www.jstart.org
Business Plan (2010 - 2014)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Jumpstart is working toward the day every child in America enters school prepared to succeed.
Founded in 1993 by four students at Yale University, Jumpstart has become one of the country's fastest growing and most successful nonprofit organizations; it has experienced 20% compound annual growth in the last 10 years alone. Since its inception, Jumpstart has recruited approximately 25,000 Jumpstart Corps members, who are the highly-trained college students and community members who work directly with children in Jumpstart’s program. Today Jumpstart operates 62 sites across the country, with major city offices in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San
Francisco, and Washington, D.C. This business plan is the result of more than one year of strategic planning with Jumpstart’s Board of Directors and Management Team. A leadership summit in March 2010 further refined the vision for this plan, which is the following: During the next four years, Jumpstart will directly serve a total of more than 50,000 children and engage 20,000 adults by deepening its presence in a total of 10 neighborhoods throughout Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Essentially, Jumpstart will double the total number of children directly served over the past 17 years in one-quarter of the time.
There is a need to take bold action and solve the early childhood education crisis in America, and Jumpstart is ready to act now to expand its high-quality supplemental early childhood education program to preschool children. Today, one out of three children enters school without the skills necessary to succeed in school, life and work.1 Over the next five years, nearly seven million children in the U.S. – or the equivalent population of Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma combined – will enter school unprepared and lagging behind their peers.2 About half of children in low-income
communities start first grade up to two years behind their peers, and poverty is the single best predictor that a child will fail academically. The ramifications of these failures have multigenerational effects and leads to the persistent achievement gap in American education, which already is
demonstrating deleterious consequences. For example, 20% of U.S. workers are functionally illiterate, and this reality affects America’s economic competitiveness and the availability of meaningful work nationwide.3
Without an intentional course correction during the preschool years, today’s young children will follow in the footsteps of the generation before them, suffering from high dropout rates in high school, low incomes, teenage pregnancies, health issues and even shorter life spans. These issues are linked to a lack of quality education beginning in their earliest years. Preventing these outcomes by providing a strong foundation early in life is far more cost-effective than intervening later.4
Jumpstart offers a proven, high-quality and cost-effective program that on average generates child gains in language and literacy skills of 29%. Jumpstart can help prevent the achievement gap before it begins if it acts now.
Resolving the school readiness crisis is a moral imperative of our time.
1 Landry, S. H. (2005). Effective Early Childhood Programs: Turning Knowledge Into Action. Houston, TX: University of Texas, Health Science Center at Houston.
2 As of 2000, there were 20,672,826 children under five in the United States. Marc J. Perry and Paul J. Mackun “Population Change and Distribution, Census 2000 Brief, 1990 to 2000.” U.S. Census Bureau, 2001.
3 James J. Heckman and Dimitriy Masterov. “The Productivity Argument for investing in Young Children.” Working Paper.
University of Chicago, 2004.
McKinsey & Company (April 2009). The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America’s Schools. Washington, D.C.
Jumpstart was founded on the conviction that all children deserve access to high-quality educational opportunities to realize their full potential, and the organization has been a leader in delivering high- quality supplemental early childhood education ever since. To serve more children, Jumpstart
implemented a new model that enables teams of Corps members to work directly with all children in a classroom. Jumpstart not only affects individual children but also the culture of an early learning center and the larger neighborhood, by inspiring a collective love of learning in children and of teaching in adults. Jumpstart believes this is the key to driving systemic change: first, demonstrate success in readying a large percentage of children for school by bringing high-quality resources into an impoverished neighborhood, and, second, leverage this proof to help educate the broader public about the importance of early childhood education in solving social ills. Jumpstart will leverage the strengths of its direct service model to serve more children, deepen community partnerships, and help alter the trajectory of opportunity for the children it serves, neighborhood by neighborhood.
This neighborhood-based growth plan intends to replicate Jumpstart’s School Readiness for All initiative in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, which combined Jumpstart’s low-cost, high impact early literacy program and strong university partnerships with various community and
government entities to realize transformational achievement. Jumpstart focused on Roxbury because it is arguably the most vulnerable and least-resourced Boston community; 40% of families with children have incomes below the federal poverty line, making it the poorest area in the city.5 Today, Jumpstart children in Roxbury show greater language and literacy gains than their peers, and the School Readiness for All initiative has grown to scale and expanded into three neighborhoods adjacent to Roxbury. The success of this initiative can be replicated because it focuses on delivering an effective, measureable program to a very high percentage of children in an impoverished neighborhood and developing deep, lasting collaborations with community partners to support to development of the whole child.
