Indians, Cal-SOAP and the San Diego County Office of Education.
Services to Assist Students, Parents and Teachers
Chris Sommer, Pauma Elementary principal, is optimistic about how the grant will assist students, parents and teachers. “The GEAR UP grant will give our students an opportunity to access additional support in order to achieve their career goals, and to give them the necessary skills to prepare early for success,” Sommer says. In addition, she says, exposure to visiting professors, in-service training and other initiatives provided by the grant will enhance professional staff development at Pauma Elementary, while parents will benefit from various programs designed to teach them how to assist their children in a variety of educational arenas.
To help meet these objectives, funding at Pauma Elementary also calls for bilingual, after-school educational activities for students and parents through such programs as La Clase Magica, a nationally honored, community-based initiative administered by UCSD’s CREATE (Center for Research in Educational Equity, Assessment, and Teaching Excellence). In addition, the grant also provides after-school and summer enrichment to increase student proficiency in math, science, literacy, study skills, college admission test preparation, and career exploration.
Communication to Reservations Possible Through High-Speed Internet System
State-of-the-art computer services and infrastructure for the Pauma Elementary program are made possible by a broadband, high-speed Internet system connecting San Diego County’s remote Native American reservations to each other and to UCSD via an ambitious endeavor known as the Tribal Digital Village project. The project is funded by a three-year, $5-million grant from Hewlett-Packard to the Southern California Tribal Chairman's’ Association.
As a result, “UCSD is able to take outreach directly to Native American communities around the county,” says Ross Frank, Ph.D., UCSD professor of Ethnic Studies, who, with the San Diego Supercomputer at UCSD, played a key role in acquiring the Hewlett-Packard grant and integrating its capabilities into the Pauma Elementary program.