Portland, Ore. (27 June, 2007) – This week, Portland Public Schools and the Nike School Innovation Fund (NSIF) launched an innovative Summer Academy designed to help more than 400 young students get the education boost they need to become successful first-graders this September.

Nike CEO Mark Parker, state and national education and community leaders, and Portland Public Schools officials are visiting Boise-Eliot Elementary School in North Portland this morning. Boise-Eliot is one of nine schools citywide to offer the Summer Academy with the support of a $250,000 grant from the Nike School Innovation Fund.

“With Nike’s help, in Portland Public Schools, summer school is taking a great leap into the 21st Century,” said Superintendent Vicki Phillips. “We are offering a fun and intensive session to 400 of our youngest students so they can achieve the reading and math skills that will be a strong foundation for the next 12 years of their schooling – closing the achievement gap, but more important, making a tremendous difference in these young lives.”

“Innovation is our lifeblood at Nike,” Parker said. “This Summer Academy is a great example of a new approach to helping get our youngest students ready to enter the first grade. It’s exactly the type of effort we were hoping to spur with the Nike School Innovation Fund.”

Portland Public Schools had originally planned for 250 students to participate, but now 400 learners are signed up to participate in the five-week, no-fee Summer Academy. The academy includes kids from 56 of Portland’s 58 elementary and K-8 schools.

More than 20 Portland schools run academic summer school programs, but the Summer Academy differs from the standard fare in several critical ways:

• The Summer Academy is a systemic program, with nine site locations in North, Northeast, Southeast and Southwest Portland, and was made available to all children citywide who demonstrated a need for an additional learning boost. Most programs target only their own school areas.
  
• The Summer Academy is a focused and highly structured approach to early intervention. The program targets a very specific group of learners – exiting kindergartners who have not yet reached critical learning milestones – rather than several grades of students who sign up for a variety of reasons. This intensive support helps identified kids reach and exceed achievement benchmarks for their age.
  
• Summer Academy teachers and educational assistants citywide have received special training in educational methods that engage learners (such as games, puzzles and read alouds) while at the same time are highly effective at strengthening important math and reading skills.
  
• Nike volunteers will provide additional program support including individual tutoring, buddy reading, leading arts and crafts projects and organized games.
  

The Summer Academy is one initiative under the new Nike School Innovation Fund, a five-year, $9 million commitment to support educational innovation and leadership development in Portland, Hillsboro and Beaverton public schools.

In January, Portland Public Schools received the first three Innovation Grants (totaling $1 million) to create the Summer Academy, create and support leadership teams at select elementary and middle schools and to recruit and train school business managers, freeing principals from administrative tasks so they can focus on education.
The three NSIF grants mark the singe largest business contribution ever made to Portland Public Schools.
At Portland Public Schools, this is our goal: By the end of elementary, middle, and high school, every student by name will meet or exceed academic standards and will be fully prepared to make productive life decisions. For more information on Portland Public Schools, call (503) 916-3304, e-mail us at pubinfo@pps.k12.or.us, or visit www.pps.k12.or.us. Portland Public Schools is an equal opportunity educator and employer.