Jumpstart is unique in the early childhood education field. There is no other national organization like Jumpstart that creates equity in early childhood education by supplementing preschool learning with a researched-based curriculum delivered by highly-trained, caring adult volunteers. Using its proven success to help transform neighborhoods, Jumpstart has earned an expanding role in local public policy and brings attention to how a supplemental education program in under-resourced communities can help children achieve success in school. Jumpstart’s marketing and public relations efforts enable Jumpstart to communicate its results to the general public more frequently, helping to transform how people view the importance of early childhood education. Ultimately, Jumpstart’s work is about lasting systemic change so that every child enters school ready to learn.
Jumpstart can change a child’s life for just $7 per hour of service.
Jumpstart must invest $6 million over the next four years to develop the infrastructure, program operations and staffing capacity it needs to achieve economies of scale and meet the goals of this growth plan. Throughout the history of the organization, Jumpstart has proven to be a remarkably cost-efficient organization, and this new phase will be no different. From fiscal years 2001 through 2009, Jumpstart’s cost-per-child-served-hour decreased by 60%. By 2014, it will be lowered by another 20% to just $7. This equates to an investment $1,700 per child per year, which can be the difference between a child entering school prepared to succeed or not.
“A Summary of the Boston Indicators Report 2009.” The Boston Foundation, November 2009.
INDUSTRY AND MARKET ANALYSIS
There are insufficient resources dedicated to provide preschool-aged children living in poverty access to high-quality early childhood education programs. As a result, millions of children in the U.S. enter school every year without the skills they need to succeed. Many of these children are left behind academically and never catch up to their peers from more affluent families.6 Jumpstart’s direct service and community collaborations, however, help alter the trajectories of these children’s lives and put them on a path to success in school and in life.
Market Context and Need
The vast majority of children who fall behind, stay behind, and this trajectory starts before children even enter kindergarten. A 2002 study assessed 626 Head Start preschool children in the spring before entering kindergarten, again while in
kindergarten, and also from first through fourth grade. It found that language skills and code-related literacy skills were strongly related in the preschool years. It is no surprise that
development of these skills depended on earlier learning experiences:
• Preschool language ability accounted for about 90% of individual differences in children’s language ability in kindergarten.
• Kindergarten language ability accounted for 96% of differences in first and second grades.
• Grades 1-2 language ability accounted for 88% of differences in grades 3 and 4.7.
A separate study conducted by the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University shows that of 50 children having trouble learning to read in kindergarten, 44 of them (or an astonishing 88%) will continue to struggle in third grade.7
These challenges not only affect children and their families, but they also have consequences for society as a whole. Low academic achievement as early as fourth grade is a powerful predictor of lifetime earnings and even of future health and lifespan.8 Cecelia Rouse, professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, showed in a 2005 study that each high school drop-out costs the nation approximately $260,000 in taxpayer dollars over the course of their lifetime. By
comparison, a leading University of Chicago researcher and Nobel Laureate in economics wrote,
“Early interventions for disadvantaged children…raise the quality of the workforce, enhance the productivity of schools and reduce crime, teenage pregnancy, and welfare dependency. Focusing solely on earnings gains, returns to dollars invested are as high as 15-17%.”9 For many persistent societal ills and issues, the best solutions start at the beginning of each child’s life.
6 National Research Council, 2000; Community for Economic Development, 2004.
7 National Scientific Council, Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. “The Science of Early Childhood Development:
Closing the Gap Between What We Know and What We Do,” 2007.
8 McKinsey & Company. “The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America’s schools.” Washington, D.C., 2009;
“America’s Health Starts with Healthy Children: How Do States Compare?” Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2008.
James Heckman. “Working Paper No. 5.” Invest in Kids Working Group, 2004.
The future of any society depends on its ability to foster the education, health and well- being of the next generation.
