Posted on January 3, 2012

Silicon Valley Community Foundation Awards $700,000 in Grants to Help Close Achievement Gap in Mathematics

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation has announced nearly $720,000 in grants to help close the math achievement gap in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

Fourteen school districts and nonprofit organizations received grants to provide additional math instruction in afterschool and summer programs serving some three thousand lower-performing middle school students. To help close the gap between socioeconomically disadvantaged students and their more affluent peers, the programs aim to provide the former with more study time, better teachers, and multiple learning tools.

Grant recipients include Breakthrough Silicon Valley, which was awarded a grant in support of the Breakthrough Math Institute, its six-week summer and afterschool program; and William C. Overfelt High School in San Jose's Eastside Union High School District, which received funding for an algebra summer learning program.

"Without additional instruction opportunities, most of our students will not be able to catch up and be eligible for college-track high school courses," said Silicon Valley Community Foundation CEO Emmett D. Carson. "We are denying too many of our students the opportunity to access postsecondary education."

For a complete list of grantees, visit the Silicon Valley Community Foundation Web site.