Going for the Gold: Secrets of Successful Schools
A strong school design isn’t enough to drive student graduation and college acceptance rates. Achieving desired results requires "sweating the details" while executing the design's most important elements.

Reclaiming the American Dream
What kinds of supports make the greatest difference in helping low-income youth prepare for and enroll in college? To find answers, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation engaged the Bridgespan Group to analyze data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study. The results: Academic preparation is the most effective way to help students graduate from high school and be successful in college, but it isn't the only factor. This article explores the elements and their varying effects and proposes an action agenda to achieving the goal of "Reclaiming the American Dream."

Case Studies
Aspire Public Schools: Building the Organizational Capacity for Healthy Growth
Two years into an aggressive expansion plan, the leaders of Aspire Public Schools found themselves overtaxed and concerned about maintaining quality outcomes. Follow their efforts to strengthen their organization so that it could meet both the immediate and longer-term demands of growth.

Aspire Public Schools: From 10 Schools to 6-Million Kids
By its fifth anniversary, Aspire was operating 10 schools in the Central Valley and Bay Area of California. But its founder, Don Shalvey, and his colleagues wanted to do more: They wanted to transform education for all kids in the state. To do this, Aspire’s leadership established a plan, developed a strategy to build cooperative relationships with school districts, set a target for the number of Aspire schools needed to catalyze change, and determined the organizational structure and school model required to deliver on the strategy in a financially sustainable way.

Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools: Achieving Strategic Clarity
Of all the things the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools (BayCES) could be doing to raise student achievement, which ones should it do? To navigate the possibilities, BayCES needed to get clear about what the organization was trying to achieve and how its leadership envisioned it happening. A strategic exercise helped them develop clarity and guide their future growth, while remaining sensitive to their many stakeholders and aware of the dynamic nature of the school-reform environment.

Communities in Schools: Propelling a National Network to the Next Level
By 2004 Communities in Schools (CIS) was serving nearly one million children annually around the country, but it was also struggling to coordinate the efforts of its diverse affiliates. At the same time, CIS president Bill Milliken, his management team, and the organization's board had a vision of creating permanent institutional change and transforming communities. Achieving their full potential required a business plan for the entire network.

Expeditionary Learning Schools/Outward Bound: Staying True to Mission
After just six years in operation, Expeditionary Learning Schools/Outward Bound was hailed by Congress as a national model for teaching. By Spring 2004, the organization had contracts with 126 schools with almost 40,000 students attending ELS schools. Its success caught the attention of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which made a $12.6 million grant to expand the program to small high schools in needy areas. To do this, ELS needed to develop a business plan that could guide growth while continuing to improve its overall program.

National Academy Foundation: Reinforcing Core Programs
When the National Academy Foundation (NAF) opened its first academy in 1982, school reformers were just beginning to realize that transforming the U.S. educational system would require change not only at the individual school level but also at the district level. NAF seemed poised to play a role in this transformation, but new data showed that many of their academies were falling short of the organization’s goals. This realization prompted NAF’s leadership to set some clear priorities to strengthen the organization's core while establishing district-wide reform as a viable option in the future.

The Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans: Focusing for Impact
By 2005 the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans (AAMA) was providing services to more than 30,000 individuals annually through nearly 30 different programs. Its extensive program portfolio served clients of all ages and of many ethnic and racial groups in five Texas cities. All signs were pointing to growth, but the specific path the organization should take was not apparent. To chart a course, AAMA’s leaders got crystal clear about the people they most wanted to serve and the benefits they wanted to help create for these individuals.

YES Prep Public Schools: Honing the Pathways of Growth
Founded in 1995, Houston-based Project Youth Engaged in Service (YES) pursues a comprehensive approach to helping students with limited resources achieve the dream of a college education. YES’ leadership initially kept the organization small, wanting to prove that the organization's educational model worked before expanding. But by 2004, YES was ready to grow, but it faced multiple pathways for doing so. Developing a growth plan helped YES' leaders define success for their organization and guided its path for growth.

Interviews
John Tarvin, CMA: An Opportunity to Take on a Broader Role
John Tarvin moved from the private sector to nonprofits early in his career. From his vantage point as senior vice president of Jumpstart, he strongly recommends the nonprofit sector for managers who like to take on multiple roles.

Profiles
From the report Growth of Youth-Serving Organizations
(All articles are in PDF format)

From the article How Nonprofits Get Really Big
(Note: These profiles share the challenges organizations faced and the actions they took to help them fund their growth strategies. All articles are in PDF format.)

Reports
Replicating High-Performing Public Schools: Lessons from the Field
Bridgespan has had the privilege of working with a number of school developers who are tackling the challenges of replication. This set of short papers highlights some of the practical lessons learned about how high-performing schools can replicate their models without sacrificing quality outcomes, all while staying within funding constraints.