TI grants $5.4m in 2016 to improve STEM learning and teaching

Texas Instruments (TI) has announced that its corporate and foundation grants to improve kindergarten through 12^th grade Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education will total $5.4m in 2016.

TI and the Texas Instruments Foundation have committed ‘Power of STEM Education’ (POSE) grants to a variety of nonprofit partners and educators in targeted communities across the US where the company has a major design or manufacturing presence, including California, Maine and Texas. Giving is focused on collaborative strategies to improve student success and teaching effectiveness in STEM education. Special emphasis is given to programs that reach female and minority students who are underrepresented in science and engineering careers today.

“Our focus is on collaborative strategies to improve teaching effectiveness and student success in STEM education,” said Andy Smith, Executive Director of the TI Foundation and TI director of corporate philanthropy. “We seek out effective partners who share our goals, make strategic investments and develop long-term relationships with educators and their organizations to support proven, successful programs that can be scaled and replicated. Working together, we believe all students can move forward and experience greater success in STEM.”

Among the largest are these new TI Foundation grants in North Texas:

• $1.7m to Southern Methodist University to train up to 216 Dallas Independent School District (ISD) middle school science teachers over the next four years with the potential to reach up to 46,000 students. Cohorts begin in summer 2017
• $1.3m to Teach for America to support 60 math and science teachers in Dallas ISD and Uplift Education schools (in addition to 160 previously funded by the TI Foundation)
• $1.1m to the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) for the College Readiness Program that provides teacher training and mentoring for Advanced Placement (AP) courses, student support through study sessions, and financial awards for students and teachers for qualifying scores of 3 or higher (on a five-point scale) on AP exams. Two grants have been awarded: a one-year grant to expand the program to all high schools in Garland ISD and a three-year grant to launch the program in two Uplift Education high schools. NMSI estimates that TI Foundation support of this program in Dallas ISD since 2001 has positively impacted nearly 400 teachers and over 80,000 AP students (including about 20,000 who earned qualifying scores on AP exams and received awards). The TI Foundation has also provided grants to support this program in some other North Texas schools previously, i.e. some Garland ISD schools (2015 – 2017), Mesquite ISD (2012 – 2015), Richardson ISD (2014-2016); and Lancaster ISD (2013 – 2016).

Additional TI Foundation grants will be allocated to:

• Teaching Trust for a one-year training program for Dallas ISD campus leadership teams
• the Dallas, Garland, Lancaster, Mesquite, Plano and Richardson school district foundations to continue to honor outstanding STEM teachers with the annual Innovations in STEM Teaching Awards in 2017
• the University of Texas at San Antonio to support 500 students in the TexPREP (Texas Pre-freshman Engineering Program) program in Dallas ISD
• the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) for a three-year gender equity teaching training program in West Mesquite High School

In addition to the $4.8m from the TI Foundation, POSE grants from the corporation and TI Community Fund (a donor-advised fund with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation) will total almost $549,000. These grants have a special emphasis on employee engagement, such as volunteering and mentoring students.

TI’s commitment to education, which dates back to the company’s inception, remains its highest priority for employee volunteerism as well as for corporate and foundation giving.

“Education is a top passion for TI employees,” Smith said. “We invest where we can also involve TI volunteers to make an even greater impact. Last year TI employees worldwide volunteered more than 130,000 hours, many of these for education.”

North Texas
TI’s other new Dallas-area POSE grants will go this year to After-School All-Stars North Texas, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas, Boys & Girls Clubs of Collin County, Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas, Girls Inc., Reading Partners, and Real School Gardens.

Bay Area, California
New TI POSE grants in Santa Clara and the surrounding area will fund partnerships with Across the Bridge Foundation (Downtown College Prep), Alearn, Breakthrough Silicon Valley, Citizen Schools California, Girl Scouts of Northern California, Resource Area for Teaching, We Teach Science, Girls Who Code and the Youth Science Institute.

In addition, two grants ($325,000 each over three years) announced in 2015 will continue for their second year. One grant funds a collaboration between the New Teacher Center and Resource Area for Teaching for in-depth training of middle-school science lead teachers, while the second grant funds a partnership of the Silicon Valley Education Foundation (SVEF), East Side Union High School District and Santa Clara County Office of Education to expand SVEF’s successful Elevate [Math] and Elevate [Science] program to 10^th and 11^th grades. South Portland Maine New TI POSE grants in Maine will support programs with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Learning Works, and the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance. In addition a $150,000 three-year grant announced last year will continue for its second year. This grant funds a collaborative program between the state’s two largest school districts, the South Portland School District and Portland School District to implement a STEM Academy for 8^th, 9^th and 10^th grade students in both districts. The academy will focus on minority and female students.

For more information about TI’s support of education please see here or read about TI’s 2015 giving to education in the Corporate Citizenship Report here.