The Schools of Hope Project began in 1995 as a civic journalism project by the Wisconsin State Journal and WISC-TV that studied how active community engagement could address critical local area needs. Educational issues quickly emerged as a community priority. A Leadership Team comprised of community leaders was convened by United Way of Dane County. They reported the achievement gap between stude
nts of color and their white peers as a growing concern. Upon further study they identified tutoring as a method of addressing this challenge, and in 1998 the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) awarded a grant to provide AmeriCorps*VISTA members to serve in Madison elementary schools. The program has continued to receive grant support from CNCS to provide first AmeriCorps*VISTA and now AmeriCorps members who serve as tutor coordinators in Dane County elementary schools. The grant is matched with United Way of Dane County funds as well as in-kind resources from the participating school districts. Since the Schools of Hope Project began in Madison in 1998, it expanded to include the Sun Prairie Area School District in 2005, Verona Area School District in 2006, and Middleton in 2010. It currently serves select elementary schools in Madison, Middleton and Sun Prairie. The Schools of Hope Project was evaluated in 2012 by Dr. Annalee Good, a national researcher who studies academic tutoring programs. She found that Elementary SOH has a positive impact on student academic achievement in literacy as measured and triangulated using Text Reading Level (longitudinal), grade reports and teacher surveys. Tutored students showed greater gains in reading than a comparison group of non-tutored peers who were matched based on gender, race/ethnicity, English language proficiency and income.
