Audacious Ideas is a blog created to stimulate ideas and discussion about solutions to difficult problems in Baltimore. Each week, they ask individuals to think candidly and audaciously about what can be done to promote opportunity, achievement, health, and prosperity in our city.
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Friday, June 25, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The Wallace Foundation Partners with Higher Achievement in Support of Summer and Extended Learning
Washington, DC June 22, 2010 – Higher Achievement announced today that the Wallace Foundation has made a landmark investment of $3 million in Higher Achievement over the next three years. Higher Achievement, one of only four service providers from across the country selected, is a part of the foundation’s initiative to provide disadvantaged urban students with more time for high-quality learning – both through improved summer learning opportunities, and through extending the school day and school year.
The foundation has joined with an initial group of partners to help build understanding and develop knowledge that districts, cities and states can use to take action. In addition to Higher Achievement, those partners include: The National Summer Learning Association, The National Center on Time and Learning, Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL), Horizons National, RAND, MDRC, and Child Trends.
“The support that we are receiving from the Wallace Foundation is revolutionary,” said Richard Tagle, Higher Achievement CEO. “We are honored to be part of a select group of organizations that are deemed to be doing high quality work as leaders in innovation and proven practices in the field. This grant will allow us to expand our capacity to serve more scholars, evaluate our summer academy, and improve the quality of our program.”
Wallace’s initiative comes amid increased interest and concern about what approaches are most effective in boosting student achievement:
In the area of summer learning, research shows that over the summer break common in most school districts, all children – but especially poor children – lose some of what they have learned during the school year. Despite this evidence of the problem, less is known about what measures might be effective to solve it, and what state and district policies would be needed to support those measures. Evaluations demonstrate that effective summer learning programs can reduce summer learning loss, but there are few instances of those programs being successfully applied across a district – something Wallace hopes to test with one or more district partners.
In the area of extended learning time, the evidence is unclear about what it takes for more time added to the school day, week or year to make a difference in students’ academic achievement. However, studies of extended learning time have shown positive effects on students’ school attendance, engagement and social and emotional development.
With an initial investment of $9 million, Wallace is focusing on three main strategies: 1) building awareness and understanding of the value of adding more time for high-quality learning, 2) supporting national organizations that do a good job of educating children in now-underutilized hours in order to help those groups reach more children, and 3) working with selected school districts, to test how programs to provide more high-quality learning time might be applied widely in a district to help disadvantaged children.
With the generous support from Wallace, Higher Achievement will be able to open a new affiliate in Richmond, Virginia, improve the operations of our national office, DC Metro affiliate and Baltimore affiliate, evaluate the effectiveness of its programs, and share best practices with the field.
The foundation has joined with an initial group of partners to help build understanding and develop knowledge that districts, cities and states can use to take action. In addition to Higher Achievement, those partners include: The National Summer Learning Association, The National Center on Time and Learning, Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL), Horizons National, RAND, MDRC, and Child Trends.
“The support that we are receiving from the Wallace Foundation is revolutionary,” said Richard Tagle, Higher Achievement CEO. “We are honored to be part of a select group of organizations that are deemed to be doing high quality work as leaders in innovation and proven practices in the field. This grant will allow us to expand our capacity to serve more scholars, evaluate our summer academy, and improve the quality of our program.”
Wallace’s initiative comes amid increased interest and concern about what approaches are most effective in boosting student achievement:
In the area of summer learning, research shows that over the summer break common in most school districts, all children – but especially poor children – lose some of what they have learned during the school year. Despite this evidence of the problem, less is known about what measures might be effective to solve it, and what state and district policies would be needed to support those measures. Evaluations demonstrate that effective summer learning programs can reduce summer learning loss, but there are few instances of those programs being successfully applied across a district – something Wallace hopes to test with one or more district partners.
In the area of extended learning time, the evidence is unclear about what it takes for more time added to the school day, week or year to make a difference in students’ academic achievement. However, studies of extended learning time have shown positive effects on students’ school attendance, engagement and social and emotional development.
With an initial investment of $9 million, Wallace is focusing on three main strategies: 1) building awareness and understanding of the value of adding more time for high-quality learning, 2) supporting national organizations that do a good job of educating children in now-underutilized hours in order to help those groups reach more children, and 3) working with selected school districts, to test how programs to provide more high-quality learning time might be applied widely in a district to help disadvantaged children.
