Outschool.org welcomes 8 new community partners

Emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, parents are asking for a more student-centered future, one that braids strong academic outcomes, interest-based electives, and close partnerships with families. This desire is particularly strong among marginalized communities, where BIPOC and low-income students are three times less likely to participate in out-of-school learning experiences than their white and wealthier peers (Tyton, 2022). 

For the past two years, Outschool.org, the independent nonprofit partner of Outschool, has supported equity-centered organizations to deliver on their visions for increased access to supplemental and enrichment learning opportunities through our Community Partner grants. 

This year, Outschool.org is bringing on our third cohort of community partners, and the need feels more pressing than ever. We’re seeing an increasing number of states embracing a more robust educational choice movement by enacting Education Savings Accounts and local parent organizations are advocating for, and receiving, direct-to-family microgrants to spend on supplemental services. Combined with the growing number of nontraditional microschools across the country, we see a greater opportunity to support learners across a wide spectrum of nontraditional and traditional learning options. With this opportunity, we were keen to partner with organizations that demonstrate a genuine commitment to trusting BIPOC and low-income families with their children’s education decisions and facilitating them in doing so. 

This summer, we issued our 2023-2024 Community Partner RFP. We were thrilled to receive nearly 350 applications from national organizations, community-based organizations, public and private K-12 schools, homeschools, and microschools representing 43 states and collectively serving 2.7 million learners and their families. After a rigorous interview and selection process, we are delighted to announce our 2023-2024 Outschool.org Community Partners: 

• ABC Cincy | After School Program | Greater Cincinnati Area, OH
• Boys & Girls Club of Newark | After School Program | Greater Newark Area, NJ
• Black Mothers Forum | Microschool | Phoenix, AZ
• Breakthrough Birmingham | After School Program | Birmingham, AL
• Icon Preparatory School | Private School | Tampa, FL
• Nehemiah Community Empowerment Center | After School Program | Greensboro & High Point, NC
• Start Lighthouse | Nonprofit Organization | Bronx, NY
• University Schools | Public / Lab School | Memphis, TN

Each of our 2023-2024 Community Partners has a track record of investing in their students’ love of learning and is eager to listen to the feedback of students, families, and community members to further improve their work. 

By partnering with Outschool.org, we will bridge the educational gap by providing our children with access to diverse, engaging, and culturally relevant educational experiences….By working with Outschool.org, we can contribute to expanding access to quality education for our children, ultimately helping to dismantle systemic barriers and create more equitable learning opportunities. - Janelle Wood, Founder and CEO of Black Mothers Forum 

We are thrilled and honored to receive the news that Start Lighthouse has been selected…This is a tremendous opportunity for us so we can provide supplemental English Language Arts courses and enrichment programs to our bilingual students from Mexico, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic. We want to help establish a positive relationship and perception of school and engage them with their learning. - Rina Madhani, Co-Founder and Executive Director at Start Lighthouse 

Over the next 18 months, the Outschool.org team and I are excited to work arm-in-arm with each community partner to design a more robust ecosystem of out-of-school learning experiences based on the unique realities of their community of learners. Outschool.org will work with community partners to develop programs that center student interest, whether it's learning about drones or dance, Black poetry or piano, creative writing or coding, or engaging in intensive academic tutoring to accelerate learning. 

In an effort to close the out-of-school participation gap, each Outschool.org community partner will implement one or both of Outschool.org’s program models:

• Class Connect: Private, virtual tutoring and or enrichment classes taught by high-quality and identity-affirming educators that learners could not otherwise access because of community partners’ staffing constraints.
• Outbridge: An innovation that (a) provides access to direct-to-family scholarships to pay for out-of-system learning and (b) helps families personalize learning for their children through expert guidance and a community platform that facilitates shared learning.

Learn more about how you can support Outschool.org’s critical work here.