The Bank of America Charitable Foundation has awarded Successful Schools in Action, an educational non-profit organization formed in 2003 as part of a grassroots effort to improve neighborhood schools, with a $5,000 grant to support the organization’s Math Assistance for Public Schools (MAPS) program.

SSIA is located in Queen Anne and is made up of the six public schools in Queen Anne and Magnolia, serving over 3,000 ethnically, economically and racially diverse students and families throughout Seattle.

(Photo courtesy of SSIA Executive Director Lisa Moore)

Through SSIA, school communities work together to reduce eduction costs, bolster successful practices and maximize resources. The organization received the grant from Bank of America in July, but waited until the start of the school year to announce the award.

According to Executive Director Lisa Moore, “The grant will go directly to providing trained math tutors to work with individual or small groups of students who are struggling with math.”

Due to decreased budgets, increased class sizes and programming cuts in public schools, Moore says the value of individualized tutors “cannot be overstated.”

This program, she writes,

Will ensure that any student struggling with mathematics will have access to a trained math tutor. Individualized instruction is critical to assisting students who are falling behind their peers, and in many cases the help – as well as the relationship -  can make the difference between success and failure at school overall.

The six schools currently part of SSIA are Coe, John Hay, and Lawton elementary, Blaine K-8, McClure middle, and The Center School. This is the fifth year SSIA has provided tutoring programs, and the second for the MAPS program, which began in 2008, to meet a increasing demand for trained and dedicated math tutors. According to Moore, 23 students participated in the first year of MAPS, with tutors providing 25 hours of instruction each week.

Past donors to SSIA include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the City of Seattle, Department of Neighborhoods. See the full list here.