Cristo Rey OKC Catholic High School

PROJECT PURPOSE

Cristo Rey OKC high school is part of a proven national network exclusively supporting economically disadvantaged students (& 90% students of color) to be the first in their families to graduate college. CROKC requests consideration of $3,487,225 or any partial amount to support 4 years of counseling and learning loss staffing (6 current FTEs + 6 additional new FTEs) and digital resources to address pandemic-related student mental health needs and learning loss. We currently employ 1 dedicated mental health counselor, 3 college counselors, and 2 Academic Support positions. To meet the increased needs of the pandemic, we propose also hiring: ?Second Mental Health Counselor to provide student counseling ?Student Life+Wellness Coordinator to engage students in community building and wellness activities ?ELL Specialist to guide ELL testing and train/support teachers in ELL practices (57% students ELL) ?Reading Specialist and writing center director to help assess and accelerate students and create a Writing Center ?Math specialist to assess and accelerate learning in math ?Math Co-Teacher to support students in-classroom We also request three school-wide software licenses for differentiated math and reading assistance to further address learning loss: ALEKS, Achieve3000, and Newsela. (See attached addendum for details)

EVIDENCE

CROKC follows the State Department of Education?s Guidelines in Strategies for Using American Rescue Plan Funding to Address the Impact of Lost Instructional Time (SDE August 2021), with a focus on 2.D.) addressing student social, emotional, and mental health needs, and 2I.), creative approaches to staffing. For students from backgrounds like ours, intensive tutoring and support of the kind our current and proposed new FTEs would provide is shown to dramatically accelerate learning. In 2017, this was shown as the most effective intervention out of many (Annenberg February 2021).

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

Our students have been demographically the most impacted by the pandemic, both in mental health and learning. Demonstrated mental health needs outstrip our current capacity, with students demonstrating drastically higher levels of anxiety and depression. To meet intensive parent concerns, last year we learned remotely until January 2021, which severely impacted academic performance. Our students already had deficits and barriers; they need intensive support over a multi-year period to recover and maintain a trajectory toward college success. The families we serve are largely (80%) Hispanic, 57% ELL, 100% ?low-income,? and 83% free/ reduced lunch. These families have faced higher incidences of unemployment, furloughs, adverse health outcomes, and more. Even prior, U.S. Hispanic families held 1/5 as much wealth as white families (SCF, 2019) and were disproportionately less likely to obtain a degree (College Board, 2019). Many CROKC families have multi-generational homes or other health risk factors, and hesitated to allow students to attend school in-person, further impacting enrollment.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

Cristo Rey OKC?s President will monitor the timeline and report progress. Project performance will be measured against a timeline with key benchmarks, e.g., test scores and counselor reporting. Program impact will be measured through school operations and performance data that the Cristo Rey Network annually collects, analyzes, and reports as part of the Network?s annual Mission Effectiveness Review. This data includes information relevant to ARPA reporting, e.g., number of students served; family income; race/ethnicity; and student academic gains, retention, college application and enrollment.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma