For the Senior School Support Manager (“Senior SSM”), a new program staff position. Blue Engine recruits, trains, and supports Blue Engine Teaching Assistants (“BETAs”), recent college graduates who work alongside mentor teachers to help students develop “college ready” skills in mathematics, literacy and growth mindset. This hybrid team teaching model accelerates student learning while simultaneously building a local pipeline of effective educators within historically oppressed communities. This year, 70 BETAs are supporting 1,400 students in nine partner schools across NYC. The Senior SSM will oversee and work alongside of two School Support Managers to provide all BETAs with non-instructional support, professional development and community building. This position is important to their efforts of achieving improved outcomes for students, while investing in work to make their model and organization more consistently effective, financially sustainable and scalable.

For continued support of their Managing Director of Programs who oversees all of Bottom Line’s programs, ensuring that they consistently deliver quality college access and success services to over 2,800 New York City students from low-income backgrounds. Bottom Line’s program includes two main components: the College Access Program which serves high school seniors; and the College Success Program which serves students all of the way through college. Next year, the Managing Director of Programs will focus in particular on expanding the number of students served in their College Success Program, deepening their partnerships with colleges and community based organizations, improving their Career Program services, refining their pilot programs, and testing new student-service strategies such as an early warning system for students who may be at risk of dropping out.

For continued support of the Club Intervention Specialist who identifies students who display acute signs of academic and social vulnerability, and helps to create educational plans that provide the individuals with those interventions they may require to get back on track. While they provide comprehensive academic and enrichment programs for all of their more than 3,000 members at their 10 locations, these are the students who are typically the most troubled, the furthest behind, and the least likely to succeed. The Specialist will work collaboratively with the students, their parents, teachers, and Club staff to determine the learning deficiencies, social or familial barriers, and personal challenges that these students face, and will help tailor individualized plans to address the students’ needs and begin the process of returning him or her back to a successful path.

For a new Special Projects Director who will manage, support, and coordinate the people and resources needed to plan for, implement and evaluate three capacity-building projects that will allow them to improve their service: 1) adopt a standardized literacy tutoring curriculum; 2) enhance the pre-service training for their AmeriCorps members; and 3) build a year-long professional development plan for staff members on the Impact team, the front line managers for AmeriCorps members and staff at partner schools. City Year is a national educational nonprofit that partners with NYC Schools, mobilizing teams of young, energetic AmeriCorps Members who commit a year to work full-time in the City’s most under-resourced schools. They identify 3rd through 9th grade students who are off-track in three critical areas — attendance, behavior, and course performance — and offer tutoring, mentoring and enrichment activities to help these students get back on track toward academic and life-long success.

To support their Alumni Relations Coordinator who is responsible for seeing that their high school graduates matriculate to college, persevere through the myriad challenges they will face, and successfully graduate. Students from low-income families, as 84 percent of their scholars are, often require additional guidance to navigate the obstacles involved with maintaining their financial aid and scholarship compliance, housing, academics, and managing time and relationships. The Alumni Relations Coordinator will stay in touch with college students, track their progress, and offer academic, emotional, and financial advising and support, providing both immediate and long-term guidance to their graduates that will increase their college graduation rates. Coney Island Prep is a rigorous college-preparatory charter school located in the Coney Island community of Brooklyn that serves over 1,000 students in grades K-12.

To support the new Director of New Teacher Development position who will create a strategy for its New Teacher Development program. The goals are to formalize and standardize their new teacher recruiting and development processes across their network, provide new teachers with the programming necessary to become lead teachers in one year, and reduce the pressure on their recruiting team to hire only experienced teachers, which is especially important as they grow from 8 to 14 schools. In the 2018-2019 school year, their eight K-12 schools in Newark will be fully enrolled, educating over 4,200 students, growing to 14 schools in Newark over the next 5 years to serve over 7,000 students. Ensuring every classroom has a great teacher is critical to their achieving consistent and high levels of academic performance across their schools and to closing the achievement gap.

For a new Managing Director (“MD”) of Grades 5-12 Academics who will be an integral part of the Teaching and Learning Support Team. The MD will be focused on improving overall instructional teaching practices across schools and across content areas by leading a team of two instructional experts in English Language Arts and Math, and by supporting the development and implementation of the science curriculum and assessments in grades 5-8. They will work to align middle school and high school academics, with a specific focus on ensuring that middle school and high school academics build upon each other. KIPP NYC, a network of 11 schools — five elementary schools, feeding five middle schools, feeding the KIPP NYC College Prep High School — is part of a national network of free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public charter schools which prepare students in underserved communities for success in college and in life.

