Boston After School & Beyond Annual Report

BOSTON LEARNS TOGETHER BUILDING SKILLS, CREATING OPPORTUNITY

A CITY OF OPPORTUNITY Boston is a city rich with learning potential. With vibrant parks and museums, outstanding colleges and businesses, and many dedicated nonprofits, Boston is a city where every child could spend summers and after-school hours engaged in meaningful, active learning.

This year Boston After School & Beyond will PARTNER with more than 100 local organizations

ENGAGE 70 public schools

SUPPORT 150 educators to

provide engaging programming that builds college-ready skills

EXPAND access to enriching learning

opportunities for 10,000 Boston children

When we use our city as a classroom, we put young people on a path to success and build a stronger city for everyone. ~ MAYOR MARTIN J WALSH

A CITY THAT WORKS TOGETHER At Boston After School & Beyond, we believe that all children should have access to stimulating learning opportunities that prepare them for college, careers, and fulfilling futures. That’s why we’ve engaged more than a hundred diverse stakeholders who are working together to make quality learning accessible to all Boston children— in school, after school, and beyond.

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TODAY’S OPPORTUNITY GAP By 6th grade, middle class children have spent an average of 6,000 more hours learning than children born into poverty. That includes:

3,060

1,080

245

HOURS OF AFTER-SCHOOL AND EXTRA-CURRICULAR PROGRAMMING

HOURS OF SUMMER LEARNING

HOURS OF FIELD TRIPS

This disparity explains as much as two-thirds of the achievement gap between lower-income youth and their peers. It is a challenge that plagues communities across the country.

Source: ExpandED Schools (formerly TASC), 2013

A GOAL WITHIN REACH Closing the opportunity gap is a big— but achievable—goal, one that requires a coordinated response among schools, businesses, colleges, nonprofits, cultural institutions, and the funding community.

That’s where we come in.

For a decade Boston After School & Beyond has been building bridges across diverse sectors and stakeholders, all committed to improving outcomes for Boston youth. We play four important roles.

The Boston After School & Beyond partnership has created unparalleled opportunities for Boston youth. Now, our goal must be to do more, until we can offer such opportunities to every student. ~ SUPERINTENDENT TOMMY CHANG

We UNIFY diverse organizations We BUILD capacity We MEASURE progress We CREATE new models of learning

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PARTNER SPOTLIGHT

City as a classroom “ I learned so many things at Thompson Island. It was exciting being outside in the ecosystems experiencing the things we learned about in class.” ~ 7TH-GRADE DEARBORN STEM ACADEMY STUDENT

As soon as students step off of the boat at Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center, they realize they are in for a different kind of learning experience. Known for its quality team-building and expeditionary learning programs, the Thompson Island Outward Bound program has been a partner to Boston schools for decades. In 2010 Thompson Island became one of the first Boston Summer Learning Project sites, working with Boston After School & Beyond to apply its unique expertise and resources to generate a measurable impact on student learning.

Today the island welcomes 92 students each summer for a five-week STEM curriculum that develops academic and social-emotional skills through hands-on outdoor experiences.

Students spend mornings building math and literacy skills in science-themed classes taught by licensed teachers. In the afternoon, they take that learning out into the field, gathering data from salt marshes, identifying coastal species, and crafting strategies to protect vulnerable ecosystems from human impact.

On alternating afternoons, campers participate in ropes courses and other classic Outward Bound activities that build relationship skills,

persistence, and other qualities associated with long-term success.

For students who struggle in traditional classrooms, this active summer learning experience is a breath of fresh air—literally.

Participants report high levels of engagement, as well as feeling challenged and supported by adults and their peers. Back at school, their teachers and principals notice a difference too.

One principal saw a huge turnaround in children who’d struggled the previous year: “They came back in such great shape… It’s having an impact on everybody.”

A MODEL THAT WORKS Our model of summer learning has a direct impact on student outcomes.

Boston was one of five cities to participate in the largest, most rigorous study on summer learning to date, finding students had a significant advantage in math upon returning to school in the fall, as compared to their non-participating peers.

(Wallace Foundation/RAND Corporation, 2014)

NATIONAL INFLUENCE

CITYWIDE IMPACT

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PROGRAMS BY 2017

63

OPT-IN SITES

16

INNOVATION SITES

BEYOND CLASSROOM WALLS SUMMER LEARNING TAKES ROOT Today 16 organizations are implementing our rigorous model of academic learning and skill building; 63 others have voluntarily adopted common measurement tools to track their own impact alongside other programs. By 2017 the Summer Learning Community will expand on a model that works, growing to 100 sites serving over 10,000 children as Boston responds to a new goal set by the Mayor and Superintendent of Schools.

Our ambitions are even greater: By creating a culture of continuous improvement, we seek to transform summer learning for the entire city and influence research and practice nationwide.

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PARTNER SPOTLIGHT

Skills that Empower “ Boston After School & Beyond shines a light on the quality work that community-based organizations are doing and helps us grow by sharing best practices and evaluation data on improving student skills.

