REPORT TO FUNDERS September 2017

Contents Page

Overview 1 Curriculum - Middle School 2 Summer Outcomes 3 The LEAD Class 3 Summer Community 4 Student Snapshot 4 Teaching Fellow Snapshot 5 Quotes and Testimonials 7 The High School Program 8 Summary

Overview

I am deeply grateful for your investment in the dual mission of Breakthrough Manchester, and I wanted to share some of the results of our 26th summer with you. We served 72% more students this year (93 students, up from 54 in 2016) and our two full-time staff hired and supervised a seasonal staff of 33 people, including 25 college-age Teaching Fellows and other program support positions. With our Students Teaching Students model, our mission remains focused on closing the educational opportunity gap, steeped in the philosophy that bright, motivated students should succeed academically regardless of their income level, race, language, family structure or zip code. Now that our whirlwind summer session has concluded, we are launching our school year program for 7th and 8th grade Breakthrough students. Breakthrough continues to work strategically toward thoughtful expansion of our six-year, tuition-free college access program. This year we added a third required summer for rising ninth graders to connect explicitly with the new high school program for Breakthrough students that is run by the SNHU College of Education on SNHU’s campus. We also admitted a large class of rising 7th graders (40 students.) The diagram below illustrates the six-year college access pipeline made possible through a four-way partnership between a school district (Manchester), a private, independent day school (Derryfield), a non-profit university (SNHU) and an affiliate of a national non-profit (Breakthrough Collaborative).

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Curriculum Our six-week summer academic program is entirely free for Breakthrough students - we provide all transportation, breakfast, snack and lunch and all curriculum and field trips at no cost to students or their families in an effort to eliminate the traditional barriers to participation. Students do “pay” for the program, however, with consistent attendance, hard work and completion of homework every night of the summer session. Breakthrough sets out a rich banquet of learning, personal growth and fun, and our expectation of students and families, outlined in an annual contract, is that they participate fully and invest themselves with their best effort in all that we have to offer. The chart below outlines the various academic and other experiences that each grade level was offered this summer in our program here on The Derryfield School campus.

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Summer Outcomes Each student takes a pre-test and a post-test at the beginning and end of the 6-week summer session, respectively, and we track daily attendance and homework completion. With 96% daily attendance and 89% daily homework completion, the results in academic classes for this past summer are represented in the chart below. The second column represents the percent of students who scored better on their post-test than their pre-test, while the fourth column represents the average increase in scores in each overall subject area.

Course % of Students Demonstrating

Growth Overall Subject

Average Growth

Literature 7 95%

Literature 22% Literature 8 43%

Literature 9 89%

Writing 7 100% Writing 31%

Writing 8 77%

Science 7 100%

Science 38% Science 8 100%

Science 9 100%

Pre-Algebra 100%

Math 37% Algebra 97%

Advanced Algebra 100%

Geometry 100%

Satisfaction (gathered through end of summer surveys)

● 99% said they made new friends this summer ● 95% of students said they feel like they belong at Breakthrough ● 94% said they feel better prepared for the upcoming school year ● 86% said Breakthrough made them more confident to try new things

The LEAD Class The rising ninth grade takes a combined literature/writing class, the results of which are reported under Literature 9 in the table above. Rising 9th graders also take a LEAD class (Leadership, Education, Advocacy and Destination) where they complete a summer-long project to develop recommendations on ways to improve the summer program. Activities include developing, administering and analyzing surveys, conducting interviews and Skyping with directors and students at other Breakthrough sites

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around the country. The capstone of the course is a public presentation of project methods and results, along with specific recommendations for program enhancements and modifications. Each year the directors implement at least one major recommendation during the following summer. For instance, in the past we changed our summer food service provider and added a study hall/extra help period during the day. This year, the major recommendations include:

● Provide students with greater choice in extracurricular classes ● Provide opportunities for field trips or off-campus challenge activities in addition to college

visits, including possible multi-day experiences ● Combine literature and writing classes in grades 7 and 8 to free up the schedule for the addition

of a social studies class ● Consider a student council or advisory group - perhaps made of third summer students ● Assign less homework OR provide more time in the course of the day to complete it ● Have students select the summer theme and drive the design of the t-shirt ● Have leveled classes in all subjects, not just math ● Institute “share boxes” so students can share suggestions and feedback on a daily basis ● Allow use of tennis courts and soccer field during recess and activities ● Expand the program to more locations/campuses

Overview of our Summer 2016 Community Our community this summer included:

● 93 high potential middle school students with limited opportunities o 40 rising 7th graders o 31 rising 8th o 22 rising 9th graders

● 25 talented undergraduate Teaching Fellows ● 1 Operations Coordinator (college undergraduate) ● 1 Dean of Students (professional educator) ● 2 Program Assistants (high school students and Breakthrough alums) ● 4 Instructional Coaches (professional educators) ● 2 full-time, year-round directors (Breakthrough staff)

Student Snapshot Of the ninety three students who attended Breakthrough Manchester this summer…

● 81% will be the first in their families to graduate from college; ● 70% are students of color; ● 65% qualify for free or reduced lunch; ● 61% speak English as a second language ● 27% are raised by a single parent, live with substitute caregivers or are homeless

60% of our students meet three or four of the above criteria and 9% meet all five criteria

