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Scholarship Program Update: 1) Will Six Days of University Math Entrance Exam Prep be Enough for Our Eight 2022 Colegio Graduates? and 2) Second-Term Scholarships Distributed July 15/16

7/18/2022

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Math Exam Review Initiative
The last 4 years of disrupted instruction (teacher strikes, Covid) created a learning gap for students in our CAA’s Scholarship Program, so we organized six days (12 hours) of special math instruction by a university instructor (civil engineer) to refresh our students’ recollection of the math principles needed for the upcoming university exams. Education Committee members sat in on each of the classes, and it appears that a good proportion of our students were at a loss on the topics and concepts being covered.
The six math prep sessions wrapped up on Friday afternoon, July 15. Our students, and apparently most students in Costa Rica, score poorly on the math portion of the university entrance exams compared to the other topics.

What can realistically be expected from this 12-hour, six session math review class? Perhaps it will help refresh our student’s recall of what they were taught over their five years in Colegio. We sincerely hope it’s not too little, too late.
The math deficiencies can be overcome with focused study/remedial work, but it can take longer than necessary for some students to complete their university degrees. In turn, these graduation-degree delays reduce the through-put of students into these STEM disciplines at the public universities and limits the number of available public university admission slots. Private high school graduates fare much better than public high school graduates in this competition for a more limited number of public university slots.
It may take a much broader restructuring of high school learning, in a number of important disciplines, to make a significant difference in math outcomes for first-year university students.

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HOW WILL CAA’S 2018-2022 HIGH SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIP STUDENTS MEASURE UP ACADEMICALLY?

6/19/2022

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CAA has for many years awarded our top ranked students a special academic excellence award voucher, and about eight of our students are usually in the running for academic awards with all grades at 90+; and at least three to six of those have posted all grades at 94+. Historically, only young women have earned CAA’s Academic Excellence awards – it has been difficult for the young men to break into this elite group. Four of the five Academic Achievement Award winners, from 2019, are shown in the photo. These young women had a lock on the top spots for most of their high school years – and we proudly recognize them.

This year and last, CAA did not issue academic excellence recognitions because the Education Ministry replaced numeric grades with a Pass/Fail system due to the pandemic disruptions. However, the Education Ministry resumed numeric grades for 2022, and our students just received their first of two report cards for the First Term. Alisson, CAA’s Program Administrative Intern, is now collecting the report cards, and we are hopeful that our students have been able to get their grades back on track, based again on a numeric grade scale. We will review the report cards in person with the students/parents in July in preparation for Second Term classes in August, and again after the 2022 classes end in December. In 2023, we hope we can again identify and recognize another group of academic excellence students for their work.

What are the other challenges faced by these 2018-2022 students? According to UNICEF, 37% of children in Costa Rica now live below the poverty line (Swissinfo.ch/UNICEF, May 4, 2022). The Education Ministry reported in local news that public school students over the past 4 years have lost almost 2 years of instruction due to the two teacher’s strikes of 2018-2019, followed by the Covid pandemic disruptions of 2020-2021. Although the system has tried to add a few months of additional classes, it remains to be seen how much ground these 2018-2022 students have recovered, especially the most disadvantaged.

In fact, the President of Costa Rica just decreed that the standardized “FARO” tests should not be required for students in 2022, and the Education Ministry announced June 9th that the tests, scheduled for next week, have been suspended. A student’s score on this standardized test in selected subjects was to represent 40% of the weighted test scores used to determine a student’s final grade; and a low score would jeopardize university eligibility, which caused protests by students and their parents. Will another standardized national test be substituted to measure learning across campuses and years? The public university faculty association insists that Costa Rica continue annual standardized testing of achievement in the last years of elementary and of high school. Time will tell how this local testing issue will be resolved, and how Costa Rica will measure academic proficiency going forward.

