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Each year The Success Fund recognizes educators that go "above and beyond". Click the link below for this year's nomination form - due May 31!
Kevin Hershock
Read more about the success of a recent Marshall graduate, Kevin Hershock »Details
News and Updates
November 2011
Marshall HIgh School Placed on the College Board's 2nd Annual AP District Honor Roll for Significant Gains in Advanced Placement Access and Student Performance
367 Public School Districts Across the Nation Are Honored
Source: The College Board
Marshall, Michigan — Marshall Public Schools is one of fewer than 400 public school districts in the nation being honored by the College Board with a place on the 2nd Annual AP Honor Roll, for simultaneously increasing access to Advanced Placement coursework while maintaining or increasing the percentage of students earning scores of 3 or higher on AP exams. Achieving both of these goals is the ideal scenario for a district’s Advanced Placement program, because it indicates that the district is successfully identifying motivated, academically-prepared students who are likely to benefit most from AP coursework. Marshall High School increased the number of students participating in AP from 32 in 2009 to 69 in 2011, while maintaining the percentage of students earning AP Exam scores of 3 or higher at 75%. The majority of U.S. colleges and universities grant college credit or advanced placement for a score of 3 or above on AP exams.
“This is an outstanding recognition for the hard work our students and teachers put into Advanced Placement courses over the years”, Superintendent Dr. Randy Davis stated. “The Board made an intentional decision to leverage our resources within the district to provide AP courses for our accelerated learners, and each year we are seeing more students take advantage of this opportunity. I am very proud of our teachers meeting the challenges in providing such a rigorous curriculum and for our students that have benefitted from this program.”
The 2nd Annual AP Honor Roll is made up of only those public school districts that are simultaneously expanding opportunity and improving performance. The list includes 367 school districts across 43 states and Canada. The Marshall Public Schools is one of twenty two districts in Michigan earning this distinction for 2011/2012.
Helping more students learn at a higher level and earn higher AP scores is an objective of all members of the AP community; from AP teachers to district and school administrators to college professors. Many are experimenting with a variety of initiatives and strategies to determine how to expand access and improve student performance simultaneously.
“This school district has achieved something very remarkable. It managed to open the doors of its AP classrooms to many more students, while also increasing the percentage of students earning high enough AP Exam grades to stand out in the competitive college admission process and qualify for college credit and placement,” said Trevor Packer, the College Board’s senior vice president of Advanced Placement and college readiness. The complete 2nd Annual AP District Honor Roll can be found at www.collegeboard.org.
About the Advanced Placement Program
The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program (AP) enables students to pursue college-level studies while still in high school. Through more than 30 college-level courses, each culminating in a rigorous exam, AP provides willing and academically prepared students with the opportunity to earn college credit, advanced placement or both. Taking AP courses also demonstrates to college admission officers that students have sought the most rigorous curriculum available to them. Each AP teacher’s syllabus is evaluated and approved by college faculty from some of the nation’s leading institutions, and AP Exams are developed and scored by college faculty and experienced AP teachers. AP is accepted by more than 3,800 colleges and universities worldwide for college credit, advanced placement or both on the basis of successful AP Exam scores. This includes over 90 percent of four-year institutions in the United States. In 2010, 1.8 million students representing more than 17,000 schools around the world, both public and nonpublic, took 3.2 million AP Exams.
About the College Board
The College Board is a mission-driven not-for-profit organization that connects students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the College Board was created to expand access to higher education. Today, the membership association is made up of more than 5,900 of the world’s leading educational institutions and is dedicated to promoting excellence and equity in education. Each year, the College Board helps more than seven million students prepare for a successful transition to college through programs and services in college readiness and college success — including the SAT and the Advanced Placement Program. The organization also serves the education community through research and advocacy on behalf of students, educators and schools. For further information, visit www.collegeboard.org.
Media Contacts: Deborah Davis, The College Board 212-713-8052 communications@collegeboard.org
Marshall Volunteer Linked Students, Books
Source: Battle Creek Enquirer, April 12, 2010
When Marsha Franke retired from Marshall Public Schools, she left with a promise.
In her letter of resignation, she promised to come back to the schools as a volunteer. "I had such a wonderful experience in Marshall," said Franke, who worked at the schools for six years. "My first year at Gordon Elementary I thought, I'm in heaven."
Franke was one of 11 individuals who won the Enquirer's 2009 George Awards. The awards go to locals who see a need in the community and take action to fill it. Franke, the founder of Marshall's Success Fund, provided hundreds of students with schoolbooks this year.
Franke founded The Success Fund in November 2007 and chaired its committee until December 2009. The fund raises money to help Marshall Public Schools. "Schools can't meet this financial crisis without funding support," Franke said. "Our group is a little unique, but the concept is not unique to us."
In 2009, the schools were facing more than $1 million in cuts, Franke said. The fund committee looked at the list, and one thing jumped out. The schools were not going to be able to purchase new history textbooks. The schools needed about $44,000 for the books. "The textbooks became clear that it was something we could do and wouldn't have to sustain," Franke said. So the Success Fund raised about $54,000 in three months.
The new history books and materials went to fifth- through 11th-grade classrooms in the fall. The books came with primary source materials and Web resources. Success Fund volunteers also attached a marker inside each of the 600-plus book covers listing all of the donors. "When you look at the support that was drawn up so quickly, that speaks volumes about the community," Franke said. "Anyone who receives a (George) Award would agree that they didn't do it alone."
Although Franke retired as Success Fund chair last year, she will continue to work as an active member of the fund. The new chair, Susan Love, will continue the Success Fund's mission to raise money for the public schools. "We are trying to build the fund and make it more sustainable," Love said. The fund will begin having annual fundraising events and drives this year, Love said. The intent is that in the future, the money already will be there when the schools need it.
"We'll be looking to the school district and the community for ideas," Franke said. "We want to impact the greatest number of students."
Cronin Foundation Pledges Matching Grant
for Textbooks
Thanks to a timely and generous donation from the Cronin Foundation, Marshall Public School students could be trading in outdated learning materials in their history and social studies classes this fall in exchange for new and improved textbooks, an upgrade that many students and teachers feel is long overdue.
At its quarterly meeting last month, the Cronin Foundation Board agreed to assist the Success Fund Committee in its campaign to purchase new social studies textbooks for middle-school and high-school students. The grant will match up to $15,000 in donations from the community, which means that the Cronin Foundation pledge, coupled with community donations, could generate $30,000 of the estimated
$43,000 needed to acquire the new textbooks.
According to Marsha Franke, chair of the Success Fund Committee, the goal is to purchase 590 new books along with other teaching and learning supplements by the start of the 2009-2010 school year. Individuals or families who “sponsor” one textbook for $75 will be recognized inside the cover of that text in a special nameplate.
Middle school students are currently using books that are over a decade old, which can prove challenging in classes that rely on discussions of current events and global awareness. This upgrade also will help MPS teachers better align their curriculum with the Michigan Social Studies Grade Level Expectations.
Press Releases
Success Fund Alumni Spotlight – 02/08/2010
Marshall Community Credit Union Contributes to MPS Success Fund – 06/10/2009
Success Fund Makes History – 06/02/2009
Upcoming Events
Annual Reports
We have our 2009 Annual Report available for downloading, so be sure to check it out. If you have questions or would like to let us know of something that may be suitable for our News and Updates page, please visit our Contact Us page and let us know. We'd love to hear from you!