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The students in our program this summer represented the diversity of Manchester. The following 20 languages are spoken by our Breakthrough families at home: Albanian, Arabic, Bosnian, Cambodian, Chinese, Dinka, French. Haitian Creole, Igbo, Luganda, Nepali, Pashto, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Yoruba. Teaching Fellow Snapshot Our four Instructional Coaches and our Dean of Students, all professional educators, hailed from the following schools:

● Merrimack High School (3) ● Bartlett Community Partnership School ● The Donald McKay K-8 School

Our young teachers and support staff came from the following schools:

● Azusa Pacific University, CA ● Brown University, RI ● Cate School CA ● College of William and Mary, VA ● Connecticut College, CT ● The Derryfield School, NH ● Gustavus Adolphus College, MN ● Highpoint University, NC ● Kenyon College, OH ● Massachusetts College of Art and Design, MA ● Manchester Memorial High School, NH ● Manchester School of Technology, NH ● Middlebury College, VT ● Principia College, IL ● Santa Clara University, CA ● St. Anselm College, NH ● Southern NH University, NH (4) ● University of Idaho, ID (2) ● University of New Hampshire, NH ● University of Portland, OR ● Vassar College, NY ● Wellesley College, MA ● Wheaton College, MA ● Winnacunnet High School, NH

Our Teaching Fellows work long days, arriving at Breakthrough at 7:00 am to prepare for the day and often not leaving until 6:00 or 7:00 pm.

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The Breakthrough experience is immersive. Teaching Fellows:

● solo-teach two sections of academics each day, ● coach an extracurricular activity, ● participate actively with students at breakfast, snack, lunch and during community periods, ● meet daily with their academic department for curriculum review, ● attend weekly professional development workshops and daily coaching sessions, ● serve on at least one committee with significant responsibility for summer programming, ● collaborate to develop approaches to each student’s academic and social-emotional needs, ● participate in a daily faculty meeting and ● advise and mentor five students over the course of the entire summer

When we are recruiting teachers for the summer session, we describe the experience as “both exhilarating and exhausting” and "a challenging and whirlwind summer, full of opportunities for responsibility and personal growth." At the end of the summer, the Teaching Fellows wholeheartedly agreed with this description, and several further described their summer as “life-changing.”

● 100% of our Teaching Fellows this summer would recommend Breakthrough to a peer ● 100% of our Instructional Coaches believe that Breakthrough Teacher Training is as good

as, or better than, pre-service training available elsewhere.

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Quotes and Testimonials We do track and report on outcomes, the hard data that tell us we are making a difference. It is, however, infinitely harder to convey the degree to which this program does change lives – for both our students and the emerging teachers who invest so much time, energy and care in their summer charges. Below are some written comments taken from our 2017 end-of-summer evaluation survey. “This program has completely changed the way I see myself in the future and how I will get there. It has showed me who I really am and what I can truly accomplish.” - Brandon Boss, rising 9th grade student “Breakthrough has taught me to not worry about failing, but to worry about the opportunities I'm missing by not taking a chance.” - Julia Nees, rising 9th grade student “I do not even know where to start. Breakthrough has been indescribably helpful to me on my path of becoming an educator. Everything I know how to do, I owe to Breakthrough. From the simplest forms of lesson planning, to the nitty gritty of classroom management, all of my success is due to the varied exposure I've had in the Breakthrough community. I cannot speak highly enough of the organization.” - Adriana Smith, Teaching Fellow, senior at Wheaton College “My summer teaching at Breakthrough was the most amazing and humbling experience I have ever had. While I have worked with kids in school and camp environments before, nothing prepared me more for life as an educator than Breakthrough. The staff and teachers were the highest functioning group of individuals, and I could ask for help from every single one. The program is a ton of work, but the growth you see in your students makes it all worthwhile. Through this experience, I gained teaching, leadership, and teamwork skills. I improved my speaking and thinking abilities and my ability to collaborate. The program teaches you how to teach, a skill very applicable to everything I am interested in pursuing.” - Sierra Hussey, Teaching Fellow, senior at Principia College “Breakthrough has broken barriers and taught us what isn’t taught at school. I have made forever friends and found my voice, and I’ll always be grateful to them for it.” - Yelizaveta Nikolenko, rising 9th grade student

“Definitely worth the six week summer sacrifice. I love the program. They are my second family.” - Deborah Fahel, rising 9th grade student “The students at Breakthrough Manchester are highly motivated, intelligent, and genuine kids. It was my experience helping them grow that really made me grow. I am proud to have worked at Breakthrough Manchester.” - Grant Johnson, Teaching Fellow, senior at High Point University

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About the High School Program We collaborate closely with the SNHU School of Education which funds, staffs and manages the Breakthrough high school program. While the funds you generously provided support the middle school portion of the program, the high school scope and sequence offered by SNHU is critical in completing a college access pipeline. In the high school program, each student is provided with a Career Cruising account (college and career exploration), a dedicated mentor who checks in with students weekly, and a series of Saturday skill building sessions held during each school year.

Summary The beauty of Breakthrough is its commitment to develop two populations of young people at the same time for different purposes, aligned with a common goal of educational equity. Thank you for your partnership in this work; I am so grateful for your support. Please let me know if I can provide additional information on the impact of the funds you have so generously provided to the Breakthrough Manchester program as well as your abiding belief in the power and potential of young people. Becky Berk, M.Ed. Executive Director

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