Reading Partners
Since 2012, Reading Partners has provided high quality literacy tutoring by recruiting, training and supervising comunity volunteers to serve children in Baltimore City elementatary schools. With the support of 650 volunteers and 29 Americorps members, Reading Partners will serve up to 600 K-4th grade studentsin 16 Title I schools in the 2020/21 school year. While that instruction may be virutal, in person, or a hybrid, Reading Partners expects that 81% of tutored students will meet their primary individualized end of year literacy growth goals.
The Ingenuity Project
The Abell Foundation launched The Ingenuity Project for advanced math and science in 1994. Today, Ingenuity prepares and launches the next diverse generation of nationally competitive STEM leaders in Baltimore City Schools, serving 830 students in grades 6-12. This grant will enable Ingenuity to expand and improve access to students of color and students living in concentrated poverty by establishing a community-driven vision and systems to produce equitable outcomes for all students, supporting its new middle school program at James McHenry School in West Baltimore, and refining individualized support and STEM enrichment, including the high school practicum experience for all participants. Ingenuity will continue to serve as the exemplary accelerated math and science program that prepares Baltimore City students for selective colleges and STEM careers, demonstrating both excellence and equity.
Digital Harbor Foundation, Fiscally Sponsored by Fund for Educational Excellence
COVID-19 has exposed the lack of both devices, and as importantly, connectivity in the homes of Baltimore City school children. Coordinated by the Fund for Educational Excellence, this grant is part of a City Schools Tech Initiative to pilot the use of mesh-internet installed on the roofs of four high-poverty schools. These cost-effective access nodes tap into school broadband and provide free internet to homes in a four-to-eight-block radius of the school, serving an anticipated 820 students.
Fund for Educational Excellence
The Fund for Educational Excellence is a Baltimore-based education intermediary that supports public education through its fundraising and collaboration with Baltimore City Public Schools, community-based research, convening stakeholders, and serving as a fiscal sponsor to education non-profits. This grant will enable the Fund to produce a Transportation report and act on its recommendations in CTE and School Choice, to raise federal and national funding for City Schools, to stewart $25 million as fiscal sponsor to 20 non-profits, and to recognize excellence among school principals.
The Community School
Certified in 2014 as a small non-public diploma-awarding high school, The Community School in Remington has successfully served struggling students who have failed in Baltimore City Public Schools for over 30 years. This storefront school provides up to 22 14-19 year olds with an interdisciplinary academic and mentoring high school program that reinforces basic skills, while individualized instruction builds knowledge and skills for college, competitive employment, and community contribution. Over 40 volunteers support teachers and work individually with students. The Community School boasts a daily attendance above 95% and a college enrollment rate of 65%.