Arizona School Tax Credit

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EScrip for Kids
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Kid’s Closet provides children with clothing and other school supplies so they can go to school. The Education Program is designed to make sure that these students are successful in school, up to and including college or a vocational school.

SaddleBrooke Community Outreach’s Education Program (named Project Catapult) was started in 1999 at San Manuel High School. At that time, approximately 50% of the high school students were getting D’s or F’s in their math classes. In addition, only 8% of the students were passing the AIMS Math exam. This test is a graduation requirement.

Originally, about 15 tutors were recruited from SaddleBrooke to tutor math in grades 9 through 12. A computer tool called Accelerated Math allowed each tutor to work with about 7 students at a time. AccMath is a rapid testing tool that prints multiple choice questions for selected math concepts. It also grades the answers, which are penciled into a series of “bubbles” printed on an optical scan card. A few seconds after a student puts the card in a small optical reader (see left picture above), the computers corrects the student’s work and tells the tutor if there is a concept that the student needs help with. After the tutor reviews the problem math concept with the student (see right picture), the student is tested on a new set of problems to assess their understanding of the concept.

The use of this computer-aided tutoring quickly resulted in substantial gains in all areas of math. A special class was developed for all students who failed to pass the AIMS Math test. In its first year, about 80% of the students who failed the AIMS test passed it after taking this AIMS class. Therefore, Project Catapult was quickly expanded.

The Math part of Project Catapult was expanded to schools in other schools in San Manuel, as well as schools in the towns of Oracle and Catalina and to the high schools students in these towns attend. Currently, about 100 math tutors work with about 600 students a day at four K-8 schools and three high schools. Scores for the AIMS test, which is now given at all grades from grade 3, have risen dramatically at all schools. About 85% of students in the elementary and middle schools now pass their annual tests and nearly 90% pass the exit exam in the three high schools.

Tutoring in reading is now also provided by about 50 tutors in two elementary schools and has helped increase reading proficiency substantially. 

The Scholarship Program

 The Education Program was expanded to include a scholarship program at the three high schools Project Catapult serves. At the present time about 15 scholarships are awarded each year to seniors seeking college or vocational training leading to a job. An attempt is made to provide a mentor for each scholarship recipient.

The Summer Enrichment Program

SBCO also supports a variety of activities over the summer offered by various schools and other organizations. These range from additional tutoring in scholastic subject to swimming lessons.

We Need Tutors and Mentors

We are always looking for additional tutors in math and reading. Tutors need devote as little as 2 hours per week. We are need mentors to work with our scholarship recipients.