RFP · Barr Foundation

A Call for Partners Committed to Students Off Track to Graduate

Overview
Timeline
Resources
Email Sign Up

Across the United States, approximately 2.6 million young people ages 16–24 are off track to graduate from high school.

The overarching goal of Barr’s Education program is to increase the number of youth who connect to secondary and post-secondary success. In this, we are committed to addressing the needs of all students.

Accordingly, one of our first endeavors under our Education strategies is a multi-year initiative to improve secondary outcomes for New England youth who are off track to graduate. We aim to support both existing and new models across the region that can serve as inspirational exemplars for the design and implementation of responsive, flexible, and student-centered schools, intentionally designed to support the needs of young people who are so often left behind by traditional schools. The success of these schools will provide critical insights into how best to meet the varied needs of all students, lessons that we believe will be applicable across the entire landscape of high school programming.

We know that students should be at the center of school design. And students are at the center of this initiative. As we embarked on this new work, we produced the short video below to ground us, and to inspire with the real life experience of students who are now connecting to success.

Massasoit Community College via Gateway to College

Request for Proposals

Planning and Design of Schools and Programs for Students who are Off Track to Graduate in New England

We are seeking proposals for innovative public high schools and programs across New England that are designed to support students who are off track to graduate.

In this first cycle, we anticipate supporting a cohort of up to eight grantees from across New England, who seek to seed or grow pioneering whole-school models that can effectively boost graduation rates and college readiness for students who have not found the support they need through traditional education models.

Download the RFP