Help City Year team tutor Boston Students

Dear City Year Champion,

Thank you! City Year Boston is extremely grateful for your generous donation to support the impact of City Year’s Whole School Whole Child (WSWC) intervention model, which mobilizes idealistic 17 to 24-year-olds (corps members) to combat the nation’s dropout crisis by serving as tutors, mentors and role models to more than 11,000 students in 21 of Boston’s lowest-performing schools. Your contribution plays an important role in helping to ensure that every student in Boston receives the support they need to stay in school and on track to graduate.

IMPACT

With your support, this year 265 City Year Boston corps members were able to impact the lives of more than 11,000 Boston students. During the 2012-13 school year, each corps member served more than 1,700 hours delivering City Year’s WSWC model in 21 of the city’s highest-need schools, providing the following targeted interventions from before the first bell until the last student left at the end of each day:

• Whole class academic support for more than 6,100 students
• One-on-one/small group tutoring in English Language Arts (ELA) to more than 1,330 students
• One-on-one/small group tutoring in math for more than 500 students
• Attendance coaching through morning greetings, daily phone calls home and positive incentives for more than 1,530 students
• One-on-one/small group mentoring sessions to support positive behavior for more than 780 students
• Afterschool programs focused on homework completion and enrichment programming for more than 1,690 students
• Positive school climate through school-wide programs that promote student, parent and community engagement

Thanks to your contribution, as of mid-year (March 2013) City Year Boston saw the following positive impact on student success:

• ·         84% of literacy focus list students (elementary grades) have demonstrated improvement in their raw literacy scores
• ·         64% of students added to attendance focus lists based on their ADA from the prior year have improved their ADA through January 2013
• ·         100% of principals agreed or strongly agreed that corps members serve as positive role models in their schools
• ·         81% of teachers agreed that corps members have helped improve students’ academic performance

STORY FROM SERVICE

When corps member Phil Chen first met Kelly*, she was a shy transfer student struggling to adjust to the Higginson-Lewis K-8 School in Roxbury where he had also just started his year of service. Both completely new to the school, they instantly formed a connection.

Phil soon realized that not only was Kelly navigating a brand new school, but as an 8th-grader, she had also been tasked with choosing a high school for the following year. She told Phil that her goal was to take the Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE) to get into a selective Boston high school, but she needed help preparing for the test. As a former Boston Public School student, Phil was very familiar with the high school selection process. Promising to help her study, he convinced her to join City Year’s new We Are the Change (WATC) extended day program.

Each day, Kelly arrived at WATC ready to learn more than the day before. Always on-task, she quickly became a model for other students attending the program. Together, Kelly and Phil quickly got to work developing good study skills and reviewing valuable test-taking tips and Phil watched as Kelly’s confidence soared with each passing day. However, as they practiced for the ISEE, Phil came to realize that Kelly also struggled with her homework, especially in math. In response, Phil began incorporating math homework into their routine. They worked together on everything from balancing equations to more complex algebra skills, and within weeks of starting the program, Kelly began to show major improvement.

And all of Kelly’s hard work at WATC certainly paid off. Not only does she stop Phil in the hall during the regular school day to excitedly update him on how well she’s doing in all of her classes, but she also got into a great high school and is excited for her academic future. Phil could not be more proud of Kelly and can’t wait to see how the skills she’s learned this year carry over into what will unquestionably be a successful high school career.

Kelly is just one of the 11,000 Boston Public School students that City Year Boston corps members like Phil serve every day, and thanks to your generosity, her success story is just one of many. City Year Boston is deeply grateful for your donation, which has helped allow corps members like Phil to continue making a difference in the lives of Boston’s at-risk youth. Thank you again for helping to ensure that every student in Boston has access to the support they need to succeed in school!

*Student’s name changed