US Charities involved in K-12 Education: Organizations that did not advance past Round 1

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These organizations applied for a grant GiveWell offered in 2007 under the category Cause 4: K-12 Education, but did not advance past our Round 1 screen, which aimed at finding charities with strong self-documentation (based on our principle of focusing on already-proven programs). Note that unlike other evaluators, we put a lot of investigation into the organizations we find most promising, and de-prioritize others based on limited information. The following write-up should be viewed in this context: it explains why we determined that we wouldn't be prioritizing the organizations in question as potential grant recipients. This write-up should not be taken as a "negative rating" of these charities. Rather, it is our attempt to be as transparent as possible about the process by which we came to our top recommendations. For more on our process see our How We Identify Top Charities page.

Specifics of why organizations did not advance

We used the following principles in conducting our Round 1 screen of Cause 4: K-12 Education:

  1. Focus on data reflecting academic performance, such as graduation rates, college enrollment rates, attendance, grade promotion, and test scores. While data like this is very far from perfect in indicating how well children are learning and what is happening in terms of their life opportunities, we feel that if a charity's activities are indeed leading to improved academic ability and understanding (especially math and reading), this should be reflected in improved performance on hard measures, as well as other benefits.
  2. We are looking for an organization that can strongly demonstrate its impact. We have not seen strong evidence linking factors such as self-esteem to academic performance, and so while improving children's self-esteem may be valuable, we are not convinced that it is a way to help close the achievement gap. Similarly, we do not believe that survey data showing self-reported attitude change is convincing evidence of improved academic abilities and performance.
  3. Look not just for improvement, but for improvement above and beyond what might be expected without the organization's help. It isn't enough to see that test scores improved over some time period; NYC test scores have improved citywide over time, and this could be due to a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with nonprofit interventions. To us, evidence that a program worked means evidence that the participants outperformed some comparable "comparison group."
  4. Look carefully for selection bias. We believe that child and family motivation are extremely important in education. Many studies using a "comparison group" are comparing voluntary participants in a program to non-participants, and the differences they pick up could therefore be driven by differences in motivation. The strongest organizations we reviewed showed or referred us to evidence that is at least attempting to assess the impact of their program above and beyond a tendency to attract more motivated students; some accomplished this through randomization, others by selecting their clients in a way that seems unlikely to involve selection bias; others by comparing changes in test scores between their populations and "control groups" (this method is more problematic than using randomized design, but less so than simply looking at whether their students outperform others).
  5. Require evidence that a program has worked before. Some applicants submitted extremely rigorous, methodologically strong studies showing practically no difference between their participants and a control group. We believe that this sort of self-evaluation and documentation is valuable, but we are looking for proven, effective, scalable ways of helping people, not just strong research techniques.
    (As a note, no afterschool/summer programs demonstrated improved academic outcomes either for their own program or for a very similar one, and we haven't encountered any independent evidence that afterschool/summer programs in general (whether academically or recreationally focused) have consistent impact on academic performance.)

It's possible that these organizations have the information we want, and didn't send it due to misinterpretations of our application, time constraints, or other reasons. But due to time constraints of our own, we opted to focus on the applicants who seemed most promising.

Organizations that applied for funding under Cause 4: K-12 Education.

A Better Chance Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

All Stars Project Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

  • Note - this organization requested that all materials remain confidential

Armory Foundation

Materials submitted in 2007

Childrens Arts & Sciences Workshop Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

Church Avenue Merchants Block Association Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

Classroom Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

Computers For Youth Foundation Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

Directions For Our Youth Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

East Harlem Tutorial Program Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

Educational Alliance Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

Every Person Influences Children (EPIC)

Materials submitted in 2007

  • Every Person Influences Children (EPIC). Clear Fund Round 1 (2007) (DOC).
  • Note - other materials were sent but are available in hard copy only

Exodus School

Materials submitted in 2007

  • Application materials unavailable

Future Leaders Institute

Materials submitted in 2007

Girl Scout Council of Greater New York

Materials submitted in 2007

Global Kids Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

Groundwork Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

Harlem Link Charter School

Materials submitted in 2007

Harlem RBI

Materials submitted in 2007

HELP USA, Inc. Affiliates

Materials submitted in 2007

National Council Of Young Men's Christian Associations of the USA

Materials submitted in 2007

New York SCORES

Materials submitted in 2007

Partnership For After School Education Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

Partnership With Children Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

Prep For Prep

Materials submitted in 2007

Publicolor Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

Sponsors For Educational Opportunity Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

Summer on the Hill

Materials submitted in 2007

Teaching Matters Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

The Teachers Network

Materials submitted in 2007

  • Note - materials are withheld due to confidentiality request

Turning Point Housing Development Fund Corporation

Materials submitted in 2007

Urban Education Exchange

Materials submitted in 2007

Vannguard Urban Improvement Assn Inc

Materials submitted in 2007

  • Note - application available only in hard copy