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End Date:
03/31/2013

Woodward Youth Corporation (DBA Woodward Academy) is a non-profit organization founded in 1995 as a residential treatment center for male youth ranging in age from 12-18 years old. Since 2010, Woodward Academy has provided services for approximately 3,300 young men. Today, the academy serves approximately 250 residential students year round.

Of the 245 current residents of Woodward Academy, 50 percent qualify for special education services, 70 percent have below grade level credit toward graduation, and 100 percent of them are at-risk and qualify for free and reduced lunch. According to MAP test scores, 31 percent of the academy students are 3 grade levels or more below grade level in reading and 29 percent are below grade level in science. Nearly all students have been court ordered to attend the academy for negative, delinquent behaviors including but not limited to sexual offenses, robbery, aggravated assault, motor vehicle theft, drug abuse, gang related activities, and weapons law violations.

The Need:
Studies conducted during the last 10 years indicate that higher education in prison programs reduces the likelihood of a child committing another crime which translates into reductions in crime, savings in tax-payers, and an over-all increase in safety and wellbeing of communities. In their article Unlocking Potential: Results of a National Survey of Postsecondary Education in State Prisons Gorgol and Sponsler state that “earning a diploma during incarceration has been found to significantly reduce the likelihood of recidivism following release [and] more successful community reintegration” . Therefore it is crucial for both the young men at Woodward Academy and society as a whole for juvenile justice educators to formulate and implement a individually paced curriculum that gives students the opportunity to advance to their grade level and therefore decrease the odds of a continuation of delinquency and incarceration.

Goals and Objectives
Project Goals:
•Goal 1: Increase the number of delinquent youth achieving their high school diploma.
•Goal 2: Increase the number of delinquent youth that successfully integrate with society and decrease the number who relapse into crime.
•Goal 3: Increase the safety and well being of American communities by decreasing recidivism following juvenile delinquents are released from treatment.

Project Objectives:
•Objective 1: At Grade Level Performance. By the end of the first year of the project, more students at Woodward Academy will demonstrate that they are at grade level in reading and science on the MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) tests. More students will also demonstrate they are at grade level in the amount of graduation credit they have earned.
•Objective 2: Design and Implement a Highly Differentiated, Individually Paced Curriculum. By the end of the first year of the project, the number of students who are able to complete science in half of the regular time (one semester or less) will increase by at least 20%.
•Objective 3: Engagement. By the end of the first six months of the project, students will demonstrate an increased engagement in school as measured through self-report surveys as a result of the project.

Program Description:
With these goals and objectives in mind, Woodward Academy proposes to purchase a classroom set of iPads in order to implement a self-paced, highly differentiated curriculum that focuses letting science students work at their on pace or accelerate through science in order to achieve an at grade level credit and work their way more quickly to a high school diploma. This program will serve as a clinical trial for other subject areas within the school.

Please Note: 8% of your donation to this fundraiser will go to Digital Wish. You can donate directly to my classroom with 100% of the proceeds going toward the technology by going to the following website: http://www.digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/view_profile?id=6233665310815081 or you can simply search my name (Meghan Herrmann).

*Picture Citation:http://techinmusiced.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/ipad-education.jpg?w=500

Share This Link: http://www.digitalwish.com/woodwardscience

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