Partners help expand enrichment activities: California: Dixon Unified School District.

Project A.S.P.I.R.E. helped make a vision a reality in Dixon, Calif., by changing the image of many of the Dixon Unified School District's most needy students from youths at risk to young people of promise. The initiative is a collaborative effort among the school district, with Anderson Elementary School as a leading partner, the City of Dixon, various community agencies and businesses.

The project's name stands for Achieving Students and Parents Through Interventions Reading and Enrichment. The program focuses on academics, enrichment, recreation and family literacy and led to the school district being selected as the 2005 Civic Star Award recipient for California. Project A.S.P.I.R.E. offers a variety of activities designed to help students make healthy choices while providing them with supervision in a safe environment.

An after-school community learning center, which operates from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, relies on the school gymnasium, classrooms, playing fields and other facilities. Students have supervised access to computer labs, participate in weekly visits to the public library, get academic assistance and participate in field trips as part of the program. Activities include academic tutoring, a daily homework club and arts and crafts.

An innovative social skills program, Peaceful Pathways, which is implemented daily through a Sacramento State University internship is another important component of Project A.S.P.I.R.E. The intern meets with all students in groups of five, where topics ranging from conflict resolution, responsibility, communications structures and attitudes are covered. Character education themes are developed during the meetings and are woven throughout the A.S.P.I.R.E. program and the school community. All students have the opportunity to participate in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and in a community dance program.

Friday Night Live Kids, a Solano County safe and drug-free school partnership, provides weekly rallies, discussion activities and cooperative adventure activities. Dixon High School students serve as mentors to the elementary school students, working with them during the school day and in the after-school program.

Structured parent focus groups were implemented to enable program leaders to make positive sustainable changes in how the school community works with parents to help them assist in their children's education.

Baseline data collected in the first year of the program indicated significant improvements in student achievement in reading, writing and math. Significant student achievement gains in academic performance were also evident on the statewide Academic Performance Index, for the entire school and in all significant subgroups.

Meanwhile, parent participation in school activities and training and enrichment opportunities has also increased. A daily school attendance rate of 95 percent to 97 percent has been maintained even with a high mobility rate, 67 percent of the population having socioeconomic disadvantages and 42 percent of the population learning English.

For more information, contact Superintendent Wally Holbrook at Dixon Unified School District, 180 S. First St., Dixon, Calif. 95620, or call [phone]. By e-mail, write to [e-mail].