We’re grateful for their committed partnership.” ~ ALEX OLIVER-DÁVILA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SOCIEDAD LATINA

Sociedad Latina empowers communities beginning with youth. Since 1968 this small nonprofit has equipped Latino youth to become confident adults and forces for positive change with programs that build academic, workforce, and civic skills and that foster artistic and cultural expression.

Several years ago, staff took a hard look at their programming, deciding to double down on areas of strength. Joining forces with Boston After School & Beyond allowed Sociedad Latina to deepen its focus on the middle school years, using summer months and after-school hours to keep this vulnerable age group engaged and on track for healthy futures.

Hosted at Simmons College, its six-week summer program serves 60 sixth through eighth graders, almost half of whom are English language learners. Morning classes focus on math, literacy, and language development, and popular afternoon electives in areas like

robotics, video production, and fashion design give students a chance to apply what they’re learning to complex projects that require teamwork, communication, problem-solving, and persistence.

These college-ready skills—emphasized across all Boston After School & Beyond partnerships— are in line with Sociedad Latina’s mission.

Throughout the school year staff work with many of the same youth to develop skills to keep on top of homework and make successful transitions to high school, college, and careers.

The results have been impressive: For the past six years, every young person participating in Sociedad Latina’s core programs has graduated and gone on to college or employment. Armed with the right skills, they are ready to take charge of their futures.

ACHIEVING

critical thinking, creativity, goal focus, organization

CONNECTING

relationships, communication, teamwork, respect

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Achie

ting

Success in School, College, AND Life

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ng

Thriving

THRIVING

wellbeing, drive, efficacy, awareness of self & others

Boston After School & Beyond’s Achieve, Connect, Thrive (ACT) Skills Framework helps schools, partners, and students focus their efforts on the skills that research links to success in college and careers.

BEYOND Academics CREDIT WHERE DUE The ACT Skills Framework now serves as a platform for measuring and validating learning that happens beyond the school day. With support from Boston After School & Beyond, several partners are taking this approach a step further by issuing digital “badges,” a potentially gamechanging approach that will allow young people to carry credit for learning experiences with them wherever they go.

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PARTNER SPOTLIGHT

Data Drives Improvement “ Everything that we learn—whether it’s about resiliency or how we’re connecting with kids—we apply to our programs. The data help us improve and help our partners see the value we bring.” ~ TONI WILEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SPORTSMEN’S TENNIS & ENRICHMENT CENTER

At Sportsmen’s Tennis & Enrichment Center improvement is the mission. The first African-American tennis club in the country, Sportsmen’s uses tennis as a means to develop young leaders and fill gaps that limit opportunity. Recognizing that they could better address young people’s academic needs, Sportsmen’s signed on as a Summer Learning Project partner in 2010 and has worked with Boston After School & Beyond to design a summer model that shores up the skills of students who struggle academically or behaviorally.

The program serves 40 students for six weeks, combining the incentive of afternoons on the tennis court with mornings studying literacy and math with certified teachers.

This year, program staff reported a 23.4% increase in students’ literacy skills and a 35.7% increase in math, with similarly high rates of improvement in important skills

like communication. Feedback from outside observers pointed to areas for improvement as well, including class-to-class transitions.

Data points like these have been transformative.

The evaluation tools give staff more information about program quality than they get from any other source. Working closely with Boston After School & Beyond, they’ve used those data to inform staff training, curriculum, and service delivery for year-round programs. The data have also contributed to deeper collaboration with schools, opening two-way communication that helps educators on both sides align their efforts.

Transparency around data has helped Sportsmen’s elevate its efforts in the eyes of fellow educators, positioning staff to make an even more significant contribution to student learning.

BEYOND Business As Usual MEASURES THAT MATTER Measurement is a cross-cutting feature of Boston After School & Beyond’s work. With common student data, community partners can see how they stack up against other providers, identify practices that work and those that need improvement, and deploy resources more strategically.

Boston After School & Beyond’s partners participate in a multi-measure evaluation process that provides rich data on student and program performance. Our PRISM (Program Report for Improvement & System Measurement) reports help each program track their performance on an array of research-based indicators.

More than 100 organizations are currently working with BASB to evaluate program performance and impact, using a suite of observation and evaluation tools to assess: student enrollment, attendance, and demographics growth in math, literacy, and college-ready skills program performance and delivery student engagement in learning

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IT TAKES A CITY

For the past decade, Boston After School & Beyond has brought educators and community leaders together to expand learning opportunities for Boston youth.

We recently united more than 70 institutions under a common agenda called Boston Learns Together. The signatories have committed their organizations to:

The ICA feels a unique responsibility to help Boston students develop the critical skills of leadership, compassion, and creativity through engagement with the arts. We’re delighted to join with our peers to make such learning opportunities available across the city.

JILL MEDVEDOW, ELLEN MATILDA POSS DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART/BOSTON

APPLY resources to achieve common goals for the city’s youth.

WORK across institutional boundaries to share information and create seamless learning pathways.

TRACK progress with clear, common measures, sharing responsibility and accountability for results.

