The Literacy Lab
The Literacy Lab employs a professionalized tutoring workforce that provides one-on-one, small group, and whole group literacy interventions to 690 students annually. A replication of the acclaimed Minnesota Reading Corps, Literacy Lab embeds rigorously trained reading tutors in PreK classrooms and provides 1:1 tutoring in schools to children in Kindergarten through third grade. Literacy Lab tutoring participants are between 1.5 to 5 times as likely to be on grade level than students who started at the same grade level and received no tutoring. Approximately 20% of participating students will achieve literacy benchmarks and end the school year on grade level.
Baltimore Kids Chess League, Inc.
Sponsored by the Abell Foundation and Baltimore City Public Schools since 2004, Baltimore Kids Chess League (BKCL) offers an academic extracurricular program that serves more than 150 children from kindergarten to 12th grade in 21 schools. Due to Covid, BKCL has migrated to a new virtual format, using the innovative “Think Like A King” chess software to move students through chess strategy sessions, assigning a chess rating based on each student’s level of play, and effectively matching opponents with an equivalent level of chess skill. Teams practice weekly under the auspices of trained chess coaches and compete in novice, local, state, and national chess tournaments sponsored by the United States Chess Federation.
University of Baltimore Foundation
The University of Baltimore School of Law Truancy Court Program (TCP) identifies young people who are at risk for delinquency, substance use, gang involvement, and other behavioral problems linked to truancy and school disengagement. The primary goal of the TCP is to reduce truancy by reconnecting students and their families with their schools in order to break the school-to-prison pipeline. The holistic approach utilized by the TCP involves multiple components that include mentoring, continual and consistent follow-up and oversight, tutoring, social services referrals, legal guidance, and the powerful presence of a retired judge who leads the effort.
Strong Schools Maryland, Fiscally Sponsored by Fund for Educational Excellence
Strong Schools Maryland, founded in spring 2017, is an educational advocacy organization with a goal for an adequately funded education system in which virtually all Maryland students graduate on time from high school. Strong Schools is committed to securing the legislative votes to override the gubernatorial veto of the 2020 Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. Now, working as a permanent organization, Strong Schools will continue its grassroots statewide advocacy to monitor the full implementation of the Kirwan Commission recommendations.
NorthBay Education
NorthBay Academy is a sixteen-week, residential educational program provided to 300 Baltimore City Public Schools sixth graders during the first semester of the 2020 school year as a response to the Covid pandemic. Students attending NorthBay Academy will be provided hands-on science instruction, character-building activities, teamwork and challenge based activities, and individualized reading tutoring, alongside their typical routine of virtual instruction provided by their classroom teachers. The Academy is designed to accelerate student learning and provide educational stability for students whose instruction may be impeded due to the challenges of virtual learning.