Our Results
- 93% of our 2012 graduates were accepted to college.
- 70% of our schools received A's on their Progress Reports, compared to 28% Citywide.
- Our 18-month college enrollment rate is higher than 98% of the City's public schools.
Overall Trend
Our network showed improvement from 2010-11 to 2011-12 on every single measure of student achievement that we track.
Our Population
- Our schools primarily serve a high-needs population from neighborhoods where access to high-quality education has historically been lacking. 69% of our students qualify for free/reduced lunch. 20% are classified as having special education needs. Our students are predominantly Hispanic (43%) and African-American (30%).
- Our students enter far behind grade level in key subject areas. Of 9th-graders entering our schools, 77% were below grade level in English Language Arts, and more than half were below grade level in Math.
Our Results
- Our schools are some of the best in the City. 70% of our schools received A's on their most recent Progress Reports, compared to just 26% Citywide.
- Our college acceptance rates are outstanding. 93% of our 2012 graduates were accepted to college (compared to 63% citywide). Almost half of our high schools had 100% college acceptance rates.
- Our 2012 graduates will be attending a range of colleges including Princeton, MIT, Berklee College of Music, Amherst, NYU, Bard, Cornell, Ithaca, Penn State, Mount Holyoke and Sarah Lawrence, as well as many CUNY and SUNY schools, among others.
- Our college persistence is high. Our 18-month college enrollment rate is higher than 98% of the City’s public schools.
- Our high school graduation rates continue to be strong. Our 2012 graduation rate of 77% far outpaces the City's 2011 rate of 66%.
- Our schools are increasingly proving to be “schools of choice.” Marsh Avenue received over 1,800 applications for 150 6th-grade seats, Metropolitan received more than 1,300 applications for 120 6th-grade seats, and Validus received 1,027 applications for 81 9th-grade seats.
- Our students exceed key benchmarks that assess preparedness for graduation. Credit accumulation is a key indicator of whether students are on-track to graduate. 86% of our students earned 11 or more credits per year, a rise from last year's 80%.
- Our schools are places where the teaching and leadership are strong. All of our schools received the highest or second highest rating in the Department of Education Quality Reviews, which assess teacher and principal practice.
- Our high attendance rates show student commitment and engagement. Our 95% middle school attendance rate exceeded the citywide rate, and our high school rate climbed closer to our 90% goal by increasing 5% over the last two years to 88%.
- Our schools are succeeding in establishing strong cultures of achievement, engagement and respect. Five of our network schools scored above average in all four categories of the annual Department of Education NYC School Survey. 95% of responding students reported that adults in their school helped them understand what they need to do to succeed academically, and 92% of responding teachers consider their school to be an intimate and equitable learning community.
- Our schools’ parents feel welcome and included. The Department of Education's NYC School Survey results show that 99% of reporting parents welcome in their child’s school and 96% felt that their school keeps them informed on their child’s progress.
- Our professional development is highly rated by educators in our schools. Based on our annual PD & Partnership Survey results, 100% of Principals and Instructional Guides felt our professional development (PD) helped teachers increase the quality of their Expeditionary Learning practice. 100% of Instructional Guides agreed that our PD improved their coaching/mentoring skills. 97% of Crew Advisors agreed that our Crew Orientation courses helped develop positive school culture and student character.
- Our students produce high-quality work and real-world products. Our students are required to examine real-world problems that need real-world solutions. They must think critically and creatively, synthesize complex information, and find solutions to 21st-century problems. These solutions are reflected in the real-world products they create - like water quality analyses presented to local community boards, playground design concepts presented to architectural firms with city contracts, and public transportation proposals for MTA and public officials.
“This kind of innovative school…is an example of how all our schools should be.”
—President Obama after visiting an Expeditionary Learning school in Washington D.C.
“There should be an Expeditionary Learning School in every neighborhood in this country, as it is the only design, that I am aware of, where experience is at the center and the things which we experience are those we best remember.”
—Tom Vander Ark, former Executive Director, Education, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
“NYC Outward Bound is…defying the lie, defying the myth, defying the stereotypes about what children can and cannot do.”
—Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education
“Outward Bound’s involvement with the creation of new schools has had a direct impact of the success of our students. I appreciate your support as we build on our vision for public education: that all students will be given the tools they need to succeed in and out of the classroom.”
—Joel Klein, former Chancellor, NYC Department of Education
“The Expeditionary Learning model compels us to do work in school that has real, authentic consequences.”
—Elijah Hawkes, founding principal, The James Baldwin School
"In the years that I’ve been teaching, [Expeditionary Learning is] the single best model of learning for kids and the most satisfying model for teachers, because the kids are working on real projects, their work holds great value, and you are stretching them academically."
—Jennifer Wood, teacher
“When you walk through the NYC Outward Bound schools, you really do get the sense that these kids are working with very high expectations, that they really are being pushed and prepared for college in all the ways possible.”
—Adam Tucker, Senior Program Officer, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The American Youth Policy Forum gave Expeditionary Learning a 5-star rating for linking community service to academics and building "an ethos …of service to others."
The American Institutes for Research, in a study of comprehensive school reform in 1999, found that Expeditionary Learning was one of only eight school-wide reforms whose research showed positive effects on student achievement, across subject areas.
