A MESSAGE FROM OUR LEADERSHIP
The 2021-2022 school year was unprecedented by anyone’s measure. Following nearly two years of school closures and the other difficulties caused by COVID, we had little idea of the magnitude of what lay ahead when schools reopened in 2021. We found ourselves asked to engage students who had experienced social, economic, health and learning trauma. We faced new challenges that were far more significant than we had ever experienced previously, and these challenges continued unabated for the entire 2021-2022 school year.
However, in meeting these challenges successfully, the 3Point team learned about our own resilience, perseverance and adaptability. This past year graphically demonstrated how important our work is and the commitment and strength of our entire 3Point team. Our students and school partners had new and greater needs, and we took on increased responsibilities providing additional programs to support our students and schools. Because of the dedication of our staff, volunteers and donors, we made major strides forward with our students during the 2021-2022 school year and have great momentum going into the 2022-2023 school year.
Highlights of 2021-2022 and Goals for 2022-2023
As we forged our way forward, we were guided by strategic principles based on our learnings from the past. Despite the many challenges of the 2021-2022 school year, we saw a clear path to moving forward and addressing the critical needs of our students and schools. Our commitment to our core constituents; our youth, their families, the Boston Public Schools, donors, partner colleges and universities and their students is now stronger than ever. Every decision we made, every program we provided, every action we took or decided not to take was informed by our mission to narrow the opportunity and achievement gap for underserved, economically disadvantaged students in Boston.
On the next page, you will see how we are continuing to deliver on our mission by offering innovative and transformational programs. The following highlights some our most important work in 2021-2022 and our plans for 2022-2023.
Growing Staff, Interns and Volunteers
We hired an additional Instructor, Jeffrey Mestre and a new COO, Vahsaun Givans. All of our instructors did an admirable job meeting all the challenges of this past school year, and they won continued praise from the teachers and administrators of their schools. We also expanded our cadre of University students who assisted in the classroom beyond the University of Massachusetts Boston to include Emmanuel College and The Boston University School of Social Work. Our college interns did a remarkable job with our youth this past year.
Increasing 3Point’s Schools and Grades
Not only did we continue our programs in the middle schools, but, we expanded our programing in TechBoston Academy (“TBA”) to its high school, added The New Mission High School where we provided programing for grades 7-9, and added two new schools: The McCormack and The Dever for programing for grades 6-8. As a result of these additions, we provided not only after-school programing, but also programing as part of the school day. The number of students we served skyrocketed from 150 to 450.
Adding New Programs and Curriculum
While we continued our project based learning supplemented by basketball and hip hop, we deepened our programing to meet the needs of our students and schools. The Massachusetts’ Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (“DESE”) has developed a framework on career and college readiness to enhance student success. Responding to our school partners’ requests, we integrated the DESE framework into existing after-school programs and developed and delivered new high school programs that incorporated the DESE learning objectives for college and career readiness.
Re-starting Our Summer Learning Academies
In July 2021, we jumped at the opportunity to return to in-person summer learning. As a result of certain COVID restrictions, we held a Summer Learning Academy for 35 students at the DeWitt Center in Roxbury. This past summer, in addition to continuing at DeWitt, we returned to our long-time location at the Fessenden School in West Newton. We served nearly 80 students this summer. We can boast that, for the first time, we hired two of our original cohort of students from ten years ago to assist our teachers and coaches.
Further Institutionalizing our Partnership with UMass Boston
We made tremendous strides in further institutionalizing out relationship with UMass Boston. During the 2021-2022 school year, we became an important part of UMass Boston’s “Programing for The Peninsula” by providing after-school programs at The McCormack and The Dever Schools. We have also developed paid internships with the Sports Leadership and Administration major (SLA) and formed a partnership with and received support from the SLA Student Association. We also increased the number of internships in the College of Education and Human Development, the Honors College and the Sociology and Criminal Justice majors at UMass Boston.
Major Developments Planned for 2022-2023
Tripling the Number Middle School Students at TechBoston Academy and New Mission
Because of the impact of our after-school middle school programs, the Principals at TBA and New Mission requested that every 6th, 7th and 8th grader in their schools be part of 3Point. As a result, we are moving to programming during the regular school day at TBA and New Mission with all their middle school students.
Expanding Basketball and Dance Program
Because our program design integrates classroom learning with the lessons of the basketball and other collaborative activates like hip hop, we are going to combine our in-school project based learning classroom program with a weekend basketball league which will allow us to accommodate the additional students who will be in our middle school program. We are going to be using facilities at Emmanuel College and UMass Boston which will have the additional benefit of exposing our middle school students to the opportunity to learn more about post-secondary education.
Expanding the Partnership with UMass Boston
We will be partnering with Dr. Joseph Cooper, the leader of the Sports Leadership and Administration major, to introduce a service learning program that will study the impact of sports on underserved youth. As part of this course, UMass Boston students will intern at 3Point for a semester. UMass Boston will also reinstate a course developed and formerly taught by our Academic Director, Professor Emerita Joan Archers, that focuses on teaching urban youth. This course will also require that students perform field service at 3Point. Finally, we are in discussions with the UMass Boston Trio Talent Search Program, a Federal Grant Program that provides a pathway to college for first generation college students, to coordinate our college and career readiness programs with the Talent Search Program in several schools that we both serve.
Piloting Acceleration Academies
3Point Acceleration Academies in math and reading are planned to be introduced at New Mission as a pilot after-school program. This program will provide small group subject mastery tutoring supplemented by highly valued youth activities. Small group subject mastery tutoring will start with a computerized assessment that precisely identifies the student’s skill level using the common core standards adopted by the Boston Public Schools. Students will be grouped by comparable learning levels into tutoring cohorts of no more than five students. Tutoring will meet for ninety minutes twice each week with basketball during out-of-school time.
Adding Summer Learning Academies
Summer Learning academies are an essential element for closing the opportunity and achievement gap. All of the relevant research has concluded that approximately two-thirds of the achievement gap is a result of summer learning loss. Summer Learning Academies have demonstrated that they not only prevent summer learning loss, but they can produce significant learning gains. 3Point has been operating Summer Learning Academies since its inception. We have an ambitious goal for this year to secure the funding that will enable us to open two more Summer Learning Academies in addition to the two we already operated.
