Our Results
- Our 2011 4-year grad rate (75%) far outpaced the City rate (65%).
- 88% of our 2011 graduates were accepted to college.
- Our students demonstrate qualities of leadership & active citizenship.
Our Population
- Our schools serve a high-needs student population. Of 9th-graders entering our schools, 81% were below grade level in English Language Arts and 64% were below in Math. 71% of students are living in poverty.
- Our schools target students from historically underserved neighborhoods where, until now, access to high quality education has been limited. Our students are predominantly Hispanic (44%) and African-American (32%).
Our Results
- Our graduation and college acceptance rates are high. Our 2011 four-year graduation rate of 75% far outpaced the City rate of 65%, and 88% of our graduates were accepted to college.
- Our schools are improving year-to-year on key indicators of school success. Our four-year graduation rates increased by an average of 11% over last year and our 9th graders earned 15% more credits in 2009-10 than the previous year.
- 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 schools promote high levels of achievement, effectively engage students, teachers, and parents, and provide a safe and respectful environment. In 2010-11, NYC Outward Bound partner schools scored "high" or "above average" in 60% of categories on the NYC Learning Environment Survey.
- Our schools are increasingly proving to be “schools of choice.” Marsh Avenue received 1,500 applications for 150 6th grade seats. Validus had 789 applicants for 81 9th grade seats.
- Our schools’ parents feel welcome and included. 98% report feeling welcome in their child’s school and 97% report that their school keeps them informed about their child’s progress.
- Our students produce high quality work. Students produce real-world products—such as water-quality reports used to inform communities, oral histories of veterans and immigrants, and playground designs demonstrating physics concepts—that reflect their ability to think critically and creatively, synthesize complex information, and other skills that are at a premium in the 21st century workplace.
“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.