Today’s children will become tomorrow’s citizens, workers, and parents. When we invest wisely in children and families, the next generation will pay that back through a lifetime of productivity and responsible citizenship. When we fail to provide children with what they need to build a strong
foundation for healthy and productive lives, we put our future prosperity and security at risk.
The Science of Early Childhood Development: Closing the Gap Between What We Know and What We Do, 2007 Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University
Current and Projected Demand
Neighborhoods across the country are looking for ways to provide high-quality education to their preschool-aged children. As Pre-K Now reports, “With the support of diverse groups of advocates, including business leaders and law enforcement officers, states have increased their investments in state pre-k programs by almost 37% since 2005, and enrollment has increased by about 28%.”10 Demand is high across the country, but because, by definition, low-income communities have fewer resources than higher-income communities, demand for quality services and programs is even greater. While almost 40% of fourth-graders in the U.S. read below grade level, in metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. that number jumps to more than 65%.11 To serve more children in the very near future, Jumpstart is actively growing in the cities where it already has infrastructure and strong relationships in place. By expanding programming and deepening strategic partnerships in targeted neighborhoods in these cities, Jumpstart can play its part in supporting the holistic development of children and improve the quality of early childhood education programs.
Jumpstart also meets another important and growing demand: the desire of college students and community members to serve their country. As one of the founding and largest part-time AmeriCorps programs, Jumpstart harnesses the talents and energy of college students and
community members in service to preschool children. Jumpstart also partners with universities to allow students to earn, if eligible, Federal Work-Study funds as well as AmeriCorps education awards. With the recent changes in the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, the Act now includes an increase in the number of positions for national service participants, from 75,000 this year to 250,000 by 2017. In addition, volunteers who are 55+ and serve a minimum number of hours now can earn education awards and transfer them to children, grandchildren or foster children. As Jumpstart looks to the future, there are many opportunities to meet the growing demand of national service participants.
Ecosystem Analysis
On the next page is a snapshot of the multi-layered ecosystem within which Jumpstart operates.
Children are the focal point of every decision Jumpstart makes. Each extending ring symbolizes the influential partnerships that impact Jumpstart’s work and, ultimately, the lives of the children Jumpstart serves. Examples of each type of partnership are listed below as well.
Many of Jumpstart’s key partners are federal, state and local government officials and entities, which is essential given this is important time for education, innovation, and national service. In addition to expanding opportunities for Americans to serve with AmeriCorps, the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act also created the Social Innovation Fund, a new funding opportunity for nonprofits and philanthropic organizations to leverage federal funding to scale innovative programs. Through efforts at the Corporation for National and Community Service and other federal agencies, along with the creation of the White House Office of Social Innovation, the federal government has laid new groundwork for consideration of results-driven organizations such as Jumpstart.
10 “The Pre-K Pinch: Early Education and the Middle Class.” Pre-K Now, 2008.
National Center for Education Statistics, 2002.
Federal Government
Local Organizations
Local Government
Neighborhoods Children and Families
State Government National and State
Organizations
Teachers and Classrooms Federal Government
Local Organizations
Local Government
Neighborhoods Children and Families
State Government National and State
Organizations
Teachers and Classrooms
Another timely opportunity for Jumpstart lies with the increased attention early childhood education is receiving. Innovation and early childhood education have become White House priorities for education as a whole, and with increased collaboration between the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, there is greater focus on high-quality early childhood education. These new opportunities, in addition to the upcoming reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, have encouraged many states and schools to create methods to improve access, quality, and outcomes for young children. Jumpstart must act now to help form the ways in which innovation and early childhood education can be practically and beneficially rolled into broader education reform.
By building relationships with members of Congress, White House staff and agency officials, Jumpstart has significantly increased its profile with policymakers. Such attention has helped Jumpstart obtain federal appropriations for specific projects in states such as California,
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Washington. Jumpstart also helped secure additional funding for community service through the Federal Work-Study program. Most recently, Jumpstart partnered with members of Congress to write into law, and then fund, a competitive grant
opportunity for higher education institutions to apply for additional Federal Work-Study funds to support off-campus community service projects, such as Jumpstart.
