Our mission: To harness the power of service to advance educational equity and excellence in America.
During one-year terms of service, teams of Blue Engine Fellows (BETA's)—recent college graduates of all academic backgrounds—work to accelerate academic achievement in high-need public high schools. Our theory of change is rooted in evidence that increased academic rigor is the most effective way of helping students—especially those from low-income backgrounds—acquire the academic skills they will need to succeed in college and complete their degrees on time.
We celebrated our first year on the last day of school, June 28, 2011, with remarkable results. These pictures are a glimpse at the people, the supporters, and the BETA's behind Blue Engine.
2. Blue Engine partnership increases college-ready* rate in Algebra by 187% in one year % of students demonstrating college-ready math skills as measured by scores of 80+ on Integrated Algebra Regents examination; NYC top-tier defined by the 20 schools in Stuyvesant High School’s peer horizon; WHEELS—the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School – was Blue Engine’s first partner school in 2010-2011 * coll•ege rea•dyadj having the knowledge, skills, and behaviors required to persist and complete a college course of study successfully—without remediation—at the point of enrollment. adapted from the College Board, 2010
3. By the numbers √ Demographic data are whole-school percentages. The table displays the percentage of 9th grade students at WHEELS demonstrating passing (65+) vs. college-ready (80+) achievement in Algebra as measured by year-on-year growth on Integrated Algebra Regents examination. n = 84 in 2010 (95% of the 9th grade enrollment) and 96 in 2011 (100% of the 9th grade enrollment)
4. Students in Blue Engine go further, faster Small-group tutorials help shift and compress achievement distributions without extending the amount of instructional time that students receive. This analysis plots Kernel Densities of 2010 vs. 2011 scores on the Int. Algebra Regents among freshmen at WHEELS
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7. This year: A team of 12 Blue Engine Teaching Assistants (BETAs) chosen in the spring of 2010 from 185 applicants nationwide (8%) to join the inaugural class in New York City
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9. Collect and analyze “real time” data on student performance to help teacher / BETA teams differentiate instruction to the needs of all students
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11. To see a video that shares our story of Blue Engine’s first year and the process behind these powerful results, please visit http://bit.ly/iPFnjG
Thank you. You hear a lot about how education is a broken. Which leads me, at least, to a sense of hoplessness. Paralysis. It’s not a specific enough diagnosis. We hear so much about so many things, right? teacher quality, unions, poverty, you’d be forgiven if you didn’t know where to focus and why. We’re here tonight to focus your attention on a single problem. Not the whole system of interlocking problems, but one thing. And that thing is the lack of college readiness among our nation’s high school graduates.
We received official results last week (Friday) and 43% of freshmen at WHEELS obtained scores of 80+ on the 2011 Algebra Regents - an increase in college-ready skills on this key metric of 187%. That’s half the gap between WHEELS and our city’s top schools, evaporated in a single year. Plenty of work ahead and other metrics including critical thinking, writing, and reading comp to go, but this is what happens when you combine high expectations with solid partnerships and a new way for college grads to serve. That’s worth a round of applause.
I’ll walk you quickly through the numbers and a final chart, because there’s more than that. I don’t like reading slides, but here’s the deal: 9th, 8th, and course mapping.
More kids than ever before who are on track to compete in college and complete their degrees. Let me close by saying that I’ve been told countless times – it’s your first year, your systems will take time to develop, that’s OK, just take those first results in stride. Yes, we will. Those people are exactly right. We’re just getting started. This is a drop in the bucket compared to what we can do. Our systems are evolving and imprecise and we have huge room to grow. We can do better. So stay tuned.
I’ll walk you quickly through the numbers and a final chart, because there’s more than that. I don’t like reading slides, but here’s the deal: 9th, 8th, and course mapping.
