The Free RootsandGoals.org All-grade Homework Project

Students who constantly update life goals, while also exploring family roots from letters by parents and grandparents, improve their confidence and achievement.

The Roots & Goals Envelope Box holds each student's envelope with copies of all that student's letters.

  1. The RootsandGoals.org Homework Project begins with a letter requested from each parent, grandparent, and any close relative. The letter writer describes their dreams for the student and includes a story from their own life they want the student to know.
  2. All letters received are read as soon as possible by the letter writer to the student. After third grade they are read immediately by students themselves. A meeting or phone call is scheduled with the letter writer to go over the letter content together. After this meeting the original letter goes into the envelope for original letters. (Two envelopes are given each student each year. Both are self-addresssed for the student with the day’s date on the envelope. One is for original letters and the other is for one copy of each letter.)
  3. Once the expected letters are all received, and the meetings with the letter writers have happened, each student writes a letter to themselves (except for those below 3rd grade) about their thoughts on each letter received and their own plans for their own future.  This letter also goes into the original letter envelope.
  4. The original letter envelope is then taken to have two copies made of each letter.  This can be done at no cost at your local Dallas Public Library.
  5. One copy of each letter goes to each letter writer. It helps in the planning for writing next year’s letter.
  6. The remaining copy goes into the second self-addressed and dated envelope.  It is left unsealed and brought to school by the student.  The teacher counts the number of letters copied in the envelope, writes that number under the student’s address on the envelope, circles the number, and seals the envelope.  The envelope is then returned to the student
  7. The student takes their sealed Roots & Goals Envelope to the classroom where they say their Pledge each morning. Their envelope is placed inside the Roots & Goals Envelope Box near the flag.
  8. Each day at the Pledge each student will see the Roots & Envelope Box with their envelope inside.  Hopefully it will remind them of the advice in the letters inside their envelope.  If they ever forget what was said in any letter, they can always see and read the original letter that is in safe keeping in their home.
  9. At the end of every school year each Roots & Goals Envelope is returned to their student to take home. It is used in planning next year’s letter.
  10. Much more rapid academic improvement was documented as all grades wrote letters to themselves planning their futures and received those letters back within the year. The only letters placed into a school’s 10-year time-capsule vault are those of high school seniors about to graduate, with the letters returned at the Class 10-year Reunion.  To better describe the driving force of the StudentMotivation.org Project it was renamed as the RootsandGoals.org Project.

Academic improvement has now accelerated ten-fold since 2005! The improvements that took 10-years before 2016 now happen within one, or two years at the most. Annual letters by family are now collected by students in every grade, and seen daily at the Pledge of Allegiance until returned home at the end of the year. The more constant reminders speed up academic achievement every year. The only 10-year time-capsule experience is now happening with the 16th set of letters, the second set written senior year!  Hopefully, with graduation, the focus on future planning grounded in family history is becoming a powerful discipline guiding a student’s life. 

The RootsandGoals.org Homework Project has always been a free-to-use, open-source project, improving student achievement.  Our only request is much more important that money. If any school develops any improvements to this student motivation system, please let the RootsandGoals.org Project know so all students in all schools everywhere can benefit. 

Graduate education or human behavior students are encouraged to use this project for any of the multitude of thesis items that could be researched within the RootsandGoals.org Homework Project framework involving students from the age of 3 through 18. Achievements of this Project can be tested. Improvements can be made as they are supported in graduate research. 

==========================================

Remember to place the current date above the students name on their Roots & Goals Envelope each year. It is possible today’s Pk-3 student will have a total of 16 such envelopes, all with different dates, by the time they count the second senior year envelope. It will be the final 10-year planning forward Roots & Goals Envelope that goes into their high school vault for 10 years! They will receive it back at their class 10-year reunion. (Each former student must have an ID to get their Roots & Goals Envelope back to minimize envelopes lost.)

Imagine the grasp on life, goals, and family history these graduating students will have compared to current students!  Student achievement will be setting new records!

(The above photo is one of the five 10-year Reunions of Quintanilla former 8th grade students from 2005-2009. The reunions happened from 2015 through 2019, just before the Covid Pandemic shut down all letter writing in all schools in 2020. When letter writing stopped the high SEI scores dropped back to where they had been before students has started writing letters.  The lack of a focus on the future makes a big difference! These reunions were great events everyone loved, but hardly a third of the former students returned to the reunions. Starting a 10-year reunion tradition for 8th graders is very difficult. Therefore it is no longer recommended due to the heavy effort demanded to put one on, the low attendence, and the apparent increased benefit of students getting their letters back sooner and not waiting 10 years.)

Benefits of the RootsandGoals.org Homework Project:

Schools experience a lowering of dropout rates with rising grades and achievement with this Project. Fewer behavioral issues hinder such progress.  Student self-confidence grows.  With students in all grades receiving annual letters from each parent, grandparent, or other close relative, average student attendance and achievement will improve in every grade!

High schools save the final envelopes from each senior class to be stored for the class 10-year reunions. A centrally located vault in a high traffic area of each high school should be used for this vault. Such a vault, combined with a Roots & Goals Envelope Box near every homeroom flag, symbolize the ultimate high value of family roots and life goals! We all benefit as more of our students both master their Family Roots and focus their studies on their own, constantly updated, Life Goals.

School Time Capsule Vault

It is recommended that only high schools now have Time-Capsule Vaults to hold each graduates Roots & Goals Envelope for 10 years until their 10-year Class Reunion.

The record setting improvement reflected in the green area above was possible due to the excellent SOC staff under the brilliant leadereship of Dr. Willie Johnson since 2017. The green area designates South Oak Cliff High School (SOC) using parts of the RootsandGoals.org Project 2023 through 2025 to build on this essential foundation already in place at SOC!  In 2023/24 SOC was the first DISD high school to have all students in all grades write letters to themselves about their plans for their future. The 9.5 SEI point one year gain in 2024 was beaten again by SOC the following year when about half the students requested letters from each parent, grandparent, or other relative. The 2025 SEI score rose even more than in the 2024 score and was 63.8, the highest 2025 SEI score among all DISD secondary schools, including 37 high schools, even the magnets and choice schools! 

In two school years, 2024 & 2025, SOC raised their SEI score a total of 19.3 SEI Points!  This is a phenomenal 2-year record unmatched by any DISD school over the past 30 years of SEI score gains. To better understand the School Effectiveness Indices, and explore the 30+ year history of SEI scores by DISD school, go to https://mydata.dallasisd.org/SL/SD/SEI/Default.jsp. Again, this progress was only possible due to the solid SOC foundation already in place in 2023!

Hopefully in 2026/27, many more schools at all levels will start their own RootsandGoals.org Pk3-12 Homework Projects. Their 2027 SEI scores will rise hopefully all over 5 points more than any DISD schools not doing the Project.  They hopefully will even experience SEI gains as great as those SOC earned in 2024, and again in 2025 of over 9 points each year!

Schools must be patient with students and/or family members who are initially hesitant to write the requested letters. Present this Project as a service provided by the school to help motivate students. As the value of the Project becomes better known, the voluntary participation will increase.  The RootsandGoals.org Pk3-12 Homework Project must remain voluntary. Counseling staff should always be advised when letters are being written. Alternative writing projects should always be available for students who do not want to participate.   

Go to the RootsandGoals.org Homework Project Menu to see an Overview of the Project and it’s History, the Handouts needed to run the Project, and the Data that helps verify the Project achievements.  

7-24-2026 Bill Betzen
bbetzen@aol.com
(Emailed questions are welcome. Always put Roots & Goals in Subject line)