Friends of Young Achievers

CONTACT:

25 Walk Hill St.
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
617-522-7231
www.foya.org

Helen Rosenfeld, Executive Director

DESCRIPTION:

Friends of Young Achievers, Inc. is an outstanding example of public-private partnership between government and philanthropy. In 1993 the Massachusetts Educational Reform Act authorized the creation within school systems of “pilot schools” that would be publicly funded laboratories of experimentation and innovation in school education. Eleven pilots were created in Boston, of which the "Young Achievers Science & Mathematics Pilot School” was one -- created in 1995 by community activists from Roxbury and Dorchester who believed that public schools were not providing adequate literacy in math and science to students of color. In 1999, Friends of Young Achievers, Inc. formed as a private charity to assist the Young Achievers Pilot School with community outreach and fundraising, in the belief that public funding alone cannot provide the dollars needed to produce exceptional science education. The Young Achievers Pilot School serves 303 students from kindergarten through eighth grade, selected by lottery. It offers a full eight-hour school day with active parental involvement. It has formed numerous alliances with key institutions and foundations to maintain its rigorous science and math centered curriculum. It needs all the help it can get, and you are invited to help.

(2003: CULTURE: Education: Formal: School-Related)