Fortunately, Costa Rica as a member of the 38 OECD countries (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), participated among 600,000 other students from OCED and non-OECD countries (79 participating countries-economies) in the OECD’s PISA standardized tests in 2018 (Programme for International Student Assessment). These tests focused on age 15 students in reading, math, and science proficiency. The most recent OECD PISA was focused on reading proficiency and the results were reported December 2019. The next math-focused PISA test, originally scheduled for 2021, was rescheduled for 2022 due to Covid and results should be available next year. (Source-https://gpseducation.oecd.org)

Costa Rica’s 2018 PISA reading proficiency results demonstrated that only half, 50%, of Costa Rica’s students scored at or above the minimum level for reading proficiency, behind Chile’s 60% among PISA's participating Latin America countries. Mexico, Brazil, Columbia scored close behind Costa Rica, and Argentina ranked the lowest at about 38%. Costa Rica’s average score was 426 compared to the 487 average of all PISA participating countries. In the math portion, Costa Rica’s proportion of students scoring at or above the minimum level of proficiency was only about 40%. China led in overall scores.

PISA 2018 reflected the need for improvement in reading comprehension, math, and science even before the impact of Costa Rica’s 2018-2022 educational disruptions. This PISA report indicated:

“A large share, over 10%, of advantaged CR students had to repeat a grade”; (emphasis added on “advantaged”);
“Socio-economic status explains 16% of the variance in reading performance in Costa Rica (OECD average: 12%)”;
“27% of children in Costa Rica live below OECD's defined relative income poverty line”;
“However, 10% of disadvantaged students (in Costa Rica) are academically resilient (OECD average:11%)”.

We are optimistic that CAA’s socio-economically disadvantaged scholarship students will demonstrate that very important trait of “academic resilience.” Two other PISA 2018 findings could also be very significant:

Costa Rica students’ “average level of life satisfaction is one of the highest of all the countries and economies participating...”, and
Costa Rica students “strongly believe in their own ability to perform, especially facing adversity, compared with other PISA participating countries…”

These PISA 2018 captured beliefs may very well account for individual academic success despite poverty. We are hopeful that the disruptions of 2018-2022 have not shaken these incredibly important drivers of life satisfaction and academic success.

CAA’s eight 2022 graduating students that endured the 2018-2022 disruptions may be able to avoid the FARO final tests, but all of these students are facing the challenge of standardized university entrance exams – these tests are at the same level of difficulty as pre-pandemic. CAA funded the cost of those exams, and we hope to locate pre-exam prep/tutoring resources to get these students ready for the tests. Our scholarship students must do their very, very best work if they hope to qualify for public university admission given the limited number of openings available, fierce competition from private school students, and our students' absolute dependence on government scholarships. That PISA 2018 reported “strong belief in their own ability to perform…” is now of critical importance if our students are to achieve the dream of university education.

And, speaking of university and graduates, CAA’s hard-working Scholarship Program Administrative Intern, Alisson, received her bachelor’s degree in Social Work, with Honors, from UCR last week. She is continuing her classes in preparation for her required thesis necessary to be licensed; all done while responding to the needs of twenty-nine CAA scholarship students and program administration demands. Alisson will continue in her role as CAA Scholarship Program Administrative Intern for the next year or two until she is licensed. She is an important role model for our students, and we congratulate Alisson on this important bachelor’s degree milestone!

We send our heartfelt thanks to all of the generous supporters of these students, and to the many volunteers who donate their time and money to help turn the dreams of these students into reality. Without these combined efforts, the last ten years of CAA educational scholarship support for these students would not have been possible. Please help us continue to keep these dreams alive, one student at a time.

This photo from five years ago says it all – this dedicated dreamer is taking her university entrance exams this year!

(All photos used with written permission of the subject[s]).

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CAA’s EDUCATION COMMITTEE CELEBRATES A DECADE OF SERVICE TO SAN RAMON'S STUDENTS

5/31/2022

On May 13th, a majority of CAA’s Education Committee members resumed in-person committee meetings after a pandemic hiatus of nearly two years when all our business was handled via emails and phone exchanges, thanks to our structure of university social-work students working as Administrative Interns. As we gather again as a committee of volunteers (masked, of course), it is fitting that we look back on our past, lessons learned, and define a longer term, attainable vision for future services.

