Fund for Educational Excellence
Founded in 1984, the Fund for Educational Excellence (The Fund) is a Baltimore-based organization that supports public education through its fundraising and collaboration with Baltimore City Schools, convening and technical support to education non-profits. This operating grant enables The Fund to produce community-sourced education reports and then act upon recommendations, provide stewartship for over $20 million in philanthropic suport for innovative programs in City Schools, and convene diverse organizations and education partners to identify, facilitate and accelerate efforts to improve student achievement in Baltimore. Noteworthy are the Fund’s recent fundraising to support the City Sshools Blueprint, its grant awards to School Principals, and its operation of the successful Chicago Parents Program.
Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC)
For over 10 years, BERC has analyzed data from the National Student Clearinghouse and Naviance to provide Baltimroe City Public School principals and staff with the latest district- and school-level figures on college access behaviors, college enrollment and degree completion amoung City hgh school graduates. In an effort to both produce an annual report and reduce high costs, BERC will automate the development of the Baltimroe City College Fact Book. In addition, an updated, online College Fact Book will be published describing college access behaviors district-wide and by individual high school (i.e., applications, acceptances, FAFSA completions, college “match”, summer melt attrition), college enrollment, and degree completion for the Classes of 2012 through 2018.
University System of Maryland Foundation
The major thrust of the three-year B-Power initiative is to coordinate, enhance and expand dual enrollment options offered jointly to Baltimore City Schools by University of Baltimore, Coppin, Morgan and Baltimore City High Schools with a goal to serve 525 high school students annually by 2021. In the next 18 months, UB will collaborate with BCCC specifically to improve the access of students to credit coursework in math, adopt UB’s successful 2 semester college readiness course eliminating ACCUPLACER, and improve the quality of instruction. In addition to the already-funded 230 UB dual enrollment seats for 2019-2020, this project will add 60 seats each semester at three new high schools. The grant will also develop a full menu of dual enrollment options at the 4 higher ed institutions by the 2020-2021 school year.
The Gil Sandler Fund, Inc.
Baltimore City College’s Speech and Debate extracurricular program traces its beginnings to 1878. Revitalized in 1997 by Gil Sandler and Abell Foundation funding, The Speech and Debate team has grown into a regional and national powerhouse for preparing up to 70 students annually for competitive colleges, This grant provides a $100,000 contribution to the Speech and Debate endowment fund in honor of the passing of Gilbert Sandler, and two years of operating funding at $25,000 per year.
Baltimore’s Promsie
Launched by a diverse group of civic leaders in 2014, Baltimore’s Promise is a collaboration to create a cradle to career pipeline to success for youth in Baltimore City by coordinating strategy, identifying quality programs, establishing shared outcomes, building public will, and advancing good policy. In Year 5, the work will focus on the implementation of the Grads2Careers occupational training scholarships for 2018/2019 graduates from Baltimore City Public Schools and the development of an Integrated Data System.