BOOKS for the BARRIOS... the BLOG: September 2008

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Program Description

Books are donated from local school districts, libraries, groups, and individuals throughout the community and even across the country. Other target sources include bookstores, individual collections and youth book drives conducted by groups of U.S. schoolchildren. Trucks transport the material to the BftB 4000-square-foot production facility in Concord, California. Trained personnel gather on premises to insure the quality of educational products as they routinely inspect all materials. The materials are then screened, sorted and packed into cases and palletized for container shipment. Additionally, BOOKS for the BARRIOS works with school districts within the community allowing children to participate in BftB’s global educational development efforts with their “School citizenship field trip projects.”

Upon arrival in the recipient country, our local counterpart organizations develop and execute a detailed plan for handling, storage, transportation and distribution of the materials. Close coordination with the local departments of education is maintained at each step in the distribution process to insure that local needs are specifically addressed. The most remote of the school sites classified as deprived, depressed and underserved are chosen as recipients.

Selected school sites are identified for the BftB National “Model-of-Excellence School” Project. Each is maintained in a high material resource state in order to provide an example of a state-of-the-art education facility. These sites are tracked over a six-year evaluation period to determine the effectiveness of the BftB intercession and provide feedback for donation refinements. Host nation public education system authorities are provided with teacher professional training paraphernalia and curriculum materials that are used in developmental workshops.

Professional education authorities utilize subjective evaluation of teacher satisfaction and standardized testing in order to evaluate the program’s impact on student scholastic ability. BftB personnel make periodic inspections and continue to require all recipient administrators and teacher to correspond directly with confirmation of delivery and details of the impact on donation. The ultimate test of the program is, of course, the resultant change in means and statue of the students. Evaluation of the program in the U.S. takes the form of annual reports to the Board of Directors and an annual financial review by an independent audit agency.

The present work plan is to ship a twenty-two foot container van weighing 29,000 pounds at three-week intervals. The material consists of elementary and secondary math, science, spelling, English language, world history and literature books. Also included will be encyclopedias, dictionaries, reading books, curriculum guides and teachers’ professional materials.

Friday, September 26, 2008

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