BlueStreak + John Simmons Math Grants for Continuous Improvement
With the support of John Simmons, BlueStreak is offering two matching grants to assist schools and districts in need of math support in the wake of budget cuts that have limited their ability to provide additional resources for students with academic challenges.
Grant Overview
Continuous improvement is not a concept specific to education. It has been used in fields like healthcare for decades, but educators like John Simmons have increasingly adopted and promoted its benefits within the education space.
According to a research paper by the Institute of Educational Sciences, continuous improvement in education is based on three core principles:
- Change takes time and involves collective effort.
- Change requires constant adaptation, data collection, and learning.
- Focusing on a series of small changes, combined with ongoing evidence collection and review, can lead to large-scale change.
The following grants serve to support these efforts in the subject of mathematics for schools around the country.
John Simmons Continuous Improvement Grant
John Simmons was the President of Strategic Learning Initiatives in Chicago, IL for more than 31 years. He dedicated his life’s work to systems for educating and elevating students and was considered by many to be a guru for continuous improvement in education. After his passing, his family and friends graciously contributed funds toward grants to support continuous improvement.
Who it’s for: Current or past BlueStreak Math schools and districts impacted by budget cuts
Application deadline: Dec. 6, 2024
Emerging Learning Grant
To further honor John Simmons’ legacy and further continuous improvement in schools nationwide, we have created a “sister grant” for schools new to the BlueStreak galaxy. Its goal is the same—to provide additional resources to students and schools in need of additional math support—but its audience differs.
Who it’s for: Schools and districts new to the BlueStreak galaxy impacted by budget cuts
Application deadline: Dec. 6, 2024
How BlueStreak supports continuous improvement in mathematics
BlueStreak Math completes a traditional math curriculum with a modern, comprehensive, and anxiety-free approach to math fluency, with features designed to support a cycle of continuous improvement.
- Data-rich reports: Help interventionists monitor trends in student performance at the individual and group level and diagnose areas for growth with real-time data and comprehensive reports.
- Intervention groupings: Identify students in need of additional support. BlueStreak’s Intervention Grouping Tool automatically groups students by skill and indicates the immediacy of the need for intervention.
- Turnkey mini-lessons: Each group in the Intervention Grouping Tool corresponds to a turnkey, scaffolded mini-lesson in BlueStreak Strategy Log worktexts for low-lift direct instruction, perfect for Tier 2 & 3 intervention.
- Professional development: Comprehensive PD sessions help administrators and teachers more easily implement BlueStreak solutions, as well as better monitor and interpret student data to more effectively inform instruction.
How schools are already using the grants
This is the second time BlueStreak has opened the John Simmons Continuous Improvement grant to schools and districts. Two Chicago-area schools have already received the grant and continue to use those licenses to bridge the math fluency gap and build student confidence in mathematics: Adam Clayton Powell and Leslie Lewis Elementary Schools in the Chicago Public School District. Both schools use BlueStreak to strengthen their Tier 1 core curriculum by implementing BlueStreak Math in primary grades.