Jumpstart has experience working with local and state officials to better understand community needs, provide resources and help prepare young children for school. Ultimately, it is this success at a local level that is most critical to reaching the full potential of its mission because state and local government entities remain largely responsible for stewarding education, including high-quality early childhood education. To effectively reach a high percentage of children in targeted neighborhoods, Jumpstart focuses its efforts on building partnerships with preschools and universities, inspiring business and political decision-makers, and securing local and state funding.
MISSION, HISTORY AND THEORY OF CHANGE
Jumpstart’s mission is to work toward the day every child in America enters school prepared to succeed. Jumpstart has always been a leader in both early education and national service, building collaborations across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Since its founding Corps members served 15 at-risk preschool children at a local Head Start center near Yale University, Jumpstart has
been one of the country's fastest growing and most successful nonprofit organizations. In the last decade, Jumpstart has experienced 20 % compound annual growth. Today, Jumpstart invests in neighborhoods nationwide to address early childhood needs and is poised for greater impact by serving more children in more neighborhoods over the next four years.
Jumpstart’s innovative program is a model in efficiency. As the organization has grown, it has maintained high program quality and positive child outcomes. Jumpstart has consistently decreased the cost per child-served hour from $35 to $14, a
reduction of almost two-thirds in fewer than 10 years.
A recent article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review found that Jumpstart has reduced its programmatic costs by at least 6% annually, while simultaneously achieving substantial growth.12
This record of success has not gone unnoticed. Numerous organizations have recognized Jumpstart with awards that highlight its creative partnerships and effective programs:
• The Boston Business Journal named Jumpstart’s President James Cleveland one of the city’s top
“40 Under 40” (2009)
• Cause Marketing Forum’s Halo Award for its Read for the Record campaign (2007, 2009)
• Charity Navigator’s 4-Star Rating for effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal integrity (2006-2009)
• Bank of America's Neighborhood Builder Award (2007)
• Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Award for Campus-Community Collaboration (2007)
• Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy's Directors Award (2004)
• Fast Company/Monitor Social Capitalist Award (every year since its inception in 2004) Jumpstart’s success has drawn the attention of professors from Harvard Business School, as well, who wrote a case study on Jumpstart’s growth with quality and scaling practices (2001).
Jumpstart is a nimble organization that can increase significantly its scale and impact, which is critical because there remains an urgent need to solve the crisis in early childhood education.
Jumpstart partners with preschools, universities, and community leaders to combat this crisis and prevent a trajectory of failure for children living in poverty. Jumpstart accomplishes this by engaging children where they learn, focusing on language and literacy skills and building strong adult-child relationships. Jumpstart believes this model of results and collaboration is the most effective way to prepare children for success. Below is Jumpstart’s theory of change and its four core beliefs:
1. Every child has the potential to succeed.
2. Engaging children in the preschool years is the best way to set them on the path toward success in school and in life.
3. Bringing highly-trained, caring adults into preschool classrooms can materially alter the learning trajectories of those children.
4. Working in collaboration with neighborhood leaders and other service providers to bring resources to the children it serves allows Jumpstart to have greater impact, compared to working as a stand-alone supplemental program.
Neuhoff, Alex and Robert Searle. “More Bang for the Buck.” Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2008.
The program provides intensive services to young children at an extremely low cost. I believe the… intensive tutoring Jumpstart offers these children can help reduce developmental risk factors and prepare the children to enter school ready to learn.
Edward Zigler, Ph.D.
Yale University Professor and founder of Head Start
Social Value Proposition
Jumpstart creates social value by leveraging highly-trained, caring adults to help preschool children improve the language and literacy skills and socio-emotional development necessary to succeed in school. Jumpstart’s supplemental preschool education program prevents the achievement gap from forming before children even enter kindergarten, ultimately breaking the cycle of poverty, while also generating greater involvement in national service.
During the Ready Kids, Ready Schools symposium hosted by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation on March 31, 2009, Roger Sampson, President of the Education Commission of the States, articulated a similar version to the proof outlined below, which validates Jumpstart’s solution of working with preschool- aged children in their classrooms:
• Preschool-aged children without access to consistent, accessible, high-quality early childhood education are likely to fall behind academically and never catch up to their peers.
• Thirty-seven percent of children arrive at kindergarten without the skills necessary for lifetime learning.13
• The achievement gap opens, and veteran kindergarten teachers are able to determine, with 90
% accuracy, which of the five-year-olds in their classes will fail to graduate from high school.