To support staffing for their recently launched Quality Education program priority. Lawyers Alliance will provide direct legal services to approximately 200 nonprofits improving educational opportunities and outcomes for low-income youth and other disadvantaged New Yorkers, while serving many more organizations through their educational programs, publications, and Resource Call Hotline. A Staff Attorney has been designated to develop and apply expertise regarding market trends, funding flows, regulatory issues and other factors affecting education. Working with staff colleagues and volunteers, the Staff Attorney will coordinate their outreach, legal services and trainings aimed at education nonprofits in NYC. This legal assistance and information will strengthen the programs, finances, and operations of the organizations they serve, better enabling them to deliver upon their respective missions with greater confidence and effectiveness.

For continued support to expand and strengthen their Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (“STEM”) programming within all four Clubhouses, ensuring the STEM staff members have the tools and training they need to successfully implement the curriculum. Using the Do-It-Yourself (“DIY”) STEM curriculum developed and tested by experienced educators at Boys & Girls Clubs of America, they will serve more than 180 Madison youth. STEM programming will be conducted by STEM Instructors at each site, and offered as part of their Juniors Academy comprehensive educational program for youth ages 10 to 12. Their goal is to provide a program that results in improved math and science test scores, gains in knowledge about STEM careers, and gains in 21st Century skills essential for STEM careers, such as decision-making, planning, problem-solving, reflecting, and teamwork, that will put them on a better path to success.

To provide continued support for the Bridge to College initiative which seeks to mitigate the issue of high school seniors not matriculating at college after having earlier accepted a college’s offer. New Visions alumni work with their high school alma mater as near-peer coaches for graduating 12th grade students, assisting students in completing a comprehensive checklist of matriculation tasks, such as housing and financial aid forms, class registrations, and placement exams. They guide students through the critical steps and decisions that college enrollment entails, and help raise their awareness of resources from which they can benefit. New Visions will provide ongoing training and support to coaches, and to the guidance counselors working with them, throughout the program. They will implement the program in 19 schools from their network of 79 district and charter schools, train 21 coaches, and reach 1,800 high school seniors.

To help pilot Crew Mentors, a new peer mentoring effort with their alumni, as part of their To and Through College Program. Over the past few years, they have successfully piloted and implemented College Crew, in which staff provide intensive supports to their most vulnerable high school graduates in college. Through Crew Mentors, an adaptation of College Crew, they will select, train, and support a group of their high school graduates currently enrolled in college to provide peer mentoring support to a broader universe of students just starting their post-secondary careers. They believe this is a scalable approach through which they can provide direct supports to many more of their alumni than they currently serve – supports that they believe will translate to higher completion rates for their students. Outward Bound Schools has a network of 11 expeditionary learning schools throughout the five Boroughs which they operate in partnership with the NYC Department of Education.

For the expansion of the Family Playlists pilot, an interactive, technology-based family engagement program, from 2 to 7 schools throughout New York City, helping them to better leverage technology to engage families in meaningful learning experiences at home. It is based on homework assignments that are developed in collaboration with teachers and assigned to students to complete with a family partner at home, resulting in improved student achievement, deeper family engagement, and more positive student and parent attitudes towards learning. They will provide coaching support for teachers on creating interactive playlists, communicating with families, and examining the feedback data to inform both family outreach and instructional strategies. This year they will focus on enhancing platform functionality based on feedback from the pilot year, developing content for additional grades and subjects, and demonstrating the program’s impact on student academic achievement.

For a Program Manager to support further expansion of ScriptEd’s Careers in Technology program model to serve 38 schools in NYC and provide 14 Advanced Classes, significantly expanding their advanced class offerings while deepening services provided in the classroom. They equip students in under-resourced schools with the fundamental coding skills and professional experiences that together create access to careers in technology. ScriptEd brings its tuition-free program directly to schools, where classes are taught by software developers on a volunteer basis. Selected students then apply their new coding skills in paid summer internships where they work with role models in the field as well, gaining the experience and confidence necessary to pursue a career in technology. The Program Manager will work with 6 schools and be responsible for a cohort of 80 to 100 students, liaising with the schools, supporting volunteers in lesson instruction and pedagogy, and ensuring program quality.

To provide continued support for the Director of Curriculum and College Persistence for SEO College Scholars, which is important to SEO’s expansion efforts within New York City. The Director has direct responsibility over two key building blocks of the program: delivering best in class advisory services to college students through a team of highly trained College Persistence Advisers (“CPAs”) and continuing to develop an innovative and effective curriculum for all Scholars. The primary responsibilities combine direct supervisory responsibility over a team of CPAs (currently four) and specifically dedicated time to develop both curriculum content and delivery methods for individual advising and annual events. Strengthening the college program infrastructure is essential and mirrors the infrastructure enhancements in the high school component of the Scholars program that were instituted five years ago with the doubling of their student admissions. SEO Scholars is both a college access and a college persistence program, providing services throughout an eight-year span, from 9th grade through college graduation.

