Houston, TX October 8, 2004

Students and Parents Get a
Personal Visit from Local Educators

Melissa Carroll, Director of Public Relations
Project GRAD Houston
Tel. 832-325-0301 Cell 713-253-6953
mcarroll@projectgradhouston.org

Project GRAD Houston, Communities In Schools, HISD Teachers & Volunteers visit more than 7,000 inner-city homes in a Walk for Success

Project GRAD Houston leads a Walk for Success into Houston’s inner-city homes to talk directly to parents and students about their child’s plans for the future. Project GRAD in partnership with Communities In Schools, HISD teachers and volunteers, is expected to make 7,000 door-to-door visits on Saturday, October 9, 2004. More than 3,000 volunteers will encourage parents to commit to activities at home and at school that will lead their children to graduate from high school and to pursue their dreams of attending college.

The 16th Annual “Walk for Success” home visit will familiarize parents with Project GRAD’s innovative pre-k through 16 school community collaborative that works with students in the elementary and middle schools in the Jefferson Davis, Jack Yates, Phillis Wheatley, John Reagan, and Sam Houston High School feeder pattern in HISD. The door-to-door campaign visits 9 th grade homes in five HISD high schools, 6th grade homes in eight middle schools and several grade levels in 40 elementary schools.

During the home visits, high school parents and students will be asked to sign a contract to be eligible for a $4,000 tuition scholarship available when students receive at least a 2.5 GPA, graduate in four years from a Project GRAD high school, attend summer institutes and meet specific school criteria.

Middle and elementary school families receive information about Project GRAD academic support programs and the scholarship potential at their feeder high school.

The scholarship program is the cornerstone of Project GRAD Houston, a nationally recognized education reform effort that trains teachers in successful reading, math, and classroom management programs throughout an entire high school feeder system. Project G RAD also provides funding for dropout prevention program that places trained social service referral professionals on each of the elementary, middle, and high school campuses.

“After ten years of Project GRAD in our schools, elementary school children and the rest of the entire community are now realizing and believing the dream of going to college can be achieved,” says Alma Lara, principal of Ketelsen Elementary School.

Project GRAD founder Jim Ketelsen, and retired CEO of Tenneco Inc., looks forward to closing the educational gap that exist in the inner-city and says, “We are encouraged by the current upswing in high school graduates who continue on to college, but our work is a long term effort that means we must touch every family in the community in order to build a strong Houston workforce.”

Project GRAD Houston was established at Davis High School at a time when the school had an average of 20 students per year going on to college after graduation. Beginning with the Davis High School Class of 1992, the Project GRAD Houston has expanded to the Yates, Wheatley, Reagan, and most recently Sam Houston High School feeder pattern. Over the last decade 2,047 students have enrolled in college using the Project GRAD Houston Scholarship.

Project GRAD Houston, Communities In Schools, HISD Teachers, and Volunteers will meet at each of the aforementioned schools at 8:00 am for training, and will begin their door-to-door home visits by 9:00 am. Families targeted will be those in various elementary grades notified by their principals and all 9 th graders. Walkers will then be invited to return to their neighborhood high school at 12:30 pm for a celebration luncheon.

Project GRAD places Houston at the forefront of education reform nationally. The program is being emulated in 11 other cities: Brownsville, TX; Atlanta, GA; Newark, NJ; Los Angeles, CA; Knoxville, TN; Cincinnati, Columbus, Akron, Lorain, OH; Kenai Peninsula, AK; and Roosevelt, NY. Today, Project GRAD serves more than 133,000 students in 217 schools in 12 districts.

Funding for Project GRAD Houston’s 16 th Annual Walk for Success is made possible in part by the generous donations from H-E-B and Silver Eagle Distributors.