2022 Annual Report - Boston Partners in Education

“When my mentor Brian and I first met, instead of starting work right away, he took the time to get to know me. This made it feel like a safe space to grow. I knew that whatever I said, would not be judged. Because of this, I was not afraid to ask questions or to say ‘I don’t know.’”

Imani Christou-Fuller
Sophomore, Boston Arts Academy

Dear Friends,

In the past year, Boston Partners in Education embarked on a project to determine our next set of strategic priorities. We’d emerged from the impact of three years of global upheaval that had turned many of our goals on their heads, and we needed to figure out what was next.

In the course of that analysis, we’ve realized that over the fifty-six years we’ve been a nonprofit, the heart of our work has remained constant – to serve and support the students and teachers of the Boston Public Schools – while the approach we take to that work has been able to flex and adapt to the needs of our students and our families. We stay true to our mission, and we evolve; from providing schools with libraries and librarians, to riding on buses to keep students safe, to providing academic mentors in classrooms, to providing that support outside of traditional school time.

FY22 was an exemplar of that flexibility, that willingness to learn and grow. Our programs evolved – we refined our virtual Independent Learning Support program and increased the number of families it reached. Our presence

evolved – we have a new website that speaks to our work and dedication. And our mission, vision, and values evolved to better reflect our commitment to the diverse community of learners in the Boston Public Schools. We’ve worked to make the values and organizational culture more transparent to everyone, in order to hold ourselves more accountable to upholding them every day, in all of the work that we do.

As we continue to create the strategy that will carry us into the next three years, it’s important that we stay true to those core values, which center around communication, flexibility, and a shared purpose. We look to all of you, our partners, friends, and supporters, to make that commitment with us. Thank you for all of your contributions – we look forward to the next chapter with you.

Best,

Erin M. McGrath
BPIE Executive Director

Last year, we introduced our refreshed visual identity – our first rebrand in almost three decades. This year, we’re proud to share the final steps in our organization’s transition into a new era: our updated mission, vision, values, and culture. These guiding principles will continue to shape our strategic planning and program delivery.

Last November, we launched a redesigned bostonpartners.org with the goal of providing more accesible content dedicated to each of the constituents in our BPIE community. We’re proud to now offer space where mentors, educators, families, and partners can access the specific information they need to receive support or get involved. In addition, we aimed to modernize our site to match our updated approach to program delivery, and to better showcase our work in the Boston Public Schools. We hope you enjoy it – you can take a short tour below.

Find The Content For You!

In addition to showcasing our updated brand, our new website was built to make it easier for our core partners to access the types of support they’re looking for.

Whether you’re a volunteer, educator, student, or guardian, you can easily find the materials that are relvant to you right from the main navigation bar.

Volunteer Resources Hub

One of our new site’s highlights is a new and improved Volunteer Resources Page – a collection of tools that can provide additional support and help mentors build skills to maximize the mentoring experience.

Whether you’re looking to provide your mentee with additional material during your sessions or learn new strategies and approaches to supporting students in the classroom, you can find the specific materials you need to prepare on this new page.

It was a pivotal year for schools, and we could not have accomplished as much as we did without our dedicated academic mentors. With the help of 330 volunteers, we provided weekly mentoring support to over 900 Boston Public Schools students, in classrooms and online! That equates to over 8,900 mentoring hours in school year 2021-22.

Boston Day & Evening Academy

“I cannot do my job without BPIE mentors. It’s too many students with too many needs, and many of them need one-on-one support, just like all of us. We all don’t learn on the same timetable. So I urge all teachers to get a BPIE mentor.”

Quincy Elementary School

“I’ve been able to see it from the kids’ point of view – they love that special attention and you know it’s a really positive experience when the kids want to stay [and keep working] with their mentor. You can tell the mentors are here to support.”

Fenway High School

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with BPIE mentors for the last six years. It’s been an incredible experience seeing students flourish with one-on-one help from their tutors. Confidence levels have been boosted and some students who thought success was not possible finally saw possibility and opportunity.”

Blackstone Elementary School

“I’ve seen the change. I see the work that mentors are doing. That 45 minutes to an hour each week really, really helps. You are supporting students in ways that they need, and in ways that teachers and classrooms need.”

My name is Imani Christou-Fuller – I’m a sophomore at Boston Arts Academy and I’m excited to share a bit of my story with you.

I have always struggled with math and science growing up. In my freshman year, I was struggling when it came to understanding my math and physics assignments. When my teacher noticed how much I struggled, she offered the opportunity to get help from an academic mentor. I agreed, expecting to just get help in academics, but I got so much more. I was not expecting to get help with my future career, organization, and personal guidance.