A BIT OF HISTORY
A decade ago, in 2012, the Education Committee, under the leadership of Dave Scott, began to develop the structure for the CAA Scholarship Program, and by January of 2013, seven elementary students were identified, enrolled, and received scholarship vouchers for uniforms, shoes and supplies. We thank Dave for his leadership, and to his wife, Doris, who helped immensely as an MEP teacher in those early scholarship program years. Special thanks also go to Johanna Fernandez G., licensed CR social worker, for her insight on program design.

The English Conversation Club program had been in operation for years before Dave brought his conversational English initiative, and focus on education, into the newly organized CAA in 2012. Dave recruited a core of education supportive volunteers to the Committee; and we helped sponsor the multiple years of Book Sales at the Museo Regional de UCR. In May 2014, Dave had to hand off leadership of the committee to make time for other interests. It was sink or swim, and thankfully we are still swimming!

Fast forward to May 2022, the CAA Scholarship Program is now celebrating the end of its first decade of service to San Ramon’s students and their education. A few highlights:

This year, twenty-nine Colegio students, and one university scholarship program administrative intern participate in the program.
By the end of this tenth year, CAA will have invested almost $100,000 to support the education of San Ramon area students, and to build additional reserve funds to shield against abrupt funding disruptions.
Over this decade, eleven students have graduated high school while still in the scholarship program; others benefitted for one or more years of participation and then gained a government beca and left the CAA program; a few more students/families moved from the San Ramon area; and a handful just gave up on their education after graduating elementary school or failing in 7th/8th grade when the academic demands hit them too hard.
All told, the CAA program has assisted about 50-55 students/families in these ten years. Not a big number in the scheme of poverty in San Ramon, but for the scholarship participants, being one of the fortunate students, is a really big deal!

WHERE CAN THE CAA EDUCATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM GO FROM HERE?

Do we try to raise more funds to scale up the program to reach and support more students each year? More students will require more student social worker Intern support and more licensed social workers to supervise those Interns.
Do we expand our focus to offer more support to university or trade/INA students after high school graduation?
Do we specialize our student recruitment to encourage STEM subjects and careers in high school and beyond?
Do we specialize recruitment on nursing or support university nursing students?
Do we continue largely at our present size/scope and concentrate on the funding side of the program – building endowment funds to yield funds in perpetuity for the program? How can we sustain this legacy of service after the current committee members are gone—how to resource a succession plan for continuity, growth?
How are we positioned to support the English Conversation Club, and the Spanish Conversation Group? These language programs are also integral parts of CAA’s educational support in San Ramon; they enjoy solid leadership with ECC run by Dustin Dresser and Ricardo Elizondo, and SCG run by one of our board members. The Committee provides support and financial control through our three sub-committee structure.

Although these questions and many more are under discussion in search of paths forward, we know that within CAA’s membership, current and future, there should be sufficient talent and commitment to education to sustain or expand these existing services, or to establish new ways to promote education. Until then, the Committee will do what we have done over the past 10-12 years: We will continue to help families through education, one student at a time!

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Dedicated to the CAA Education Committee - Dave Scott (founder), Doris Guzman (Scott), Johanna Fernandez G., Dustin Dresser, Andrea Carter, Lynette Lewis, Marian Latham, Linda McAnally, Linda Dwyer, Fernanda Rojas R., Ricardo Elizondo G., Alisson Esquivel M., Laura Handler, Susan Knab, Keven Murphy (May 2022 roster).

CAA Scholarship Program continues to support our thirty students in 2022!

