Project GRAD at a glance

Project GRAD Knoxville
Mission: To help ensure a quality public school education for Heart of Knoxville students that equips and encourages youth to graduate from high school and to succeed in college or post-secondary vocational education.

Aki Marshall keynote speaker at GRAD celebration

Akil Marshall has always been a renaissance man. He is the author of five books. He played professional football in spite of not playing football in high school or college.  

He was the very first strength and fitness coach for the National Basketball Association (NBA) which started a whole new team building function in basketball. He was the first African-American male to have an exercise/fitness show on television in America.  

For most of his life, Akil Marshall has helped to positively motivate people by teaching the holistic way for living a beter life Akil has helped to change the lives of young people in schools across America for the past two decades by acquainting them with the "Genius" that resides within them.  

Akil has won many awards in his life. His most recent award was The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 2006 Community Service Award from his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.

Akil's theatrical company "Renaissance In Black Classic Theatre" has produced a series of  critically acclaimed  presentations including “Baba King”, “Origins”, "The Story of Kemit”, and “The Legend of Nguzu Saba”. Akil wrote and produced all of these productions which to date, have been seen and enjoyed by over 45,000 people in Northeast Ohio.  

Akil is the Founder and Managing Director of the Dance Afrika Dance troupe and The Village Institute, an arts education initiative. Akil Marshall is also the founder of the award winning Boys2Men, an intervention program for young male students in schools that seeks to “Awaken the Genius and Leadership Within.” Boys2Men has collaborated in the past with the Cleveland Orchestra, The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and the Cleveland Playhouse Square Foundation.  

His arts education company, The Village Institute, is a literacy based educational theater company and has performed before 25,000 students, faculty, and parents in 2005-2006.  

The Cleveland State University Black Studies department has recently announced their new partnership with Akil and his company to help accelerate his work in the community. Akil has attended Oakwood College and the Success Motivation Institute. Due to the impact his programs have had with at-risk students in  various school systems and districts across the country, Akil has seen a marked increase in the demand for his program initiatives and his motivational speaking

Project GRAD Knoxville Honored by International Professional Group; Selected as Program of the Year

Oct.18, 2006 - The International Association for Truancy and Dropout Prevention honored Project GRAD Knoxville as “Program of the Year” at its 96th Annual Conference held in Baltimore on October 8 – 12, 2006.  The honor was announced by GRAD Executive Director Jerry Hodges on his return from the conference where he accepted the award for GRAD. (Read More)  

The GRAD Approach

GRAD takes a feeder approach and works through 5 components.

• Scholarships/Summer Institutes
• Campus Family Support Services
• Discipline
• Math
• Reading Curricula

Scholarships/Summer Institutes

• Students earn up to $4,000 that can be used at any college or accredited technical school of choice (first awards to Class of 2005)-, 2 summer experiences on college campuses with stipend earned; full time onsite Scholarship Coordinators
  

Campus Family Support Services

• Full-time on site Campus Managers
• social services for students/family
• self-confidence and self-concept building
• social/life skills
• rewards, recognition, incentives
• families engaged at high levels
• community support and involvement as mentors/tutors/volunteers
• gifts from business partners
• annual Rally, Walk For Success, College/Career Day
  

School-wide/Classroom Curricula

Discipline (Consistency Management & Cooperative Discipline)

• Promotes responsibility for classroom and school
• pride in work
• job seeking skills
• work ethic
• school-wide consistency
  

Math (MOVE IT Math) Project GRAD Math

• Fun/hands-on way to learn math at deep level
• Algebraic reasoning and terminology introduced as early as kindergarten
• 90 minutes dedicated math time school-wide
  

Reading (Success For All)

• goal: all students reading at or above grade level by 3rd grade
• 90 minutes dedicated reading time school wide
• full-time on-site reading Facilitator
• student groupings by reading level with assessment every 8 weeks
• targeted intervention (30/20/10 tutoring for lowest readers
• Hot List for students just under grade level
• volunteer Listeners for all students
• referral to Support Team)
  

GRAD teachers/principals

GRAD teachers and principals receive continuous professional development, materials, on-going support, implementation assistance, and recognition.

GRAD Knoxville provides resources and people using a coaching model:

• National GRAD USA support team and national trainers/consultants
• National network of GRAD sites that routinely share 'best practices'
• Campus-based GRAD Knoxville staff (scholarship coordinators, campus managers and CFS teams)
• GRAD Knoxville field staff that serve as consultants to all GRAD schools (parent/community involvement, family support services, discipline/math/reading coaches)
• Advisors in each building (who are teachers) receive a stipend to be an on-site mentor for implementing GRAD curricula
  

GRAD is systemic, systematic, and comprehensive.

Every student in a GRAD Knoxville school is a GRAD scholar. All 7500 of them!