The 1Million Project Foundation Partners with Teach For America on National Homework Gap Initiative
Harnessing the power of both organizations to provide free devices and mobile connectivity service to high school students without internet at home
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. and KANSAS CITY, Mo., Sept. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- As schools across the nation kick off a new school year, the 1Million Project Foundation is collaborating with Teach For America to help reach more high school students who need access to reliable internet at home. Beginning in July, the two organizations set off with a goal of reaching up to 10,000 students, a portion of the 115,000 high school students the foundation plans to enroll during the 2019-2020 school year.
In the United States there are more than 5 million families that do not have reliable internet connectivity at home. With 70% of teachers assigning online homework and assignments, this creates a great homework and achievement gap for students. This disconnect leads to dramatic inequitable outcomes during significant years of a student's life. Having access to the internet means more time to learn, imagine, create, accomplish, and graduate.
The collaboration, led by Teach For America Kansas City, will work with Teach For America corps members who teach in high schools in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Chicago, Detroit, Miami, New York City, Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Washington, D.C. as well as statewide in Arkansas, Connecticut and Washington. Teachers will help identify those high school students who don't have internet access at home and can most benefit from the program. Each participating student will receive a free wireless device and 10 GB of high-speed wireless data per month from the 1Million Project Foundation.
The 1Million Project Foundation announced in 2016 by former Sprint CEO and current Executive Chairman Marcelo Claure at a town hall event with President Barack Obama, has one clear mission to help high school students reach their full potential by closing the achievement gaps created by lack of internet access at home. The foundation works with more than 200 school districts across the country to administer the initiative. In its first two years of operations, the 1Million Project Foundation has connected more than 226,000 students across 33 states.
The foundation looked to work with Teach For America Kansas City and the organization's national network because of its reach in schools throughout the country that serve students who often lack critical resources, including cellphones and hotspots to be used away from school.
"We're excited about the broad reach Teach For America Kansas City and the national network of Teach For America teachers in our high school classrooms brings to our program," said 1Million Project Foundation President Doug Michelman. "We strongly believe that classroom teachers and others in high school environments are best positioned to help identify students who need our help, and to encourage those students and families to enroll in our free program. This partnership will help us reach our goal of distributing devices to one million students across the nation faster."
"We are thrilled to work with the 1Million Project Foundation because we share the conviction that all students should have access to an excellent education. Internet and mobile connectivity have become foundational to ensuring that students from all backgrounds can access, analyze and apply the infinite information found on the web," said Teach For America- Kansas City Executive Director, Chris Rosson. "Our teachers are thrilled to be able to leverage this resource as another way to get their students the opportunities they deserve."
About the 1Million Project Foundation
The 1Million Project Foundation will help 1 million high school students who do not have reliable Internet access at home reach their full potential by giving them mobile devices and 10 GB of free high-speed Internet access per month. Today's learning environment requires 24/7 internet access in order to study, learn, explore and complete school work from home. Students who cannot connect when they leave school are at disadvantage, and their chances of staying on track in school are greatly limited. By working with school districts across America, the 1Million Project Foundation seeks to remove a significant hurdle in these students' lives by ensuring they have the same access to the internet as any other student so that they too have a fair shot at achieving their full potential. For more information, visit www.1MillionProject.org.
About Teach For America Kansas City
Teach For America Kansas City works in partnership with urban communities in Kansas City to expand educational opportunity for children. Teach For America was founded in 1990 and came to Kansas City in 2008, Teach For America Kansas City recruits and develops a diverse corps of outstanding leaders to make an initial two-year commitment to teach in high-need schools and become lifelong leaders in the effort to end educational inequity. Nationally, Teach For America is a force of nearly 60,000 alumni and corps members committed to profound systemic change. From classrooms to districts to state houses across America, they're reimagining education to realize the day when every child has an equal opportunity to attain an excellent education.
About Sprint
Sprint (NYSE: S) is a communications services company that creates more and better ways to connect its customers to the things they care about most. Sprint served 54.3 million connections as of June 30, 2019 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; leading no-contract brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Today, Sprint's legacy of innovation and service continues with an increased investment to dramatically improve coverage, reliability, and speed across its nationwide network and commitment to launching a 5G mobile network in the U.S. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.
SOURCE Sprint
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