HATHORNE – Superintendent Heidi Riccio has announced that Essex Tech has received a Student
Opportunity Act (SOA) Evidence-Based Practice Grant through the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to narrow gaps in academic achievement.
The three-year $365,000 grant award represents Essex Tech’s commitment to accelerating student learning by implementing innovative, interactive, relevant, and engaging teaching and learning strategies for students to meet the specific academic targets as measured by Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) testing.
The SOA grant will allow Essex Tech to offer high quality after-school mathematics instruction through integration projects. This extended-day work will integrate career technical and agricultural learning with academic skills to create highly-engaging products.
During previous academies at Essex Tech, students have planned, designed, built, and improved zip lines, gliders, hovercrafts, braking devices, shipping vessels, trebuchets, and baseball launchers. Teachers and
student mentors work together with students in these academies to base their design improvements on mathematical problem solving. Students who attend these academies earn additional mathematics credit, and often return as participants or student mentors themselves in future integration academies throughout the school year.
“With three years of experience beginning with the Summer Integration Academy i 2020, we have figured out how to make mathematics highly engaging through various student projects,” said Assistant Superintendent Thomas O’Toole. “This SOA grant will allow us to expand and extend our model to weekly after-school learning throughout the entire school year, which is a significant step forward in our commitment to deeper learning at Essex Tech.”
Essex Tech is currently in the process of collaborating with Change is Simple, a hands-on learning organization in Beverly committed to sustainability-themed projects.
“Once again, we appreciate the support given to Essex Tech from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for these funds to close academic gaps that have been persistent over time,” said Superintendent Heidi Riccio. “Deeper learning comes in a variety of learning approaches, and our commitment is to continue offering students high-quality instruction that involves student voice and choice, applied learning, and additional time to acquire the skills that they need to be successful in the workforce beyond high school.”
For more information on the Student Opportunity Act Grant, click here.
