Mayor Lee, San Francisco Unified School District and the Salesforce.com Foundation Announce the Expansion of the Mayor's Middle Grades Leadership Initiative to Increase Resources for Science, Technology and Math Education

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Mayor Edwin M. Lee, Superintendent Richard A. Carranza and salesforce.com Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff today announced the expansion of the Mayor's Middle Grades Leadership Initiative for the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). As part of the multi-year initiative, the Salesforce.com Foundation is donating $5 million and salesforce.com employees will volunteer 5,000 hours during the 2014-2015 school year – dramatically increasing technology resources for San Francisco students. The Salesforce.com Foundation also announced a $1 million grant to Code.org, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science curriculum in schools across the nation.

Comments on the news:

• "The best investment we can make is in our young people, and that is why we are focused on making sure our students receive a world class public school education and that they are set up for success," said San Francisco Mayor Lee. "I'm grateful that the Salesforce.com Foundation is once again stepping up to help our youth reach their fullest potential. Salesforce.com is a tremendous partner to our City and our residents, bringing thousands of new jobs to San Francisco and giving back through innovative public-private partnerships like our Middle Grades Leadership Initiative to make San Francisco a city where we all can succeed."
• "Our partnership with the Salesforce.com Foundation is helping us create a true 21st century educational experience – one that prepares our students for the challenges and opportunities of global citizenship," said San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Richard A. Carranza. "This partnership is about transforming our schools so that every student is challenged to kindle her or his unique spark, chart a course for a meaningful future and build the knowledge and skills to achieve it. Together with the Salesforce.com Foundation, SFUSD is equipping all middle grade classrooms with next-generation media and technology capabilities, ensuring that students do not just understand, but can also contribute to and thrive in the digital world."
• "We saw tremendous success in our first year working with the San Francisco Unified School District," said Suzanne DiBianca, president, Salesforce.com Foundation. "And today, we are doubling down on our commitment to middle school students. With our financial resources and the volunteer efforts of salesforce.com employees, the Salesforce.com Foundation is proud to help prepare San Francisco students for the jobs of tomorrow."
• "Preparing today's children for the 21st century is at the heart of all that we do at Code.org, and we're proud and grateful to collaborate with the Salesforce.com Foundation on our first school district partnership in California," said Hadi Partovi, founder and CEO of Code.org. "At a time when less than 10 percent of schools offer computer science across the state, it's exciting to see the City of San Francisco be at the forefront of modernizing curriculum."

A Shared Commitment to SFUSD Students

The Mayor's Middle Grades Leadership Initiative was first announced by Mayor Lee, Superintendent Carranza and the Salesforce.com Foundation in 2013 with the shared goal of providing SFUSD middle school students with increased technology resources and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) opportunities. This initiative also established SFUSD's Principal's Innovation Fund, which empowers every principal to invest directly in innovation at their school.

During the 2013-2014 school year, the Salesforce.com Foundation's $2.7 million grant enabled SFUSD middle school students to benefit from:

• 31 Wi-Fi enabled digital classrooms across 12 middle schools
• 1,500 iPads used by 2,100 San Francisco middle school students in math and science classes
• 1,500 volunteer hours in the classroom from salesforce.com employees
• A full-time technology instructor to assist teachers with implementation

This year, the Salesforce.com Foundation will reach twice the number of SFUSD students by expanding to middle grade students (grades 6-8) at K-8 schools. The Salesforce.com Foundation will deliver an additional $5 million grant – $2 million toward the Principal's Innovation Fund and $3 million for technology and infrastructure. During the 2014-2015 school year, SFUSD expects to:

• Expand to 48 Wi-Fi enabled digital classrooms across 12 middle schools and eight K-8 schools
• Distribute 1,200 additional iPads and 800 Google Chromebooks for use in math and science classes
• Benefit from 5,000 volunteer hours from salesforce.com employees
• Provide four full-time technology instructors across 20 schools to assist teachers

Code.org and the Salesforce.com Foundation – Expanding Access to Computer Science in Schools

The Salesforce.com Foundation is also giving a $1 million grant to Code.org, accelerating its mission to expand participation in computer science by making it available in more schools across the nation and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color.

In partnership with Code.org and SFUSD, SFUSD middle grade students will benefit from:  

• Computer science elective classes offered as a part of their school schedule
• Code.org's "Code Studio" classes in middle and K-8 schools
• After school computer science classes hosted at salesforce.com offices in San Francisco

About the Mayor's Middle Grades Leadership Initiative

Mayor Lee's commitment and enthusiasm for supporting Middle Grades transformation in partnership with SFUSD and School Site Principals provides a great opportunity to integrate the Mayor's Middle Grades Leadership Initiative with Superintendent Carranza's vision to build a PreK-12 STEM pathway, and Salesforce.com Foundation's investment to improve communities by leveraging their people, technology and resources to improve outcomes in education, health and workforce. These partners share the vision that all SFUSD students will graduate college and be career ready with 21st century skills. In particular, the Mayor has focused on the middle grades as this is where a drop off in student and family engagement begins. Mayor Lee is committed to providing targeted support in areas – like technology – that promote student and family engagement, enhance teaching and learning and support the challenging work of principals and teachers. This investment will support the Mayor's vision by putting the T in the STEM pathway for SFUSD Middle Grades; in turn, these schools will lead the way by creating a model for innovating with technology designed to accelerate student achievement.

About the San Francisco Unified School District

The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) is one of California's largest and highest performing school districts. More than 56,000 preschool through twelfth grade students, speaking more than 44 languages, attend 131 public schools within the City and County of San Francisco. SFUSD aims to provide each student with an equal opportunity to succeed by promoting intellectual growth, creativity, self-discipline, cultural and linguistic sensitivity, democratic responsibility, economic competence, and physical and mental health so that each student can achieve his or her maximum potential.

About Code.org

Code.org® is a 501c3 public non-profit dedicated to expanding participation in computer science and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color. Its vision is that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer programming. After launching in 2013, Code.org organized the Hour of Code campaign — which has introduced 41 million students to computer science — partnered with more than 30 public school districts nationwide, and recently launched Code Studio, an open-source, online learning platform for all ages.

About the Salesforce.com Foundation

The Salesforce.com Foundation is based on a simple idea: leverage 1% of salesforce.com's product, equity and time to improve communities around the world. We call this integrated philanthropic approach the 1-1-1 model. Since the Foundation's inception in 1999, Salesforce technology has powered more 23,000 nonprofit and higher education institutions; we've provided more than $68 million in grants; and our employees have logged more than 680,000 volunteer hours throughout the world. For more information on the Salesforce.com Foundation, please visit www.salesforcefoundation.org.

About salesforce.com

Salesforce.com is the world's largest provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software. For more information about salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), visit: www.salesforce.com.

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