To support the Director of Alumni & Community Partnerships (“DACP”) to maximize the impact of the local movement for educational equality by connecting alumni to each other, to greater opportunities, and to the broader community. There are over 1,300 alumni who live and work in New Jersey, and the vast majority continue to work in education. The alumni team is growing in order to capitalize on the opportunity available in this expansive leadership force, and to better bridge the transition from a second-year teacher to an alumnus. The DACP will lead New Jersey’s efforts to galvanize TFA alumni leaders in education and foster greater partnerships within the communities that they serve, with a special emphasis on Newark. The goal is to ensure that alumni feel better connected to the local TFA network, are timely made aware of career opportunities, and are then supported in pursuing them.

For support of the 2018 NY Regional Institute which, in partnership with NYC’s Relay Graduate School of Education, will help to prepare incoming corps members to be more successful in the classroom and gain teacher certifications. The Institute also serves as a professional development and school leadership pipeline for the 90 experienced NYC educators who are hired as Institute staff, and then trained over several months to help them to develop helpful skills such as coaching new teachers and creating a vision for their work. Each corps member enrolls in Relay and takes credit-bearing graduate level courses taught by Relay Core Faculty during the 6-week Institute. The Relay curriculum is designed to develop pedagogical skills and deepen content knowledge through frequent, deliberate opportunities for practice, and complement the leadership development and coaching provided by TFA-NY staff during the Institute. The TFA-NY corps members will teach in high-need public schools in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan.

For the expansion of a pilot to increase NYC kindergarten teachers’ capacity to prepare struggling students to meet grade level expectations so they are on track for proficiency by 2nd grade. Many kindergarten teachers require guidance on instructional strategies for addressing the specific needs of non/early stage readers, with the goal of eliminating barriers and jump-starting progress toward successful reading in grade 1 and beyond. If the important foundations are not addressed in kindergarten, the chances for success in subsequent grades are severely reduced. Teaching Matters will pilot a revised model of its Early Reading Matters (“ERM”) program in a cohort of 30 classrooms. ERM is an outcomes-oriented professional learning program for teachers to develop early reading instructional expertise critical for improving student literacy in grades K-2 in high poverty NYC public schools. Teaching Matters is dedicated to increasing teacher effectiveness, one of the most critical factors regarding student success.

To support the expansion of Steps to Success, an afterschool enhancement that takes a holistic approach to supporting at-risk youths’ academic, social-emotional, college, and career success. Offered at fourteen of their middle school afterschool programs across Queens, Steps to Success seeks to impact school performance and persistence by strengthening the resiliency skills which research shows successful high school graduates possess. The program involves screening students for risk using the research-based Success Highways Resiliency Assessment, a Steps to Success class to build resiliency and goal-setting skills, and individualized support through youth advocates. The grant would support part of the salaries of two new youth advocates who will help facilitate the Steps to Success class, and provide individualized support to all students and intensive support to those identified as being at-risk. The Child Center is a 64-year old multiservice child and family organization with roots in mental health.

To support a new Community Engagement Coordinator, Engagement and Evaluation position. The GO Project provides year-round educational and family support services to 720 academically struggling public school students in grades K-8 in Lower Manhattan and in grades 1-2 at a new site in Brooklyn. They employ a multi-disciplinary approach including an intensive focus on academic fundamentals through differentiated instruction led by certified teachers, exposure to diverse enrichment programs, and extensive social services for the students and their families. As they expand their model in Brooklyn, they need to increase the depth and reach of their engagement and evaluation to match the growth in their programming and enrollment. This position will play a key role in their ability to establish and maintain partnerships with their public school partners, manage student and volunteer recruitment, and provide critical data management support.

To support a new Curriculum and Data Coordinator position and the continued development of their evaluation work. The Coordinator will develop and manage their data gathering and evaluation processes, ensure their measurements are normed and systemized, generate the assessment and work product review reports for teachers and schools, and update the materials on their Teacher Resource Library. The Writing Revolution (“TWR”) trains and supports teachers and school leaders in implementing The Hochman Method, an explicit set of evidence-based strategies for teaching writing. This carefully sequenced method for teaching writing can be embedded into any subject at any grade level, helping to ensure that students have the skills necessary to be successful in school and the workforce.

For support of the Program Manager at their Regional Program Office located at their new Urban Dove Team Charter School II (“UD Team II)” in the Bronx. UD Team II will be modeled after UD Team in Brooklyn, serving students aged 15-17 who are significantly in need of intervention to graduate from high school. The Program Manager will be responsible for overseeing UD’s youth development programs including the College All-Stars and the HiRisers peer mentoring program, with a focus on curriculum development, staff development and supervision, partnership management, and program quality assurance. All UD Team II students will participate in these youth development programs, which operate both during the school day and afterschool, providing them with the skills that they need to overcome obstacles, graduate from high school, and go on to careers or attend college.