by Grainger Marburg, Executive DirectorWe opened our seventh program site this summer (see article on St. Matthew's), enabling us to host 270 motivated middle school students from East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Redwood City, and San Mateo. While we are now supporting 30% more students than we were in 2007, our commitment to quality programming and individualized attention hasn't changed. We maintained a 5:1 or better student to teacher ratio (including TAs) at all of our sites, and had one of the most talented and competent cadre of site directors, teachers, and TAs the organization has had in its history.
Quality instruction produced
impressive results, with 98% and 86% of our students making big gains
in math and language arts, respectively. This is a very challenging
time for our public school partners, and our program is more critical
than ever in combating summer learning loss and the achievement gap in
our target local communities. Our recent growth means we can support
more deserving students and increase their opportunities for personal
and academic success. It's definitely a group effort, though, and each
of us on the education continuum (schools, parents, after school and
summer programs, students, funders, etc.). must do our part to ensure
quality education for all students. Everyone wins when students
succeed.