Impacting Classrooms

Achieve

We want all teachers to have the standards and assessments necessary to assure their students are prepared to compete in the 21st century. That’s why we partner with Achieve, an independent, bipartisan, non-profit education reform organization based in Washington, D.C. that helps states raise academic standards and graduation requirements, improve assessments and strengthen accountability.

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Alliance for Excellence Education (AEE)

The mission of the AEE is to promote high school transformation and to make it possible for every child to graduate and prepare for postsecondary learning and success in life. AEE’s mission fits in well with State Farm’s education leadership efforts to ensure all children have access to a quality education that will allow them to achieve their greatest potential, preparing them to be active participants in a nation that continues to be global leader.

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America’s Promise Alliance (APA)

State Farm believes all children deserve access to a quality education to help them achieve their greatest potential, help them become good community citizens, and prepare them for the workforce. State Farm partners with the APA on efforts to reduce the nation’s dropout rate and to ensure the personal and educational success of America's youth through the delivery of Five Promises: Caring Adult; Safe Places; A Healthy Start; An Effective Education; Opportunities to Help Others. To engage students and leaders from communities, faith-based organizations, government and private sectors in combating the high school dropout rate, we have committed to sponsoring dropout prevention summits in every U.S. state by the end of 2010. In addition, we are a lead sponsor in the recently launched Grad Nation campaign which highlights nearly 2,000 of the lowest performing high schools identified by the Johns Hopkins. Through Grad Nation, these schools can be targeted and the Alliance can focus on real progress toward its goal to mobilize the nation to cut the dropout rate in half by 2018.

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Council For Economic Education (CEE)

State Farm, along with other companies, government agencies and policymakers, is concerned that consumers lack basic principles of financial literacy and long-term money management skills. That’s why we partner with the CEE. CEE advocates for better and greater school-based economic and personal finance education at the K-12 level. State Farm stands behind CEE by collaborating on the development of Virtual Economics (VE) 3.0. VE is a set of comprehensive economic and financial education teaching materials. It enables the development of customized economics and personal finance curriculum by accessing 1,200 classroom tested lesson plans that are aligned with any state's economics standards.

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Griffith Foundation

Informing and inspiring teachers, students and policymakers on risk management fundamentals strengthens the financial literacy of our current and future customers in communities where we do business. Through our support of the Griffith Insurance Education Foundation we promote the study and teaching of risk management and insurance and are able to provide standards based curriculum resources and training for teachers.

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National Center for Learning and Citizenship at the Education Commission of the States (NCLC)

The NCLC, through State Farm's sponsorship, conducted a three-year research program with schools demonstrating service-learning can improve the academic achievement and graduation rate of minority and Hispanic students. The participating students demonstrated greater engagement, academic achievement and rate of graduation with an increased community involvement. The schools that received "Schools of Success Awards" participated in a multiple year program to identify and share these best practices. State Farm sponsors the National Forum on Education Policy, which convenes state and federal policymakers together each year to discuss education policy. Beginning in 2012, there will also be three Regional Summits convening state policymakers and young people to address the education crisis.

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National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)

Every classroom should have a quality teacher, which is why we support the NBPTS. NBPTS works to raise standards for teaching performance and provides tools to empower teachers with ongoing professional development translating to stronger, flourishing classrooms. National Board certification keeps the most highly accomplished teachers in the classroom to maintain a high quality education system.

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National Youth Leadership Council

Curriculum based service-learning targets academic achievement and engages students in the learning process. We support effective development and implementation of this teaching methodology through our partnerships with the National Youth Leadership Council and the Generator School Network which builds a network of schools and educators who collaborate to share ideas and best practices.

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SLATE® (State Farm Learning and Teaching Exchange®)

State Farm® recognizes the benefit of ongoing, meaningful professional development for teachers. Unfortunately many schools are unable to honor some requests for developmental opportunities for their teachers because of a lack of available and qualified substitutes. In response, State Farm developed a program to address this concern. The program builds on an existing policy allowing State Farm employees a yearly paid Community Service and Education Support (CSES) day to volunteer in a local school. Choosing to use their CSES Day benefit in this manner, State Farm employees volunteer as a substitute teacher in a school for a prearranged professional development opportunity for the partnering teacher.

The SLATE program provides a cost savings to the partnering school districts as well. By utilizing SLATE substitutes, districts are not challenged to use their funds to hire substitutes when teachers are involved in professional development. In times of tight budgets, schools can allocate their substitute teacher budget for those times when teachers are sick or have an immediate need to be out of the classroom. This program also allows State Farm employees, as community citizens and taxpayers, the opportunity to truly understand the environment and challenges of today's schools.

All State Farm employees involved in this program must meet state substitute teaching certification requirements and complete an online information & training course on school policy and strategy prior to their involvement. Each participating employee voluntarily chooses to use their CSES day to substitute in a partnering public school for a teacher engaged in pre-arranged professional development. The SLATE program increases employee awareness of opportunities to use their CSES day in a meaningful way. It also provides a structured process for State Farm employees to support their local schools and teachers. Most importantly, SLATE increases the likelihood that teachers can receive the professional development they want and quality schools require.

If you have further questions, please email:  slate@statefarm.com

Teach for America

State Farm has long recognized that for students to have the best opportunity to achieve academic success there needs to be a highly-qualified effective teacher in the classroom. That’s why State Farm joins Teach for America as a national partner in specific key markets. Teach for America is one of the nation?s largest providers of teachers for low-income communities, with a mission to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting the country’s most promising future leaders in the effort. Teach for America recruits recent college graduates and working professionals from all backgrounds and careers to commit to teach for at least two years in urban and rural public schools. Teachers, or corps members, go above and beyond traditional expectations to lead their students to significant academic achievement, despite the challenges of poverty and the limited capacity of the school system.

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Youth Advisory Board (YAB)

Empowering young adults is key to developing successful communities while impacting student achievement and civic responsibility. The State Farm Youth Advisory Board believes in experiential learning that gives students an opportunity to apply what they are learning in the classroom to relevant problem-solving in the community. Engaging young adults as resources enhances their academic experience, cultivates civic responsibility, advances work performance skills, and constructs opportunities for growth and reflection. The power of the YAB is two-fold: Schools and nonprofits benefit from the grant opportunity of up to $100,000, and board members are empowered through the autonomy of creating and implementing the innovative grant program, and through the developmental opportunities that come from serving on a national board.

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