When my mentor Brian and I first met, instead of starting work right away, he took the time to get to know me. This made it feel like a safe space to grow. I knew that whatever I said, would not be judged. Because of this, I was not afraid to ask questions or to say “I don’t know.” Whenever I told Brian that I was struggling he said that it was okay and paused the lesson to go over what I was confused about. This made math and science so much more clear for me. This style of teaching, pausing to make sure I get each part right, really fit my learning style.

As we got to know each other better and started talking more and learning more about each other, I talked about some of my aspirations for my future career. I explained how architecture has always been very interesting to me. I never really considered it as a career option because I wasn’t sure if it was something I would enjoy or excel at. Especially since I felt like I wasn’t particularly good at drawing. However, when I told Brian about my interest in architecture, he encouraged me to learn more about it. In our next meeting, he learned the basics of perspective drawing so that he could pass that knowledge on to me. As I practiced drawing with Brian and at home by myself, my skill started to improve and I became more confident in my drawing skills.

At the end of freshman year, I was discouraged by my grades. When I told Brian that my grades weren’t that good, he told

me not to worry and that I have a lot of time to improve my grades. He also shared how his grades were not perfect when he was younger either. We returned to talking about my career and started looking up the required GPA for colleges that I’m interested in. Based on those required GPAs, we set some short term goals to help me achieve those long term goals. This was really motivating for me.

One of the main reasons for my struggles in math and science was my lack of organization. I had a really hard time organizing my materials for class. I would often get distracted because of this. Brian talked about strategies to help being more organized and we are continuing to have these conversations about organization. He told me that he also struggles with organization and told me some strategies that help him stay organized. He reassured me that, even though he is in the middle of his PhD, he still struggles with keeping things organized and that it’s ok to still be on the path of growth.

My high school experience started in the middle of a pandemic. It was difficult for me to learn because I couldn’t really pay attention to my Zoom classes. One second I’d be engaged in the lesson, and the next I would realize that I’ve been zoned out for the past 20 minutes.

Having one on one mentoring sessions was helpful during this time because Brian was able to notice when I was zoning out and redirect and refocus me. Or, if I had a sudden thought about something unrelated, he would allow me to take the time to talk about it and get it out of my head before returning back to our work. Once I returned to my work, I was more ready to be engaged and focused. Even though he was good at being a mentor over Zoom, I am really happy to finally, after 2 years, have met him in person!

I hope my story has shown the benefits that a great mentoring relationship can provide. I really look forward to continuing my growth and reaching even higher goals with my mentor.

A large part of our strategic planning in FY22 focused on our increased commitment to equity. Advancing equity has always been fundamental to Boston Partners in Education’s mission, but we knew that it was important to be more intentional about our approach. The changing needs of Boston’s public school students, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, meant that we needed to refocus and refine our equity efforts.

We began our planning process by asking ourselves one important question: how closely does BPIE – our mentors, staff, and Board – reflect the students that we support, in background and in shared experience? To find out, we compiled the demographic information for BPIE’s core constituents and compared them to our student population in a comprehensive Transparency Report. This data helps us to identify the important gaps in our hiring and recruitment practices that need addressing along our DEI journey.

Most importantly, these findings provided the foundation for an Inclusion Report – the highlights of which are detailed below. This report lists three key takeaways – and the concrete action steps – we’ll focus on addressing in the 2022-23 fiscal year to continue building a more inclusive, representative BPIE.

1. Outreach

In order to reach more mentors who are reflective of our BPS students, we need to reimagine how we conduct mentor outreach.

2. Staffing & Governance

The voices of our students need to be heard at all levels of the organization, which includes recruiting board members and staff who share identity with our students.

3. Inclusivity & Retention

In order to align our updated mission and values with our work with students in the classroom, we need to build more DEI and culturally sustaining practices into mentor training and partner onboarding.

WCVB: ‘Big Cheese’ tells students about realizing dreams through hard work

Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper kicked off our Big Cheese initiative at the Mario Umana Academy in December 2022 – and WCVB Channel 5 was there to highlight the program as it enters its 20th year!

Boston Globe: Omitting local organizations in discussions of receivership would be a critical mistake

In this Boston Globe Letter to the Editor, BPIE Executive Director Erin McGrath argues the most sensible plan toward BPS improvement is one that relies on the expertise of those who are closest to the process.

Associated Press: With aid to spend, schools look for students who need help

The Associated Press shined a light on the Rivera family and their experience with BPIE’s ILS program, alongside many other student support programs around the US. We’re proud to be one of many partners schools have turned to as they look for ways to identify students in need of additional support.

