Urban Teachers
With Abell Foundation start-up funding, Urban Teachers launched a new model of teacher preparation in 2009, recruiting outstanding college graduates, training them in a year-long clinical preparation, providing classroom support over four years, and linking their certification to demonstration of effective teaching practices and student learning gains. In summer 2020, Urban Teachers will begin training another 100 new incoming Resident Teachers who co-teach with mentor teachers for the first year of a four-year commitment. This grant will enable Urban Teachers to embark upon a strategic planning process to reaccess and design a new business and financial model that will garner more earned reveue and reduce costs without impacting program quality. This model will further reduce reliance on philanthropy to 20% of the total budget, and reduce the financial burdens on teacher candidates.
In summer 2020, Urban Teachers will begin training another 100 new incoming Resident Teachers who co-teach with mentor teachers for the first year of a four-year commitment.
Baltimore Corps
Relaunched in 2019, the Baltimore City Mayoral Fellowship recruits a cohort of 10-15 graduate and undergraduate interns to work on executive-level projects in City agencies and departments over 10 weeks during the summer. Baltimore Corps, in partnership with the Mayor’s Chief of Staff’s office, selects, places and oversees programming for the Fellowship, including weekly speaker sessions, community service and a final symposium. The Fellows program aims for 100% completion, 90% level of satisfaction, and hiring of 3 candidates within a year of program completion. Fellows will reflect the demographics of Baltimore City.
Baltimore Urban Debate League
The Baltimore Urban Debate League (BUDL), a national initiative, has reintroduced debate into Baltimore’s public school classrooms over the last two decades as a strategy to engage and inspire students from our city’s most under-resourced schools. BUDL has reached thousands of students from 4th grade to 12th grade, and changed their personal and academic trajectories by helping them discover their voice and reach their potential through debate. This grant will support the expansion of the Debate League to 53 schools (including 11 high schools) and serve over 8,500 students in the 2019-2020 school year.
Fund for Educational Excellence
The Abell-funded Baltimore City Schools report, “Preparing All Students for Economic and Career Success” (2019) uncovered issues and made recommendations for improving the school system’s Career and Technical Education program. As a working group created a four-year Master Plan for CTE, a number of questions arose that required more data collection and analysis. This grant has enabled City Schools to contract with Project Evident to analyze CTE coursework, facilities, teacher recruitment/training and student career interest. Final CTE program recommendations will enable the Master Plan to be complete by Summer 2020.
Green Street Academy, Inc.
Green Street Academy, a Baltimore City Charter school for 870 6th-9th grade students, plans to construct and program a 7,000 square foot state-of-the-art STEM Innovation Center facility. This Center is envisioned to be the hub of the school, bringing together CTE programs in Construction, Design and Health, internships and jobs, dual enrollment, college counseling, and collaborative space for school day and afterschool applied learning/making and entrepreneurship programming. The Innovation Lab is expected to open in January 2021, and will serve over 600 students in afterschool, internship and summer programs.