Lear Corporation, Detroit Public Schools Team Up For Comprehensive New Three-year Student Tutoring Program To Strengthen Educational Pathways And Lifelong Learning

DETROIT, June 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- One hundred East English Village Preparatory Academy high school students will travel four days each week to neighboring J. E. Clark Preparatory Academy beginning this fall under an innovative paid tutoring program aimed at raising student achievement and supporting successful transitions to high school. The three-year, $1.5 million project, jointly developed by the schools' principals, district academic leadership, Lear Corporation and partners, is being funded by Lear Corporation. The program will annually involve several hundred children on both sides of the tutoring equation. The partnership additionally will address computer resources at Clark, provide mentoring by Lear executives to the schools' principals and support neighborhood efforts to improve the physical environment around the schools.

The announcement was made today at a school assembly on the final day of the 2011-12 school year with students, teachers, partners, district and Lear leadership and community members present. Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy S. Roberts announced plans to organize a corporate involvement conference by late summer aimed at attracting other corporate partners and expanding existing partnerships to similar levels as part of the DPS Business Corps. Lear, a leading global supplier of automotive seating and electrical power management systems founded in Detroit and based in Southfield, is listed as #189 on the Fortune 500 List of companies, with $14 billion in sales and over 100,000 employees at 207 facilities in 35 countries.

"This is an opportunity for us to build upon existing successful programs at Clark and to bring a tutoring initiative to full scale to be most effective, while providing a link to lifelong learning for the high school and elementary-middle school students as well," said Lear CEO Matt Simoncini, who graduated from DPS' Clark Elementary.

Simoncini will hold a seat on the school's new Parent Advisory Council on Student Achievement, a key component of the new Detroit Public Schools 2012-13 Academic Plan, "Higher Standards for All" with the student at the center of a wrap-around service model. The new project directly aligns with the Academic Plan's Four Core Strategies including building strong relationships with students, families, and the community to increase trust and shared responsibility.

Under the program, high school students will receive community service credits as well as payment for their tutoring service. Lear and the schools will partner with a financial institution to open bank accounts for direct deposit, and financial literacy programs will be created for the students.

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