“While older Californians are among the most educated groups of people in the world, Californians under 35 now rank near the bottom of other industrialized nations.” — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson in his Blueprint for Great Schools report.
Budget cuts have resulted in a shorter school year and the elimination of summer school in many districts. California has one of the shortest school years in the nation at 175 days. This is coupled with the fact that California also has one of the shortest school days in the nation at 6.5 hours.
This is simply not enough time spent on academic subjects for at-risk students to perform at grade level. A number of recent studies find that this correlation reflects a causal relationship.Around the world, incarceration and conviction rates continue to climb for society’s least educated. Some scholars estimate that just increasing high school graduation rates by one percentage point in 1990 would have resulted in nearly 100,000 fewer crimes in the U.S., providing an annual social benefit valued at more than $2 billion (or $3,000 per additional male graduate).
This is a large-scale problem that requires a large-scale solution.
THINK Together is that large-scale solution. We leverage private and public dollars to deliver the highest quality extended learning to our public schools. Our programs are aligned with what students are learning in the classroom and include academic, leadership development, health and wellness, and physical fitness components. They are efficient, scalable and are delivered in partnership with the public schools to maximize impact and effectively lengthen the school year by delivering hundreds of hours of additional instruction and producing tangible results.
Between 2002 and 2010 our partner schools’ Academic Performance Index (API) scores increased an AVERAGE of 24%. Join our family of supporters who see an investment in THINK Together as an opportunity to make a significant difference in the lives of California’s school-aged children.
