Toyota Mississippi is investing $5.8 million over five years in two North Mississippi school districts to enhance and promote science, technology, engineering and math learning. Driving Possibilities is Toyota’s national approach to workforce readiness and community engagement.
Toyota, which first announced the investment on Sept. 18, is collaborating with the CREATE Foundation and the University of Mississippi to provide funds for the districts to integrate STEM education, address base-level needs, support mobility, and provide professional development for the Lee County and Pontotoc City school districts.
The automotive company identified that Lee County has a significant need due to its high percentage of low-income and socioeconomically disadvantaged students who are primarily non-white.
“The program is designed to remove barriers to education and create access to opportunities for all students and all educators,” Toyota Mississippi Corporate Communications Manager Tiffannie L. Hedin told the Mississippi Free Press on Sept 25. “So for Mississippi, specifically, our investment of $5.8 million is to help support Lee County Schools and Pontotoc City Schools with … unique programs.”
The unique ecosystem of Pontotoc, with its large population of English language learners, led the company to choose the city’s district. Toyota Mississippi is the ninth site to launch the Driving Possibilities initiative.
The company spent a year working with educators, counselors and students to determine the specific needs of each district. Toyota also conducted focus groups to collect feedback from families and community members. Pontotoc City School District Superintendent Phil Webb said that going through the process provided a fresh perspective on the community and prompted the district to take a closer look at the bigger picture.
“We had several days, several days, that we took pretty much our district—we took all of our administrators, a lot of our best and brightest teachers, our leadership team people and people that you know you want in rooms making decisions,” Webb said. “We took community members. There were lots of surveys and lots of data that we had to dig up at points, so instead of Phil Webb saying, ‘I think it’s what we need,’ there were data to show and it kind of started with the hard questions.”
Providing On-Campus Support Through Access
Pontotoc City School District has approximately 2,350 students in five schools. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that 11% of the district’s students are Hispanic or Latino and almost 10% speak English “less than well.” District officials estimate the actual percentage to be three times higher. The district educates students who speak various Spanish dialects and Arabic. The district plans to implement a Newcomer Program for students in grades 5 through 12, where they will spend part of their school day learning through the iLitELL curriculum for English language learners. Through the grant, Toyota will fund dedicated English language learners personnel, curriculum and training for implementation.
The Pontotoc City School District has also hired staff and purchased supplemental equipment. The program will focus on training kindergarten through 4th grade teachers using the Structured Instruction Observation Protocol, which teaches educators to shift their instructional approach to accommodate language needs. Students will receive instruction for two class periods a day, focusing not only on academic instruction but also on social language skills needed to navigate everyday life.
“The SIOP model is going to grow the teacher’s capacity, not only to improve what they do for English learners, but for all learners in that classroom,” Chunn said. “… So the first lessons for newcomers may not be so heavy on academics as it is just learning the social language necessary to be a student who can get their way around school and society in general.”
CAPTION: Toyota USA Foundation’s Driving Possibilities Initiative provides funds for school districts to integrate STEM education, address base-level needs, support mobility and provide professional development. The Lee County School District and Pontotoc City School District are the first recipients of the Driving Possibilities grant in Mississippi. Toyota announced the investment at this event on Sept. 18, 2024. Photo courtesy Tiffannie L. Hedin
Additionally, the district will use some of the equipment to bridge language barriers between teachers and students and between front-office staff and families. Devices will allow students to hear content in their native language, and front-office staff will use handheld translation devices for real-time communication with families.
The district is also partnering with the University of Mississippi Center for Mathematics and Science Education to provide professional development for science and math teachers at the elementary and middle school levels, fulfilling another of the company’s focuses.
Opening Opportunity Through STEM Education
Twenty-five miles east of Pontotoc, the Lee County School District has 1,300 students in six schools. Toyota has also launched a transportation study with the Eno Center for Transportation aligning with the program’s Mobility and Basic Needs quadrant. The study aims to determine the most effective ways to transport students, assess the age and condition of the district’s buses, and evaluate the impact of long bus routes on students.
The district will use the grant to provide hands-on STEM programs. The district will integrate STEM education into its middle school curriculum. Lee County will also partner with the University of Mississippi’s Center for Mathematics and Science Education to customize a professional development program to prepare its teachers to effectively teach the STEM content, including teaching hands-on programming through its Middle Math Institutes. Staff members from the center will provide STEM teacher support at Shannon Middle School, Plantersville Middle School and Verona Elementary School in Lee County for the 2024, 2025 and 2026 academic years.
“We know that what CMSE is going to be bringing to the table in support of our teachers are methods that have proven to be effective,” Lee County Superintendent Coke Magee said in a University of Mississippi press release. “When you partner these with the labs, manipulatives and the hands-on resources coming from other companies, I think it’s a perfect fit for our district and a great opportunity for our students.”
Cultivating School, Community and Industry Collaboration
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there were 10.7 million STEM jobs in the United States in 2023. Workers earned an average of $101,650 in annual wages. Lt. Governor Delbert Hoseman, who attended the Sept. 18 announcement, said the partnership between Toyota and the school districts brings schools and industry together to provide more opportunities for the state.
“Mississippi’s economy is growing,” Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said in a University of Mississippi press release. “To meet its demands, we need our students—particularly in STEM fields—to be ready to hit the ground running when they graduate at any level. This new partnership is a great example of how industry and education can work together to accomplish this goal.”
The Toyota USA Foundation launched its Driving Possibilities Initiative in 2022 to bring together educators, industry, communities and local and national nonprofits. Hedin says Toyota’s mission of social innovation continues with this latest partnership.
“(We need help) to prepare our students for whatever job they want to do and for jobs that aren’t even created,” Hedin said. “That’s going to take everybody. So we are welcoming, with open arms, any company in the industry, any small business, any nonprofit and all of our legislators to help be a part of this. There’s a lot of work to be done and our teachers cannot do it alone.”
