Poly Prep Case Study: Rethinking Financial Aid Allocation for Impactful Systemic Change

Case Study Rethinking Financial Aid Allocation for Impactful Systemic Change: A Case Study on Poly Prep’s reallocation of funds for equitable access and support to financial aid students, improving students' confidence and outcomes

Case study: Rethinking Financial Aid Allocation for Impactful Systemic Change

Introducing, Poly Prep

1,153 students 252 lower school 342 middle school 559 upper school

Poly Prep, an academically rigorous co-educational country day school in the Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn, New York, is committed to preparing and inspiring the next generation of diverse leaders and global citizens to act with intelligence, imagination, and character.

It is critical to Poly Prep’s mission to provide access to families who would not otherwise be able to afford tuition by offering a robust Financial Aid program that extends beyond the cost of tuition.

Poly Prep: where you envision who you become.

1

20% Tuition and aid

81%

54%

of student body receives financial aid Average financial aid package covers 83% of tuition

of financial aid recipients have family income between $0 and $250,000 $5,000-$57,000 range of financial aid awards

For the 2023-2024 academic year, more than

of students identify as students of color

20% of the students share in

$12,700,000 in financial aid.

The challenge: When the pandemic hit, Poly Prep’s Associate Head of School, Kyle Graham, received an influx of incoming requests from families in need of additional at-home support. Ranging from home internet access, mental health counseling, and academic tutoring, Kyle and team began to reimagine what support looks like for Poly Prep students and families.

At this time, the Poly Prep team began to talk candidly about the equitable access to academic tutoring support between “full pay” students and those receiving financial assistance.

Once we began to realize the full extent of the tutoring landscape, using funds to help level the gap for our students receiving aid became a no-brainer for us.

Meet

Kyle Graham Associate Head of School at Poly Prep.

As Associate Head of School, Kyle Graham oversees Enrollment Management, including Poly’s Middle and Upper School Deans, college counseling and student outcomes, Admissions, Financial Aid, Global Initiatives, as well as the Registrar.

Case study: Rethinking Financial Aid Allocation for Impactful Systemic Change

About Revolution Prep: For over 20 years, Revolution Prep has transformed the lives of millions of students.

A leader in inclusive, online tutoring from academics to test prep to executive function, Revolution Prep accelerates learning while reducing student stress.

Top 3 reasons why Kyle chose Revolution Prep:

We encourage confidence and success through a growth mindset approach that leads to better grades, higher test scores, and critical skills that transcend the classroom.

Revolution Prep’s tutor ratings:

4.95 /5 by students

2

9.3 /10 by parents

Quality of tutors- only 2% of applicants are hired and go through a rigorous hiring and training process, ensuring tutors are highly qualified in their content area(s) and in building strong relationships with students.

Flexibility of the online platform- students can schedule time to meet with their tutor based on their busy schedules.

Excellent customer service- the ease of use and seamlessness in the behind-the-scenes coordination between Poly Prep and Revolution Prep; getting set up was a breeze!

The solution: Poly Prep purchased academic tutoring services from Revolution Prep, a highly reputable tutoring company with proven success in supporting students in closing academic learning gaps and accelerating learning. While they had supported students in the past for SAT/ACT prep, this was the first time the school was working with a tutoring company to support kids for academic tutoring.

In collaboration with the team at Revolution Prep, Poly Prep mapped out a plan to provide academic tutoring for all students receiving financial aid from their non-tuition support budget (approximately $75K in tutoring hours) and created a “beta-test year” to see: How the support would be utilized Whether it was worth the investment

We clearly identified our needs, and we made it happen! Once we realized it would help our students, it was a ‘how fast can we get this up and running’ conversation.

Case study: Rethinking Financial Aid Allocation for Impactful Systemic Change

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The outcome: Revolution Prep and Poly Prep kept track of which kids were utilizing the support, in which subject areas, and how frequently, through Revolution Prep’s usage data. A few months into the launch, Poly Prep sent a survey to families asking for feedback.

Not only were families appreciative of the help from Poly and Revolution Prep, but there was also significant feedback from the parent surveys stating the direct support from Revolution Prep tutors resulted in improved grades, classroom performance, and overall student confidence.

What’s next for the partnership?

Poly Prep and Revolution Prep are beginning to think through ways to expand academic tutoring support in the coming school year.

While Poly Prep is working closely with their advancement team to raise money to endow the funds needed to cover the spending, the goal now is to make highly impactful academic tutoring a part of the Poly Prep supports for even more students!

Looking to implement something like this at your school? Here’s Kyle’s advice:

“I’d get in a room with the person in charge of enrollment management (admissions, financial aid), the person responsible for leading the college counseling efforts, and the chief advancement officer. Then I’d lock the door and wouldn’t come out until everyone’s on the same page about investing in student success. The rest is easy!”

Breakdown of Tutoring Usage % of tutoring hours by grade level 12th 8%

9th 8%

11th 38%

10th 46%

% of tutoring hours by subject Academic & Test Prep 3.3% Test Prep 22%

Academic 74.7%

Top 10 most requested subjects SAT Prep Algebra II High School Writing Chemistry Pre-Calculus

Chinese (all levels) ACT Prep AP Calculus AB Geometry Biology

'My grade went from a B to an A-' was a common theme we found when looking at our survey results.