Education nonprofit organization City Year has received a $520,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support a new pilot program in Milwaukee Public Schools.
The pilot program is aimed at helping MPS leaders work to close opportunity gaps and improve school performance.
The grant, which was awarded to City Year in partnership with the Everyone Graduates Center at John Hopkins University’s School of Education, is part of the Gates Foundation’s new Networks for School Improvement portfolio. That effort is aimed at supporting groups of middle and high schools working to identify and solve problems to enable more low-income students and students of color to graduate from high school and achieve post-secondary success.
“We’re fortunate to build upon the strong partnership between City Year and the Milwaukee Public Schools to launch City Year’s NSI pilot in Milwaukee,” said Meralis Hood, executive director of City Year Milwaukee. “This focus on building a community of schools to learn and improve is reflective of our overall vision for the work in this city—ensuring that our schools, in partnership with community partners, are working together across grades and schools to create conditions in which students can be most successful.”
City Year and the Everyone Graduates Center will partner with leaders in Milwaukee Public Schools to determine structures, practices, and student support systems that will allow all students to complete eighth grade on-track to high school graduation.
“City Year has been an important partner for Milwaukee Public Schools,” said Keith Posley, interim superintendent of schools for Milwaukee Public Schools. “Through our collective impact efforts, they have served as a thought partner in helping us to think differently about how our schools work collaboratively with not just outside organizations, but with each other, to solve complex problems. The NSI pilot is an exciting next step for our work together in support of our students, schools and communities.”