5/10/2022

By Scott McAnally, for the Education Committee
There are a few scholarship-related activities to highlight this month.
1. University Eligible? CAA Education Member Johanna Fernandez conducted Zoom orientation and mentoring sessions to assist our eight 2022 graduating colegio students last month. Seven of our students were able to take advantage of this opportunity. Johanna highlighted financial assistance and academic application deadlines and requirements, provided some career guidance based on her many years of experience, and explained the opportunities to get tutoring/classes to prepare for the university entrance exams. As you may recall, CAA's program covers the cost of up to three university exams per student, given that each university has its own exam. For many of CAA's students, graduating Colegio is the first step in the journey to earn a university degree, or to master a trade; we are committed to assist our graduating students gain the opportunity for higher education.
2. CAA's University Scholarship Program Administrative Intern, Alisson Esquivel M. surveyed the beca families and identified some special needs, which were addressed in the last month:

Alisson identified three women who needed eye exams and glasses, and those were provided in collaboration with our partner, Ópticas Rosán, through discounted services. And, thanks to CAA Member Linda D. for pitching in for one of our students. Assisting each of these students costs 60,000 colones. They reported much better vision afterwards and demonstrated some stylish looks also.
Additionally, eight families needed food support, and CAA transferred just over 200,000 colones to Super Carranza for food baskets for these families.
And some families needed assistance to pay the mandatory Colegio medical/accident policy for their student, so CAA pitched in to cover the 7500 colones annual expense.

3. Last but certainly not least, another CAA Scholarship Program student is about to earn her Bachelor's in Social Work degree from UCR-Sede Occidente. Alisson Esquivel M. reports that she will receive her degree mid-May and will now turn her focus on her thesis and social worker licensing requirements.

Alisson advises that she plans to continue with CAA in her role as Program Administrative Intern, and we are quite fortunate to be able to continue our collaborative work for a year or so more.

We thank you, Allison, for being a good role model for the Colegio students, and for the dedication and commitment you demonstrate each and every month to assist the students.

Update on CAA Scholarship Students; First-Term Class of 2022

4/7/2022

Twenty-nine CAA Colegio scholarship colegio students were back in class on February 17 after picking up uniforms, shoes, and school supplies from CAA’s participating merchants. Scholarship Program Administrative Intern, Alisson Esquivel M., did a terrific job working with the students and their families to complete their interviews, remind them of program expectations, and award the scholarship vouchers.

Alisson was assisted by a number of CAA Education Committee Members: Lynette Lewis, Andrea Carter, Susan Knab, Mariana Latham, and Scott & Linda McAnally. We all encouraged the students to work hard in school this year given that we expect eight 2022 graduates, our largest graduating class by far! From the smiles on the faces in the photos, this was a win-win experience for all who participated.

The Committee gives a special thank you to Alisson for setting a positive and professional example for these students. We know she will be busy this year also, as she prepares to receive her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from UCR-SO in April. And then the next chapter will unfold—will she begin work for her social worker licensing, or will she continue with advanced studies? Speaking for the Education Committee, it has been our pleasure to support her professional journey and we look forward to continuing our work with her for the next few years.

By working together, we continue to encourage growth through education, one student at a time!
~Scott McAnally, for the CAA Education Committee

Another 30 San Ramón Students, High School and University, are Ready for 2022

2/14/2022

By Scott McAnally, Leader, CAA Education Committee

On Feb. 11 and 12, the Community Action Alliance’s Education Committee will present scholarship vouchers to twenty-nine high school students. One additional student is under evaluation for late addition to the 2022 class. The new class will include at least five new students to fill vacancies.

Eleven of our 2021 class of students had to do extra work during the three-week January special classroom session to try to pass classes to advance to the next level. This special session was established by the Education Ministry to try to make up for lost Covid-related class-time. Hopefully, all will be cleared to move forward when high schools resume in-person classes on February 17.

We also celebrated the December 2021 high school graduation of four of our students. Three of the four are continuing their education through university or technical school courses in 2022, and we wish them the best in those advanced studies.

Additionally, this 2022 scholarship class again includes one fourth-year University of Costa Rica social worker career student, Alisson, who will graduate in 2022. Alisson serves as the CAA Scholarship Program Administrative Intern, and has done an excellent job with our students, families, and teachers all while carrying a full course load in which she scored almost all 90’s or above! Alisson is also pursuing a second degree in Economics and Social Planning. We know that she will be well prepared to enter the workforce in a couple of years and contribute to improving life in Costa Rica.

