The RAPSA Awards recognize teaching excellence, innovation, and outstanding achievement in the field of education and support for at-promise youth. Each year, winners set new standards for improving learning outcomes for all students. This year’s winners raise the bar even higher.  This year the 2010 RAPSA Awards Ceremoney will take place on Saturday, February 20, 2010, at the At-Promise Conference in San Diego, CA.

Congratulations to the winners in each category:

RAPSA Best Practices Awards

The Best Practices Awards recognize educators and educational organizations constantly striving to go above and beyond in creating a valuable and meaningful educational experience for at-promise students.

Best Practices Award for Educational Organizations:
Academy of Creative Education (ACE), San Antonio, Texas

Best Practices Award for Educators:
Gwynne Toellner, Academic Recovery & Credit Discovery Center, Shreveport, Louisiana

At-Promise Administrator of the Year Award:
Monica Wright, Pantano High School, Vail, Arizona
 

RAPSA Valued Contributor Awards

Valued Contributor Awards recognize distinguished volunteer community service and those individuals who have made significant contributions to at-promise youth.

Community Award:
Judy Bernstein

Volunteer of the Year Award:
Will Wester

By Coleen Armstrong

Eventually our class discussions all came back to one subject: the group itself. The kids never tired of talking about how well they thought they were all getting along.
 
“Wouldn't you say we're the best class you've ever had?” they prodded. “Don't you look forward to seeing us every day?”
 
Actually, I did. Sometimes the mix of students seemed like a hand dealt by the devil; other times I got just plain lucky, with a match made in heaven.
 
That was the case this time with my all-male senior auto-mechanics class fulfilling their last English requirement before graduation, a group of remarkable closeness, with an even more remarkable willingness to verbalize it.
 
Debates, though often heated, allowed each person to have his say. Sometimes I just sat back and listened, while the class covered girls and dating, relationships with parents, fears of the future.
 
Left alone, they let down their guards, confessed to hurts and disappointments, even tested loyalty's limits––and then shared their findings.
 
Marty's car broke down one Friday night, leaving him stranded on the freeway at 1:30 a.m. He’d phoned Mike for a ride home.
 
“Couldn't you have called before I fell asleep?” Mike groused later in front of the class. But he was grinning, clearly pleased that Marty had been able to count on him.
 
Jeff was becoming a bit of a blowhard, his long-winded opinions increasingly pointless. Steve and Marc took him aside, cautioning him that the more a person rambled, the less he was heard. Jeff nodded. “I'll try to watch it,” he said. Steve and Marc told the class they were proud to have handled the problem.

Award Winning Strategies

...from Linda Mitchell, Principal, Carson Creek Jr./Sr. High School, Sacramento County Office of Education, California

Winner of the 2009 Best Practices for Educational Association
Working with At-Promise Students Award

RAPSA: Explain what you consider to be the most important strategy for integrating academics and vocational education.

Linda Mitchell:  Two strategies are vital. The first one is to build career-technical education classes into and throughout the master schedule so they are accessible to all students. The second strategy is to team academic teachers and career-technical teachers, give them planning time together, and have them develop lessons and student projects that incorporate both academic and career-technical standards and skills into both classes.

By Coleen Armstrong