Our History

Since our inception as a nonprofit, local education fund in 1984, the Fund has provided critical support to Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools). Initially founded for the purpose of offering mini-grants to teachers for classroom innovations, the Fund remains a champion and architect of efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning in City Schools.

In 1998 we introduced our Achievement First reform model, placing full-time professional developers in schools to build the capacity of teachers to deliver high-quality literacy instruction. Over the years, we’ve helped more than 50 public schools improve their Maryland State Assessments (MSA) reading scores. In 2001, with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and 11 local foundations, the Fund expanded our scope of services, playing a significant part in Baltimore City’s High School Reform movement including the introduction of school choice for all high school students.

With the arrival in 2007 of Dr. Andrés A. Alonso as City Schools’ CEO, our reform work has continued to grow and evolve. The Fund has played an active role in many of the district’s most important reform initiatives such as developing City Schools’ Fair Student Funding model, co-chairing a city-wide College Access and Readiness Consortium, creating 14 new Secondary Transformation Schools serving grades 6-12, and most recently, providing essential support for City Schools’ accelerator schools and chronic absenteeism reduction efforts.

This work has contributed to the growing success of City Schools. Over the past three years, City Schools’ dropout rate has decreased by 56% and the graduation rate has increased by 10% to a reported 66% for the 2009-10 school year. After 40 years of declines, enrollment has seen steady gains each year. Most importantly, student achievement is on the rise with 72.4% of students in 2010 scoring proficient or advanced on the reading MSA, and 66.3% on the math MSA.

One of the ways the Fund maintains our ability to effectively promote and advance the reform work underway in City Schools is through the generous contributions of individuals.  If you would like to support our work please click here. The Fund is a 501(c)(3) organization and all contributions are tax-deductable.