Education

Education

OUR CHALLENGE: The achievement gap starts before school does. By age four, children from low-income families are 18 months behind their more advantaged peers.¹ Poor health factors among children (e.g. vision, hearing, oral health, birth weight, asthma) can exacerbate the achievement gap and persist through their academic careers. Students have become increasingly challenged with the transition from middle school to high school, resulting in a disproportionate amount of students who drop out. In Chicago, 51% of students drop out during their ninth grade year.² In July 2009, the unemployment rate among people who had not completed high school was 15.4% — more than 4% higher than the overall unemployment rate at the time.³

OUR APPROACH: Our plan starts by working to narrow the achievement gap via early childhood education programs, as well as programs all throughout a child’s life. We continue working with students and their parents in middle school, providing them with key information and expectations related to the upcoming high school transition.

OUR STRATEGY:

• Provide a continuum of support throughout a child’s life: early childhood education programs, after-school and summer activities, tutoring, mentoring and community schools
• Fund innovative approaches and advocate for policies that lead to increased graduation rates
• Focus on strengthening Chicago youth through our African American Initiative, Latino Initiative and The Stay In School Initiative

OUR INVESTMENT: United Way invested nearly $16M to help children succeed in FY 2009.