Our Work

Leveling the Education Playing Field for Disadvantaged Youth

Purpose:

To level the education playing field for disadvantaged youth (Organizational Mission).

Method:

We will focus J2W resources and capacity, using multiple platforms, that work in synergy to address the targeted challenges (Program Strategy).

End State:

Disadvantaged youth have measurable improvements in post-high school productivity (Impact Measurement).

Problem Statement Pathway for Low-Income Students Economically-disadvantaged students generally perform worse in school than their higher income peers

J2W Programming Framework Build partnerships to identify gap areas, develop solutions, and test concepts while bridging grade bands

J2W Foundation Program Theory of Change

Strategy to Achieve Theory of Change Work to ensure more access to quality early childhood education programs, coupled with supplemental after-school/summer programs throughout elementary school, to better ensure students are on-level by 3rd grade. Students on-level by 3rd grade regularly attend school, feel connected, and have higher on-time graduation rates.

Community-Level Impact Measures of Performance

Data Analysis

  • Goal: To demonstrate community-level academic and social emotional learning impact in all three geographic service areas.
  • Method: From 2021-2031, evaluate key academic and social emotional learning indicators within the entire elementary school (pre-kindergarten through 5th grade) student body for each district.
  • Results:
    • In 2021, we looked to establish baselines for evaluation.
      • For pre-kindergarten developmental milestones, we looked at PALS testing in Virginia and ELA testing in Maryland.
      • For kindergarten readiness, we looked at VKRP testing in Virginia and KRA testing in Maryland.
      • For 3rd grade on-level math and reading, we looked at SOL testing in Virginia and MCAP testing in Maryland.
      • For elementary school attendance, we are measuring a reduction in chronic absenteeism rates.
      • For out of school time and social emotional learning readiness, we are measuring a reduction in short and long-term in-school suspensions.
    • As expected, the most recent standardized testing resulted in significant decreases in student performance when comparing 2018-2019 pre-COVID results against 2020-2021 post-COVID numbers.
    • The coronavirus pandemic made the previous two years difficult to baseline. In school year 2019-2020 and, in some cases, school year 2020-2021, some districts did not mandate or publish standardized testing data; and establishing accurate absenteeism numbers and short/long-term suspension data could not be provided due to the virtual and hybrid learning environments.
    • We expect to test our overall theory in change by beginning to compare these impact metrics starting in 2022.