Once a week, Nicole Hollrah blocks 30 minutes on her calendar to make a very important phone call. However, facilitating a high-level business conversation in her capacity as Model Risk Manager for Toyota Financial Services (TFS) is the furthest thing from the agenda. Instead, on the other end of the line, a second-grade student eagerly awaits the chance to speak to Hollrah. That’s because she’s about to play word games and read stories together with her tutor, one of dozens of Toyota employees mentoring and tutoring Lancaster Independent School District students in first and second grades.
It’s just one aspect of the Toyota Leadership Academy, an equal-partner collaboration between Lancaster ISD and TFS that launched during the 2021-2022 school year. Now in its third year, the Academy focuses on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and business principles. There’s also an emphasis on the Toyota Way, a set of principles that define the corporate culture of the Fortune 500 company by instilling concepts of respect for people and continuous improvement.
And improving is exactly what’s happening among the students participating in reading intervention for first- and second-grade students from October to May. Similarly, a math intervention program implemented with the help of third-party vendor Varsity Tutors addresses gaps in learning identified for elementary, middle and high school kids from January through April.
Data from the 2021-22 academic year shows an 83% reading growth — an average 15 points higher than the stats taken before the Toyota Leadership Academy was established. On the mathematics front, the results are even more staggering: Students who attended math intervention scored 11-36% higher than their district-level counterparts on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test.
Of 25 elementary students in one group in the Toyota Leadership Academy math intervention program, 19 passed the test. That’s a 76% passing rate compared to 65% overall on the third-grade math section for other students in the district. In middle school, 29 of 30 Toyota Leadership Academy students passed the STAAR, representing a 97% passing rate compared to 62% overall in the sixth grade.
“So overall, students who attended the math intervention scored higher than the students in the district, and [they] outscored their peers. So, we feel like the Varsity Tutors program was very impactful for us,” says Patonia Bell, chief of access and accountability, curriculum and instruction for Lancaster ISD.
The results are an important source of pride and achievement for Bell, an instrumental force in securing the partnership for her school district. Rising above finalists all over the country vying to be part of the Toyota collaboration, Lancaster ISD secured a path toward one multifaceted goal: to prepare students for personal, academic and professional success by providing a specialized curriculum designed to increase high school graduation rates; improve college, career and leadership readiness; and introduce students to job opportunities in the global workforce.
In addition to weekly tutoring sessions in reading and math, several Toyota team members have also stepped up to teach full lessons in engineering, data science and operational excellence at the high school level as part of the district’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) programming. “We’re working with those students with several different business industries, particularly in business, robotics, design and engineering,” Bell says.
Lancaster ISD became a STEM district back in 2012, which means it focuses on those core disciplines from sixth grade until graduation — or “wall-to-wall STEM” as Bell describes it. As a result, STEM centers have become an integral part of Lancaster school campuses and Toyota has been instrumental in getting them outfitted properly. Last year, the partners came up with the idea to create STEM elementary innovation labs.
“Toyota basically spent $82,752 to help outfit all of our elementary campuses with different furnishings that would allow for flexible seating. [It gives] students an opportunity to work in a classroom environment that we consider a world-class learning space,” Bell says.
The district has also added other STEM initiatives over the past few years, including a STEM Expo, and different types of multicultural events that allow students to utilize creative thinking and problem solving even during extracurricular events.
Many of the participating students come from disadvantaged economic backgrounds, which makes these initiatives that much more important to help break that cycle when they become adults. “The whole idea is to transform education into real equity, so that’s a pretty broad umbrella,” says Darryn Hyman, who oversees the Toyota Leadership Academy for Toyota Financial Services. “So, we’ve tried to target areas of opportunity, gaps that Lancaster ISD has identified to us, and where we could help them, whether it’s directly with Toyota mentor volunteers or outside vendors that we fund to help with particular types of services.”
A winning scenario
While these first three years haven’t been without challenges, the impact and results are overwhelmingly positive. “These are young boys and girls that just want somebody to believe in them, to help them overcome all types of challenges they may face, whether it’s in their homes or communities,” Hyman says, adding that he and his colleagues truly respect these young people who will be our future, and it’s rewarding to be able to help them out in a small way.
“But the teachers are the true heroes, because they do this day in and day out. We just do our part to help with the resources we have at Toyota, to enhance what they already do every day and just to continuously improve learning, the classroom structure, the facilities and resources that they have access to,” he says.
Getting involved as a volunteer, however, has its rewards too. “It’s only 30 minutes during our workweek. It’s not much time, but it’s the best meeting I have all week,” Hollrah says.
At this year’s welcome-back-to-school event, she saw the student she tutored last year in line to go into the building.
“He ran over and gave me a big hug. I mean, it’s a big impact, not just for them, but for me too,” she says. “My husband’s a teacher in Fort Worth ISD at the high school level, and I just know I want all these students to be ready to succeed when they get to that level.”