SHIRLEY PROCTOR PULLER FOUNDATION

The Shirley Proctor Puller Foundation (SPPF) is a 501(c)(3) founded in 2014 to honor an inspiring educator from South St. Petersburg who served Pinellas County students for over 35 years. Our mission is “to advance literacy and close the achievement gap of children in South St. Petersburg.” Our primary program goals reflect this mission to 1) advance literacy 2) close the achievement gap for students South St. Pete.

Advancing Literacy:
We want every student attending our M.A.S.T.R. Kids Summer Programs to improve his/her grade level reading performance. Realistically, 80% of students attending the M.A.S.T.R. Kids for eight weeks during the summer with attendance of 90% will post improvement in his/her grade level reading performance.

Closing the Achievement Gap
We firmly believe that M.A.S.T.R. Kids students are talented, capable learners. With proper education/development, each one can achieve at levels similar to the majority population within the district and the nation. Realistically, 80% of students with attendance of 90%+ in our Summer Program will post zero learning loss in reading and in math (vs. 10 -12 week norm for students of similar circumstance). In addition, a higher percentage of students attending the program for multiple years will achieve passing scores on FSA than peers from the community schools.

Our secondary goal is to help parents/caregivers and students become empowered champions for their education outcomes. This requires the organization address several barriers identified in early research. Specifically:

1) Low engagement and knowledge -- parent engagement in community schools is low. Parents often lack the knowledge and/or confidence to navigate the bureaucracy of the school system. They report being “overwhelmed” and “intimidated”. They report feeling “in the dark” about their students’ overall school performance. They generally feel kids are “performing well” or “really not doing well”. They know if the student passed or failed the FSA. Typically, they cannot answer specific questions about performance — i.e. is the student reading at grade level? has the student mastered basic math facts? Why did the student fail the FSA?

2) Low ability to pay – in this community 42% of children under 18 live in poverty. It is infeasible to expect parents to pay a significant portion of HH income for academic intervention. Most parents expect quality education to be "free".

3) Mindset Barriers -- “Summer = Vacation” – summer is viewed by most as a time when children are free to play and socialize. It’s a “break” from school. At SPPF, we are working to help parents understand that summer months can be an opportunity to improve/acquire missing academic skills to improve performance.

The primary strategies utilized by the Shirley Proctor Puller Foundation include:
1) intervention during out-of-school time (OOS)
2) use Literacy + STEAM (Science, Teachnology, Engineering, Art and Math) curriculum
3) use certified teachers with experience in the subject AND required cultural sensitivity to teach in South St. Petersburg
4) leverage research based curriculum with strong links to common core standards
5) engage the community broadly as literacy champions to ensure holistic support for parents and students

SPPF focuses on out-of-school activities to change the student’s academic trajectory. We provide active intervention that engages both the student and the parent/caregiver in achieving the academic goals set for students. We work directly with students to help improve literacy and to close the achievement gap. Our flagship program is the M.A.S.T.R. Kids Summer Program with a goal of reducing summer learning loss as students from economically “at-risk” areas tend to lose ten to twelve weeks of learning during summers months due to lack of academic engagement. The SPPF M.A.S.T.R. Kids Program (Math, Art, Science, Technology and Reading) provides academic intervention/enrichment to kids, grades K- 8. Certified Teachers deliver curriculum in small classes (15 - 18) to maximize instruction. We use Ready Reading curriculum by Curriculum Associates as it has demonstrated instructional success with a diverse “non-Caucasian”, “economically disadvantaged” student population, similar to students we serve. We also use Ready Math curriculum. For STEM, SPPF partners with the National Inventors Hall of Fame to purchase and deploy their STEM curriculum. To ensure exciting Arts instruction we partner with local Arts Programs and Artists who conduct workshops, studio visits, dance and art classes. This curriculum enables a hands-on, fun, learning environment where students practice newly acquired core skills.

SPPF conducts pre and post assessments in Reading and Math using the i-Ready diagnostic as it is proven to have a high correlation to FSA scores. We educate students and parents about student strengths and challenges revealed in testing. We also recommend strategies and tactics to improve performance for students during the school year.

We are hoping to expand the MASTR Kids program in the next twelve months to include an after-school component which we enable us to serve students year round and secure even greater progress in closing the achievement gap.

SPPF has been very fortunate in that our CoFounders have strong backgrounds in business and finance. Ms. Heller, has led market research, strategic planning, operations management, marketing and human resources for SPPF. These functions leverage her background of 35 years as a corporate executive having run large business units for Kraft, J&J, Merck and Danone. Mr. Puller has led financial management and reporting for the organization consistent with his career as a CPA and Financial leader. He was most recently the VP Finance for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department.

Work to date has been largely enabled by a seven year start-up grant from the Heller Family. Each year the organization has increased external support for the program through private donors, corporate donors and grants. Larger funders include the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County, United Way Suncoast, and Pinellas Community Foundation. In addition, SPPF has benefited greatly from partnerships/collaborations in the delivery of services. Key partnerships and collaborations include the Juvenile Welfare Board Book Bus, NOMAD Art Bus, Arts4Life Dance Studios, Keep St. Pete Lit Arts Literary Community.

M.A.S.T.R. Kids Summer Program -- 2018-2020 Reading Results

Student Population and Cohort Trends --
2020: This was the first year of an expanded, year-round program. The program started in January with 18% of 63 students performing on grade level. 33 students remained through June, due to COVID mandated shift to remote programming. 88% of students made meaningful improvement in at least one reading domain (e.g. phonemic awareness, comprehension, etc). 56% of students improved reading scores by at least one full grade level, 11% advance two grade levels and 7% of these students advance three grade levels. 36% of students were reading on grade level by the end of term, a significant improvement vs. the. 18% start.

2018-1019: Student diagnostic testing indicates that in total, twelve percent (12%) were on grade level at the start of the 2018-2019 summer program, while eighty-eight percent (88%) of students were one or more grade levels behind. A representative cohort of students is identified (attended previous year) and reflects notable advancement as compared to new students. Returning students’ diagnostic testing indicates that twenty-two percent (22%) began the program on grade level. Forty percent (40%) of students achieved learning gains in Reading during the eight-week program, as reflected in pre and post diagnostic scale scores. Advancements are noted specifically in Reading Comprehension, High Frequency, Words, Vocabulary, and Phonics. Incredibly, twelve percent (12%) of students advanced a grade level during the eight-week summer program! The third-grade cohort (returning students) completed the program with fifty percent (50%) on grade level and twenty-five percent (25%) advancing one grade level between diagnostics. One hundred percent (100%) of entering kindergartners tested on level and were ready to start school. Summer learning loss was prevented for eighty percent (80%) of the program’s students based on pre and post diagnostic placement, closing the “income-based reading gap” for South St. Petersburg.

Source: iReady pre and post program diagnostic testing