Because of delays in getting the grades of students, we have had to delay our regular Academic Excellence Awards until later, but we feel sure that some of our regular straight-A students will still be in that position when we get those grades. Each will receive a special voucher redeemable for books at a local bookstore.

Over the past 10 years that we have been working on this project, a few photos might remind us of what we have helped to accomplish. I went back through my old photos, and I found a photo of the 2015 Scholarship Class with CAA and Education Committee Members.

Many of the young elementary children you see in this photo, probably 4th and 5th graders then, are scheduled to graduate high school in 2022 or 2023; the older students have already moved through high school. In total, eleven of our students have graduated high school as of 2021. And, Fernanda, third from the left in the photo, who helped all these students while attending university, is now a licensed Social Worker assisting other Costa Ricans!

This is another of my favorites—Jorge (in 4th or 5th grade in this photo), is now about to graduate high school. Lynette Lewis presented his scholarship award vouchers!

I regret that Covid protocols over the past two-plus years have made it impossible to hold large awards events, and therefore, we have lost a couple years of full class photos.

University Admission Frustrations! Some of our graduating students made excellent university admission scores but were still frustrated to learn that they were unable to get into their preferred university in their preferred major career. This is largely because of Covid delays in instruction—current university students have not been able to graduate on their scheduled timeline and that has reduced the number of new admission openings for certain majors in the three most desirous public universities. As in everything in this Covid environment, flexibility and adaptability are the traits needed to keep moving forward academically!

How We Are Responding! Education Committee Member Johanna Fernandez G. is organizing a Zoom session for later in February to provide an orientation to the 2022 expected class of high school graduates. This session will help the students and their families get focused on some of the quickly approaching deadlines for university entrance exams, and the admission and financial assistance applications that will be required for university admissions in 2023. As a former financial aid and admissions officer with UCR, San Jose, Johanna is well qualified to help these students prepare themselves and their families for the applications necessary for university admission. A better understanding of the admission process now could reduce frustrations later. Thank you, Johanna!

CAA expects to provide about $17,000 in direct educational support for 31 students in 2022. We will provide them with vouchers redeemable at local participating merchants for required uniforms, shoes and school supplies, and we will provide them with Covid safety supplies, assistance with special medical and counseling needs, funding of required school insurance policies as financially needed, and payment of the cost of university entrance exams. This level of educational support would not be possible without the generosity of our many faithful CAA and international donors. Thank you for supporting the educational dreams of these students—an investment in education for these students is an investment for life.

This parting photo of one of our students is all you need to remember.

Spanish Conversation Groups Start Tuesday, January 25 via Zoom

1/16/2022

Our first session of 2022 of the CAA Spanish Conversation groups will begin on Tuesday, January 25 and will continue through Tuesday, March 15, with each class being 1 hour. The cost is 15,000 colones for the 8-week session.

Three levels will be offered. If, during the first day of class, you or the instructor feel you are misplaced, then we will change you as long as we don’t exceed 8 students in one class.

Level I—These students are total “newbies” to the Spanish language. Basically you will learn present tenses, pronouns, “be” verbs, and basic vocabulary for grocery shopping, vet care, etc. IF you have taken this level before but feel you might want/need to repeat it, don’t worry, that is fine.

Level II—These students need to know some present tense verbs and some basic vocabulary, but they will not have yet ventured into the deeper waters of past or future.

Level III—Students in this higher level group need to have had formal lessons for at least a year and be conversant in present, past, and future tenses.

REGISTRATION: Is open until Friday, January 21 at http://www.actionalliancecr.com/spanish-conversation-registration.html

On Thursday, January 20th, Terry Handler will be collecting tuition at Cafe Delicias between 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. at the Thursday morning coffee get-together. If, for some reason, you can’t come on this day, please try to have a friend come pay for you as we need a firm idea of paid students.

For other payment options email spanishconversation@caacr.org

Proceeds from the Spanish Conversation Classes benefit the CAA Education Scholarship Program.