With the generous support from Wallace, Higher Achievement will be able to open a new affiliate in Richmond, Virginia, improve the operations of our national office, DC Metro affiliate and Baltimore affiliate, evaluate the effectiveness of its programs, and share best practices with the field.
Monday, June 14, 2010
This Week's I am a DCPS Graduate: Jasmina Rivas, Higher Achievement Alumna
Click here to read about the great things that our Alumna, Jasmina Rivas is up to!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Lynsey Wood Jeffries as 1 of 12 NGen Fellows!
Higher Achievement Executive Director Lynsey Wood Jeffries joins Independent Sector’s 2010 American Express NGen fellows! This selective program is part of IS’s NGen: Moving Nonprofit Leaders from Next to Now initiative, which helps build the next generation of nonprofit and philanthropic leaders. Jeffries is one of 12 under-40 fellows.
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to learn with this top-notch group of NGen Fellows,” Jeffries shared. “I’m thankful for the significant growth I’ve experienced in the past 5 years with Higher Achievement. Now, I look forward to continuing the cycle, mentoring the next generation of young leaders to become future Executive Directors.”
Click here to learn more about Independent Sector’s NGen initiative, and the professionals who make up this year’s class.
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to learn with this top-notch group of NGen Fellows,” Jeffries shared. “I’m thankful for the significant growth I’ve experienced in the past 5 years with Higher Achievement. Now, I look forward to continuing the cycle, mentoring the next generation of young leaders to become future Executive Directors.”
Click here to learn more about Independent Sector’s NGen initiative, and the professionals who make up this year’s class.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Higher Achievement Baltimore Gets Ready for Love.....
Higher Achievement Baltimore Presents, Love Out Loud!, the first annual Literary Love Poetry Performance
The event will feature the original work of ten scholar poets who claimed first place titles in Higher Achievement’s local poetry contests earlier this month. Patrice Harris, Fox 45 anchor, will be the guest speaker at this event.
You want to know what inspires our scholars to share their most initmate thoughts? Click here and get some inspiration of your own.
Event Details:
Who: Higher Achievement scholar poets
What: First Annual Literary Love Poetry Performance: Love Out Loud!
When: Thursday, May 20, 2010
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Where: Morgan State University Student Center Theater
1700 East Cold Spring Lane
Baltimore, MD 21251
We hope to see you there!
The event will feature the original work of ten scholar poets who claimed first place titles in Higher Achievement’s local poetry contests earlier this month. Patrice Harris, Fox 45 anchor, will be the guest speaker at this event.
You want to know what inspires our scholars to share their most initmate thoughts? Click here and get some inspiration of your own.
Event Details:
Who: Higher Achievement scholar poets
What: First Annual Literary Love Poetry Performance: Love Out Loud!
When: Thursday, May 20, 2010
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Where: Morgan State University Student Center Theater
1700 East Cold Spring Lane
Baltimore, MD 21251
We hope to see you there!
Friday, April 30, 2010
The First Lady Teams Up With Higher Achievement in a Day of Service
Friday, April 30, 2009: First Lady Michelle Obama and Congressional spouses teamed up with Higher Achievement and the Sitar Arts Center for a service event yesterday at the Marie Reed Learning Center in the Adams Morgan community of northwest Washington, DC. The group painted a mural and planted a butterfly garden at the Center to help make the space more visually engaging and vibrant for the children and members of the community who make use of the Center’s programs and facilities.
The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities helped design the service project in collaboration with two winners of the Committee’s 2009 Coming Up Taller Award – Higher Achievement, a rigorous after-school and summer academic program that culminates into high school placement, and the Sitar Arts Center, an after-school visual and performing arts center in Adams Morgan providing a range of arts training to children and youth by professional artists.
Along with several other Higher Achievement staff members and scholar representatives, Lynsey Wood Jeffries, Executive Director of Higher Achievement DC Metro, was proud to participate in the day of service. “It was an honor to be in partnership with Sitar and the First Lady in this community service opportunity. Additionally, to see our scholars casually and confidently talking with the First Lady about Higher Achievement’s mentors and telling the Congressional spouses about their dreams to be architects and elementary school teachers was priceless.”
Community service is an important component of the Higher Achievement curriculum. Past service projects have included a trip to New Orleans to assist with the aftermath of Katrina, and participation in local food drives with the Capital Area Food Bank.
See the links below for more coverage on this event.
Washington Post
Michelle Obama Watch
Michelle Obama Blog
Huffington Post
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