Strong Schools Maryland, fiscally sponsored by Fund for Educational Excellence
Strong Schools Maryland, founded in Spring 2017, is a time-bounded advocacy initiative with a goal for an adequately-funded education system in which virtually all Maryland students graduate on time from high school. At stake are the education funding and policy recommendations put forward by the mandated Kirwan Commission in 2019. Strong Schools will continue its grassroots statewide advocacy through the 2020 Legislative Session to educate the public and state decision-makers using its successful organizing strategy of Teams of Ten; a monthly education and action meeting of over 188 community-based teams engaging 2,000 individuals in all of Maryland’s 24 jurisdictions. The outcome of the advocacy is to pass the Kirwan Commission educational funding and policy recommendations in the 2020 session.
Baltimore Education Research Consortium
Launched by the Abell Foundation and Open Society Foundation in 2007, the Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC) at Johns Hopkins University pursues long- and short-term educational data analysis and research, and subsequently interprets and shares the findings with Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools), community, and stakeholder leaders. Over the next two and one-half years, BERC will expand its work and support for youth in Baltimore by building a sustainable research and practice community that is open to any university or college in Maryland interested in working with Baltimore City Public Schools.
The new governance structure, with several Councils and Research Boards, will increase opportunities to partner, disseminate findings, and translate research findings into action steps in Baltimore City. By December 2021, BERC will transition to a new revenue model that relies primarily on research grant awards to fund BERC’s ongoing operation.
Baltimore Curriculum Project, Inc.
In 2017, Baltimore Curriculum Project was named the Lead Education Partner in the $30 million Choice Neighborhood Implementation Grant to redevelop the Perkins Homes neighborhood in East Baltimore. The overall goal of the five-year City Springs College and Career Readiness (CCR) Program is to prepare City Springs students to graduate from high school successfully prepared to pursue careers of choice via successful completion of college or other post-secondary training. Targeting 230 middle school students, City Springs will focus in Year I on bolstering academic readiness and career exploration by providing: Individual Academic Counseling/high school planning; Accelerated Middle School Math & Science performance/Deepening English Instruction for High Performers; College and Career Resource Class/College & Career Exploration; Parent education and engagement in College and Career Readiness; Participation in Mentoring Programs.
Improving Education, fiscally sponsored by Strong City Baltimore
Founded in 2015 by Jarrod Bolte, a former Baltimore City Schools teacher and administrator, Improving Education set out to change the way schools work to improve outcomes for children. Improving Education will focus on up to 20 elementary schools using a Networked Improvement Community (NIC) to assist teachers, administrators, and community providers in redesigning instructional and support mechanisms to improve early literacy outcomes for students from K through second grade. Working with 125 reading teachers and 3,500 students, Improving Education’s literacy protocols have become a cornerstone for school innovation and early literacy instructional design in City Schools. Improving Education expects to increase the number of students in grades K-2 meeting grade level reading proficiency by 20 percentage points from the beginning to end of year.
Teach for America – Baltimore
Teach for America: Baltimore has been recruiting and developing teachers and leaders to expand educational opportunities for Baltimore’s children growing up in poverty since 1992. Today, there are 1,200 Teach for America alumni and teachers in Baltimore–80% continue to engage in work impacting low-income communities.This grant will continue TFA’s work in 1. recruiting top talent ( 90 new and diverse teachers–over 57% people of color); 2. building leaders in the classroom, schools and City (a total of 20 TFA principals and 3rd year teacher retention rate of 66%) and 3. Connecting TFA network to accelerate educational outcomes in Baltimore (launching a new network strategy).