The English Conversation Club is set to restart in February 2022

1/16/2022

Spurred on by in-person leaders, ECC made the pivot to virtual meetings. What started as an experiment has actually blossomed and has converted ECC into a fully flexible in-person and virtual program.

Some of the benefits to this pivot are:

Leaders/participants can participate from all over the world.
Registration done completely online and asynchronous.
Sessions and registration schedule can be made up to a year in advance.
Standardization and flexibility for group leaders to lead on their schedule. Can plan knowing the yearly schedule.

Turns out, the popularity of these pivots allowed us to crush last year's projections and we are only looking up in 2022. ECC's new partnership with XploreAmericas to provide native English student teachers with practicum opportunities will also provide more opportunities for ticos to learn and practice and especially allow us to promote to BEGINNER students which were previously limited as they required a more structured class.

If YOU would like to lead a group session, we'd LOVE to add you to our database of available leaders. At the moment we are mostly online, however pandemic permitting we'll add in person throughout the year.

To be a leader the requirements are:

Native English speaker
Talkative and outgoing
Internet access with computer capable of audio and video transmission over Google Meet. (virtual groups)
Tech savvy enough to handle video conferencing. (virtual groups)
Have a gmail account. (virtual groups)
Available to host two 1-hour sessions per week for 5 weeks (1-2 hours during the week and/or two hour Saturday mornings).
Attend a practice meeting.
You do not need to speak Spanish to participate.

Now that ECC is hybrid, leaders and students are welcome from all over. We need YOU to share this opportunity as we are not known outside the zona occidente and our advertising is limited to word of mouth and social media posts. Thanks to everyone for their support of this program!

If you are interested in leading a group, please contact Dustin or Ricardo at info.eccsr@gmail.com

Please direct interested students to bit.ly/eccvirtual

¡Pura vida!

TAMALE CHRISTMAS

1/4/2022

One of CAA’s alliances in San Ramón is with The Faithful Servant Missions in Bajo Tejares, an exceptionally poor area of San Ramón. Each December, the village women of Bajo Tejares celebrate a much-loved Christmas tradition by making hundreds of tamales to share with their families and neighbors. For the past eight years, CAA has helped by purchasing the tamale ingredients and helping make these special treats. Unfortunately, we have not been able to provide volunteers for two years because of the pandemic, but this year Mary Huber and Terry Handler presented Nicole Byker, a social worker with the church and community center, c304,000 from CAA to provide supplies and the labor to make them. This annual event is a line item in CAA’s budget.
The Mission is expanding its outreach in 2022 to include a parenting program and an English institute.
(Photo is from the 2019 event.)

CAA SUPPORTS HOGARCITO WITH "BIRTHDAY BUDDIES" PARTIES

1/4/2022

CAA has renewed its support for the Hogarcito, San Ramón’s orphanage that currently houses 20 children. It is located in Santiago, just west of San Ramón. Donations from CAA members provide a birthday party for each child. The party consists of cake (donated by La Duquesa), ice cream, candy, and punch for the kids; and a present for the birthday child. We also donate party plates, cups, balloons, streamers, and candles.

<<Previous

Scholarship Program Update: 1) Will Six Days of University Math Entrance Exam Prep be Enough for Our Eight 2022 Colegio Graduates? and 2) Second-Term Scholarships Distributed July 15/16

HOW WILL CAA’S 2018-2022 HIGH SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIP STUDENTS MEASURE UP ACADEMICALLY?

CAA’s EDUCATION COMMITTEE CELEBRATES A DECADE OF SERVICE TO SAN RAMON'S STUDENTS

CAA Scholarship Program continues to support our thirty students in 2022!

Update on CAA Scholarship Students; First-Term Class of 2022

Another 30 San Ramón Students, High School and University, are Ready for 2022

Spanish Conversation Groups Start Tuesday, January 25 via Zoom

The English Conversation Club is set to restart in February 2022

TAMALE CHRISTMAS

CAA SUPPORTS HOGARCITO WITH "BIRTHDAY BUDDIES" PARTIES

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