Partnership Schools is a network of seven Catholic Pre-K through 8th grade schools in Harlem and the South Bronx.
At the time that Partnership assumed management of the schools, only 17% of students passed the New York State math test and only 22% passed the New York State ELA test. On the most recent State exams, 52% of Partnership students passed the math test and 49% passed the ELA test. For the fourth year in a row, all Partnership schools met achievement levels that outperformed City and State school averages.
Our support enabled the implementation of its academic model at a failing elementary school it took over, St. Charles Borromeo, and enabled it to work with Teach Like a Champion (another Heckscher grantee) to implement its Reading Reconsidered curriculum, which systematically builds foundational general knowledge across literature, history, and science. We also supported a strategic partnership with Teach like a Champion to provide remote learning professional development to all Partnership Schools teachers.
Importantly, in New York and elsewhere where politicians shut down in-person schooling during the pandemic despite the overwhelming evidence that in-person education could be done safely and that the impact of remote schooling would be catastrophic on poor children, Partnership Schools continued to offer in-person learning.