The Literacy Lab
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. In 2019/20, Literacy Lab nearly doubled in size with 65 tutors serving an anticipated 1,155 children in 24 Baltimore City elementary schools. 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. In addition, Literacy Lab’s Leading Men program annually employs and trains five recent graduates of color in Pre K classrtooms, preparing them to enter a career in education.
Baltimore Robotics League, fiscally sponsored by the Fund for Educational Excellence
In its sixth year, the Baltimore City Robotics League will continue to expand the STEM pipeline by sponsoring at least 90 FIRST Lego, Jr. FIRST Lego, VEX IQ, and VEX extracurricular robotics teams for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Directed by a City Schools Robotics Coordinator, The League provides intensive training/equipment for coaches; sponsors and provides fees for local, state and national robotics tournaments; and will launch a summer camp for the first time in 2020. The League expects to send 8 City teams to the World VEX Competition and the US Open Championships.
Baltimore Kids Chess League, Inc.
Sponsored by the Abell Foundation and Baltimore City Public Schools since 2004, Baltimore Kids Chess offers an academic extracurricular program that serves more than 750 children from kindergarten to 12th grade in 40 schools. 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. Baltimore City chess players have gained acclaim for City Schools as a powerhouse; three Kids Chess League teams are expected to advance to the 2020 USCF Nationals.
ACLU Foundation of Maryland, Inc.
In spring 2020, the Maryland Legislature will tackle the aggressive “Blueprint” educational policy and school funding formula recommendations from The Kirwan Commission. This session promises to be a once in a generation opportunity to reapply an equitable statewide educational funding formula, particularly for those children living in concentrated poverty. The ACLU has been critical to maintaining educational funding over the last three decades, and will use its core strategies of advocating to policy-makers and school systems, informing and engaging parents, students and community groups, and for the first time in over a decade, litigating. The goals are to pass a new state funding formula with additional dollars for schools with high concentrated poverty, and to pass the $2.2 billion bill for School Construction.
Success for All Foundation, Inc.
The JHU-affiliated Success for All Foundation is launching its successful Tutoring with Lightning Squad (or Lightning Squad) reading intervention hoping to serve 800 children in up to 15 City Elementary Schools in 2019-20.Tutoring with the Lightning Squad is a small group, web-based reading intervention for struggling readers in first through third grade. Lighting Squad trained tutors provide daily 30-minute tutoring sessions to groups of four children with the support of the on-line Sesame Street literacy program. It is expected that participants will complete 25 tutoring sessions as a minimum and gain a minimum of 2 months of reading growth.