QuikTrip Donates to Teach for America

TULSA, Okla. -- QuikTrip Corp. is lending financial support to a new partnership between Teach For America and Tulsa Public Schools that will bring 150 top college graduates from across the United States to teach in the school district's highest-needs sites over the next three school years, according to report by Tulsa World.

Tulsa Schools Superintendent Keith Ballard was joined by Teach For America spokesman Steve Mancini, Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor and a handful of other local leaders in announcing the news at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

QuikTrip pledged $150,000 to support the partnership, the report stated.

The expansion of the New York-based Teach for America organization to Tulsa is part of Teach For America's national growth plan, which calls for 7,500 of its "corps members" to be teaching in more than 33 regions across the country in 2009-2010.

The decision to partner with Tulsa schools was based on a significant level of support from community partners, the willingness of area schools to adopt new programs and, most importantly, the potential for corps members to help underserved students in Tulsa.

Less than half of black, Hispanic, and low-income students in Tulsa are proficient in reading, compared with nearly 80 percent of their white peers, Mancini told Tulsa World. She also cited the average ACT scores for most Tulsa high schools are nearly seven points below the average score of students entering the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, according to the newspaper report.

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