$50,000+

Joseph & MaryLynn Antonellis
Keith Block & Suzanne Kelley
PwC Charitable Foundation

$20,000-$49,999

Analog Devices
Ken & Kavelle Bajaj
Cummings Foundation
DMI
Alok Kapoor
Jim Kerr
Liberty Mutual Foundation
Liberty Mutual Insurance
Mass Mentoring Partnership
Salesforce
State Street Foundation, Inc.
The Boston Foundation

$10,000-$19,999

Accenture
Andrew Kreps Gallery
Rueben Bajaj
Sunny Bajaj
Boston Public Schools
Bushrod H. Campbell and Adah F. Hall Charity Fund
John & Suzzara Durocher
DXC
EIS Group
Fullwood Foundation
Google, Inc.
Guidewire Software
KPMG LLP
Randy Peeler
Salesforce.org
TD Charitable Foundation
The Beveridge Family Foundation, Inc.
Tiny Tiger Foundation

$5,000-$9,999

Abt Associates, Inc.
Bridgehaven Foundation
Deloitte
Ron & Mara DePoalo
Doors Residential Brokerage & Advisory
Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation
Scott Evoy & Alexandra Steinert-Evoy
Jack Fallon
GreenPages
Hemenway & Barnes, LLP

Greg & Karen Henderson
Scott & Niki Hutzler
LABUR
Darrin Lang
M&T Bank
Michael & Jacqueline McKenna
Art & Connie Page
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Quantiphi, Inc.
John & Dorothy Remondi
Ropes & Gray LLP
Howard Rubin
StoneTurn Group, LLP
The Dubilo Hill Group – Graystone Consulting Morgan Stanley
The HYM Investment Group, LLC
Kevin Wasielewski
Brad Wilson
Peter & Susan Workum

$2,500-$4,999

Lena Bottos
Charles River Associates
FJN Charitable Foundation
Gaston Electrical Co., Inc.
John & Mary Heveran
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals
Meg Jordan
Paresh Joshi
Meredith & Jim Laudisio
Dennis Mahoney
Christa Matukaitis
Ivan Matviak & Heidi Gardner
Kathryn Mehta
Stephen & Mary Neff
Norman M. Shack Charitable Foundation Trust
Paul and Edith Babson Foundation
PCMA New England Chapter
Grant Simpson
Pauliina & Peter Swartz
Andrew Thorne
Jib & Beth Wilkinson

$1,000-$2,499

Emily Aaronson
Shelia Anderson
Anonymous
Vinoda Basnayake
Chris Bentley
Boston Teachers Union
Adam Branch

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
Cambridge Trust
City Realty Group
Colin Dangel
DTCC
Scott Emerman
Joel Feinberg
Fusion Alliance
Charles Gibson
Beth Gragg
Lisa Haley
Kelly & Ed Hardebeck
Mary Ellen & Gates Hawn
Ron & Megan Hovsepian
Bob Howard
John Snow Inc.
Andy Kall & Katie Woodling
Pramodh Koshy
Ramatchandiran Krishnaswamy
Joe & Karen Levy
James Low
Erin McGrath
Julianne & Kyle McHugh
Richard Middleton
Victor Milione
David & Mary Ellen Morse
Ken O’Hara
Eric Pinstein
P. Alexander Rolfe
Edwige Sacco
Ira Shaw
Jay & Lynda Shuman
Michaela Soctomah
Corin Sotiriadis
SquareWorks Consulting, LLC
Subbiah Subramanian
The COOP
Town Fair Tire Foundation

$500-$999

American Family Insurance Dreams Foundation
Anonymous
Heather Brack
Mark & Sheryl Bunker
Ellen Callahan
Janelle Clifford
Mark & Cynthia Coleman
Wilson D’Souza
Ashley & Matthew Damon
Bruce Daniel & Susan M. Dacey
Howard & Sheila Galligan
Brian Granetz
Nicole Green
Alan Greene

Stephen Hammer
Van Hawn
Jared Hendler
Matthew Jemal
Thiag Loganathan
Nick & Diane Lopardo
Susana B. Lopez & Douglas A. Levin
Nathan McConarty
Kalin McGowan
Julia Mejia
Dianne Moreno
Morgan Morgan
Reportable Inc.
Anthony Rizzo
David & Kristin Shapiro
Janet Smith Idzal & Joe Idzal
Cheryl Steinberg
Jessica Tang
The Well Coffee House Boston
Stephen Todd
Jordan & Mendie Welu
Tim & Allison West

With thanks to:

$1–$499 donors
2022 peer-to-peer fundraisers
Isabella Besecker Bequest Society donors

In addition to providing a meaningful commitment to our city’s public school students, BPIE’s Board of Directors offers critical guidance, ideas, financial support, and serves as ambassadors in the community.

*Note: the below list reflects current memberships of the BPIE Board.