Aristos program provides grants for bright ideas

A bilingual multimedia math program for pre-kindergarten children. An organic urban farm for high school students where produce is sent to a local food pantry. A plan to revamp the student government at Memorial High School.

These are just some of the project proposals selected for funding in 2010 and 2011 by the Aristos Academy, an education think tank within the Madison Metropolitan School District.

Aristos is Greek for “excellent” or “optimum”. Through the grant program, the Madison school district hopes to promote creative and innovative ideas in education, said Rita Applebaum, a coordinator for the Aristos Scholars Program.

Up to $10,000 each is awarded to projects created by teachers and administrators. Since the program began in 2001, 80 grants have been awarded totaling $511,176.

Aristos money comes from a five-year, $375,000 grant from the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation through the Madison Foundation for Public Schools, said Martha Vukelich-Austin, MPSF president.

While the foundation serves as a pathway for the funds, the grant process itself is handled by the Aristos scholars, Vukelich-Austin said.

But although Aristos is ostensibly a grant program, what sets it apart is the group of educators and administrators who approve grant proposals, Applebaum said.

“When the program originated 10 years ago, the intent was to use the grants as vehicles for identifying creative educators, educators who had a big picture view of education,” Applebaum said. “So while the grants are important for doing wonderful things for students and educators in our district, they also help us identify potential Aristos scholars.”

The Aristos Scholars Academy is made of a group of area education experts who were once Aristos grant recipients themselves. They are nominated to the academy to explore district-based education issues based on how well they implemented their projects. The scholars are then directly involved in selecting grant recipients. 

 Every fall the group of scholars has a retreat to explore educational issues. Last fall’s theme was how to be a better teacher leader.

 Scholars then have a chance to advise and inform MMSD Superintendent Dan Nerad on education policies and teacher leadership practices.

 One recent issue the scholars have focused on is increasing the number of teachers of color in the district.

 “So they (the scholars) have met with a number of people in the school district whose work would be in that area, they’ve made some meaningful suggestions on what they hope the district can do to encourage more people within our own community to consider becoming educators and more people of color, and to support them as they might consider going into the field of education,” Applebaum said.

 One way to shape district policy is through the grant process. Scholars are not just looking to re-fund programs that have been lost due to budget cuts, however—they want unique programs.

Teri Parris Ford, an art teacher at Memorial High School, for example, was awarded $3,000 to implement the Memorial United Student Leadership program in 2010. The program is intended to reorganize the Memorial High student government program by bringing all student planning committees into a single group to improve school-wide communication.

Grant writers like Ford report back to scholars throughout the year on the progress of the programs. For the Memorial United Student Leadership program, students involved in the program also report back to the scholars on its progress.

According to Applebaum, the student government program represents what scholars are looking for in grant applicants—something different.

“What they’re looking for is creativity. They want to see innovation,” she said.