Programs

The Education Fund's first program awarded small grants to support teachers' innovative classroom projects. Two decades and more than 1,000 projects later, our programs have made a difference in the lives of more than 400,000 students and 20,000 teachers throughout Miami-Dade public schools.

In addition to awards of almost $2 million in grants to teachers, The Ed Fund's initiatives have contributed $5.4 million in free classroom supplies, 8,380 computers to parents and students, 1.2 million trilingual Parent Resource Guides, thousands of hours in educator training and numerous other efforts that target critical needs during this critical time.

The objective of each Ed Fund program is to support and promote quality public education for every child in Miami-Dade public schools by providing teachers and students with resources they need to succeed in the classroom.

Our range of programs include:

Citibank FamilyTech opens the world of computer technology to more than 8,000+ low-income students and their families by placing refurbished computers in their homes, and training parents to use the computers and supervise their children's work. In the classroom, the students' teachers learn to incorporate technology in the curriculum.

Citibank Success Fund awards mini-grants for teaching projects that encourage at-risk students to stay in school. More than 160,000 students have benefited from Citibank Success Fund grants.

Citigroup Team Mentor Grants are designed to provide an incentive for collaboration between new and veteran teachers. This collaboration is centered on classroom-based, student-learning projects that provide common ground for veteran teachers and new teachers to work together.

Great American Teach-A-Thon (GATAT) increases public awareness of the critical role that teachers play in student achievement. Business professionals from across the county learn about the challenges of teaching, gather support pledges from colleagues and then experience firsthand the difficulties and rewards of a day in the classroom. Participants gain a deeper understanding for teachers, teaching quality and its impact on student success.

IMPACT II helps teachers make the most of innovative and creative ideas by awarding them grants to package and disseminate their ideas to other interested teachers, providing teachers with a "best practices" catalog, curriculum packets, one of the largest teacher conferences and grants to adapt and tailor the featured projects to their own classrooms.

Ocean Bank Center for Educational Materials (OBCEM) collects surplus inventory and supplies from the business community and makes them available for free to public school teachers throughout Miami-Dade County. The Ocean Bank Center has made more than $5.4 million in donated goods available to teachers.

Superintendent's Urban Principal Initiative (SUPI) is one of the nation's most comprehensive leadership development programs for secondary school administrators. Through online assessment tools, collaboration with national experts in education, Action Research training, coaching by retired administrators, participation in the Harvard Institute, a nine-week internship and additional instruction, SUPI prepares school leaders to meet the challenges of the district's highest-need students.

Teacher Mini-Grants award small cash grants to teachers who want to try something new in the classroom to stimulate learning. More than 1,000 outstanding projects have been developed with these grants.

Teachers Network Leadership Institute (TNLI) enables a teacher's voice to be a factor in creating educational policy through school-based action research projects. The Education Fund participates in TNLI as one of 14 affiliates throughout the country that collaborate on studies and share their results and recommendations with policy-makers.

Town Hall Meetings/Community Dialogues are part of an ongoing effort by The Education Fund to facilitate community discussions of public education issues. The first Town Hall Meeting, "Crisis in the Classroom," focused on teacher recruitment and retention.