Our Partners 826 Boston Achieve at Noble and Greenough School Action for Boston Community Development America SCORES Boston Artists for Humanity Barr Foundation Berklee College of Music Black Ministerial Alliance Boston Area Health Education Center Boston Centers for Youth & Families Boston Children’s Museum Boston Debate League Boston Leaders for Education Boston Opportunity Agenda Boston Partners in Education Boston Private Industry Council Boston Public Library Boston Public Schools Boston Public Schools – Office of English Language Learners Boston Scholar Athletes Boston University Boston’s Higher Ground Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston BPE Breakthrough Greater Boston Brigham and Women’s Hospital – Center for Community Health and Health Equity Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL) Camp Harbor View Citizen Schools City Connects City Year Boston CitySprouts College Bound Dorchester Community Boat Building

Community Music Center of Boston Courageous Sailing Center Crossroads for Kids Dance with Books DotHouse Health Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative EdVestors Every Hour Counts ExpandEd Schools For Kids Only Afterschool Freedom House Friends of the Hernández Hale Reservation Harvard College for Public Service Harvard Family Research Project Harvard MEDscience Here-in Our Motives Evolve (HOME) Horizons at Dedham Country Day Hull Lifesaving Museum Hyde Square Task Force Imajine That Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston Latino STEM Alliance Let’s Get Ready Local Initiatives Support Corporation Greater Boston Madison Park Technical Vocational High School Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center Massachusetts 2020/National Center on Time & Learning Massachusetts Afterschool Partnership Massachusetts General Hospital – Center for Community Health Improvement Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Office of Engineering Outreach Programs MassArt – Artward Bound

MathPOWER MissionSAFE Museum of Science, Boston National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) Nellie Mae Education Foundation New England Aquarium Nurtury Partners HealthCare System Phillips Brooks House Association Playworks Program in Education, Afterschool & Resiliency (PEAR) Sociedad Latina Sportsmen’s Tennis and Enrichment Center SquashBusters State Street Foundation The Steppingstone Foundation Strong Women, Strong Girls Summer Search Tenacity Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center Joseph M Tierney Learning Center Trinity Boston Foundation uAspire Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministries – Roxbury Youth Programs United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley University of Massachusetts Boston Upham’s Corner DRAMA Camp Upward Bound Urbano Project Vietnamese American Initiative for Development Wentworth Institute of Technology YMCA of Greater Boston 11 Zoo New England

HELP US CREATE OPPORTUNITY

Thank You Boston After School & Beyond collaborates with a diverse group of public and private partners that are committed to equity of opportunity for Boston youth. We are grateful for their generous support.

Barr Foundation

Klarman Family Foundation

Boston After School & Beyond is building a movement to close Boston’s opportunity gap.

You can play a part. Join with more than 100 partners to:

The Boston Foundation

Liberty Mutual Foundation

Boston Opportunity Agenda

Nellie Mae Education Foundation

Boston Public Schools

Noyce Foundation

Charles Hayden Foundation

Robert and Myra Kraft Family Foundation

City of Boston – Boston Centers for Youth & Families

United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley

Eos Foundation

The Wallace Foundation

Every Hour Counts

The Yawkey Foundation

make the most of Boston’s rich learning resources

ExpandED Schools

measure what matters innovate and spread effective practice expand quality learning experiences to every child

A Lean Organization Boston After School & Beyond spends 91 cents of every dollar on programs, supporting more and better opportunities for Boston’s children.

8%

1% GENERAL & ADMINISTRATIVE FUNDRAISING

Expenses

PROGRAM SUPPORT

52%

Grants to others

91%

Personnel

16%

Professional Fees

14% 6%

CONNECT WITH US: BOSTONBEYOND.ORG

3%

Program Supplies Other

AVERAGE ANNUAL BUDGET, FY13-15: $3,494,787

Board of Directors

Staff

Christopher Byner* Interim Executive Director, Boston Centers for Youth & Families

Chris Smith President & Executive Director

Vanessa Calderon-Rosado Chief Executive Officer, Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción

Kelsey Cowen Data Fellow

Tommy Chang* Superintendent, Boston Public Schools

Ellen Dickenson Program Director, Partnerships & STEM

Rahn Dorsey Chief of Education, City of Boston

Phil Jackson Program Director, Teen Initiatives

Daniel Arrigg Koh* Chief of Staff, City of Boston

Danielle Kim Director of Policy & Communications

Josh Kraft Nicholas President and CEO, Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston

David McAuley Program Director, Summer Learning

Judith Kurland

Sarah Shoemaker Executive Assistant

Wanda McClain, Chair Vice President, Community Health and Health Equity, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Katie Tosh Director of Measurement

Joseph McGrail, Treasurer Vice President, Corporate Citizenship, State Street Corporation Jill Medvedow, Vice Chair Ellen Matilda Poss Director, Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston Kathy Plazak, Clerk President, Plazak & Associates Paul Reville Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Education Policy and Administration, Harvard Graduate School of Education *ex officio

DESIGN: J Sherman Studio WRITING: Katie Bayerl PHOTOS: Casey Atkins (front cover,

pp 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, inner back cover, back cover); Tiffany Knight (pp 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, inner back cover); Jeremy Skillings (inner front cover)

89 South Street Suite 601 Boston, MA 02111 617.345.5322 www.bostonbeyond.org