13 Landry, S. H. “Effective Early Childhood Programs: Turning Knowledge Into Action.” Houston, TX: University of Texas, Health Science Center at Houston, 2005.
Goal Jumpstart can prevent a trajectory of failure and increase the likelihood of success for children by engaging them during their pre-school years and focusing on language and literacy skills and building relationships with caring adults.
Rationale
Core Beliefs
Activities Outputs
Problem Statement There is a crisis in early childhood education, and preschool-aged children growing up in impoverished neighborhoods in the U.S. are not receiving sufficient language and literacy support to enter kindergarten ready to succeed in school and in life.
Resources
Mid-term Outcomes
Jumpstart will bring resources to 50,000 children by 2014 saturating neighborhoods with Jumpstart’s program. By serving a large percentage of children in one area, Jumpstart will prove its ability to prepare children for success in kindergarten and beyond, resulting in deeper relationships with policy and funding influencers.
External Factors In fluctuating economic and political climates, there is diminished confidence in the consistency of public funding. While the risk of losing AmeriCorps funding altogether is somewhat offset by Jumpstart’s long-lasting relationship with the Corporation, private funds still must be raised to ensure fiscal sustainability.
Long-term Outcomes
Jumpstart will help transform communities across the nation and ensure that every child in America enters school prepared to succeed.
Short-term Outcomes
Jumpstart will serve children in low- income neighborhoods in 10 target neighborhoods in five cities and improve their language and literacy skills by bringing highly-trained, caring adults into their preschool classrooms. By demonstrating gains for children, Jumpstart will gain credibility at local levels and partnerships with universities and preschools will grow.
• All children have the potential to succeed, and it needs to be unlocked in the early years of life.
• Caring adults contribute to a child’s love of learning and the self confidence in children that supports learning.
• There are children who need additional support and resources during preschool to ensure equal opportunity for long-term success.
By injecting preschool learning with caring adults and a research-based curriculum to improve language/ literacy skills, children will be better prepared to succeed.
• Adults who serve children using a unique researched-based curriculum
• University partners that house and support local program staff
• National corporate partnerships
• Fundraising at local and national levels from public and private sources
• Staff and external partners who conduct program evaluation, longitudinal studies and academic research
• Partnerships with local and federal government representatives
• Deliver intensive service training for Corps members and staff
• Engage full classrooms of children with targeted language and literacy curriculum (20-24 kids)
• Utilize a less than 1:3 adult to child ratio, which is excellent for small group learning
• Train and retain staff with strong operations, infrastructure and financial management practices
• Corps member support teachers by assisting with various in-classroom projects
• Influence local and national leaders by educating them about the importance of early childhood education
• # hours of children served in Jumpstart’s program
• # hours of intensive training per Corps member per year
• % of Corps members satisfied with their service at Jumpstart
• Sustainable fundraising and financial management
• # media hits during key awareness campaigns
• Quality of relationships with program partners and early childhood education advocates at the local, state and federal level
• Evaluation results
• % of staff who see Jumpstart is as an employer of choice
Goal Jumpstart can prevent a trajectory of failure and increase the likelihood of success for children by engaging them during their pre-school years and focusing on language and literacy skills and building relationships with caring adults.
Rationale
Core Beliefs
Activities Outputs
Problem Statement There is a crisis in early childhood education, and preschool-aged children growing up in impoverished neighborhoods in the U.S. are not receiving sufficient language and literacy support to enter kindergarten ready to succeed in school and in life.
Resources
Mid-term Outcomes
Jumpstart will bring resources to 50,000 children by 2014 saturating neighborhoods with Jumpstart’s program. By serving a large percentage of children in one area, Jumpstart will prove its ability to prepare children for success in kindergarten and beyond, resulting in deeper relationships with policy and funding influencers.
External Factors In fluctuating economic and political climates, there is diminished confidence in the consistency of public funding. While the risk of losing AmeriCorps funding altogether is somewhat offset by Jumpstart’s long-lasting relationship with the Corporation, private funds still must be raised to ensure fiscal sustainability.
Long-term Outcomes
Jumpstart will help transform communities across the nation and ensure that every child in America enters school prepared to succeed.
Short-term Outcomes
Jumpstart will serve children in low- income neighborhoods in 10 target neighborhoods in five cities and improve their language and literacy skills by bringing highly-trained, caring adults into their preschool classrooms. By demonstrating gains for children, Jumpstart will gain credibility at local levels and partnerships with universities and preschools will grow.
• All children have the potential to succeed, and it needs to be unlocked in the early years of life.
• Caring adults contribute to a child’s love of learning and the self confidence in children that supports learning.
• There are children who need additional support and resources during preschool to ensure equal opportunity for long-term success.
By injecting preschool learning with caring adults and a research-based curriculum to improve language/ literacy skills, children will be better prepared to succeed.
• Adults who serve children using a unique researched-based curriculum
• University partners that house and support local program staff
• National corporate partnerships
• Fundraising at local and national levels from public and private sources
• Staff and external partners who conduct program evaluation, longitudinal studies and academic research
• Partnerships with local and federal government representatives
• Deliver intensive service training for Corps members and staff
• Engage full classrooms of children with targeted language and literacy curriculum (20-24 kids)
• Utilize a less than 1:3 adult to child ratio, which is excellent for small group learning
• Train and retain staff with strong operations, infrastructure and financial management practices
• Corps member support teachers by assisting with various in-classroom projects
• Influence local and national leaders by educating them about the importance of early childhood education
• # hours of children served in Jumpstart’s program
• # hours of intensive training per Corps member per year
• % of Corps members satisfied with their service at Jumpstart
• Sustainable fundraising and financial management
• # media hits during key awareness campaigns
• Quality of relationships with program partners and early childhood education advocates at the local, state and federal level
• Evaluation results
• % of staff who see Jumpstart is as an employer of choice
• These young children are effectively segregated as soon as they enter elementary school because they cannot participate on equal footing with peers.
• While 37% of all fourth-graders read below grade level, that figure jumps to 66% among economically disadvantaged fourth-graders; of those, only 5% will bridge the gap to read at the same level as their more economically-privileged peers.
• Struggling students “tracked” at a young age experience lowered expectations; become frustrated by failures they believe are their own fault, and ultimately choose paths that direct them away from school and toward dropping out.
• Nationally, only 68% of students graduate high school; of those, 66% either require remediation in college or cannot function at the college level.
• Without a high school diploma, and thus no secondary or advanced degrees, students have limited job opportunities and achieve minimal incomes as adults – ultimately restarting the cycle of poverty for a new generation of children.
This stark reality that children from impoverished communities most often under-perform in school is not a problem for individual children or families but rather a persistent systemic issue to be solved. The American public must first believe that this disparity is in fact a crisis, commit to solving it by making high-quality early childhood education accessible to all children, and advocate at all levels of government to increase support for early education programs. Furthermore, where high- quality early education programming is available, service providers must measure and demonstrate the positive impact of early childhood education on changing the lives of young children.
Jumpstart’s record is part of these demonstrations of success.
Jumpstart believes that its role in driving systemic change is two-fold. First, it must continue delivering successful direct service programs in early learning centers, reinforcing its credibility and catalyzing growth and replication. Second, Jumpstart must continue to allocate resources for educating policy makers and the general public on the importance of early childhood education as a core component of education policy, demonstrate its success as an innovator in education for young children, and seek additional support to fund growth. The eventual sum of education, replication, collaboration, advocacy, and funding will lead to the day every child in America enters school prepared to succeed. Jumpstart’s vision for social impact is included as Appendix A.
To remain focused on generating this social value, Jumpstart engages in the following activities and measures the associated outputs:
Activity Output
Train and deploy teams of five to eight Corps members to preschool classrooms to implement Jumpstart’s research-based curriculum, develop meaningful adult-child relationships, and ensure improvements in each child’s school readiness
• # Corps members
• # of children served in session
• % student gains
Saturate neighborhoods by serving a large percentage of children in one geographic area
• Increase in # of Corps members engaged
• Increase in # children served
• Increase in # of preschool classrooms served Evaluate results and continue to improve
programming while communicating impact
• # media hits/stories about Jumpstart
• # of academic and longitudinal studies
underway, e.g., Boston has launched a
longitudinal study with Boston Public Schools Leverage success to participate in collaborative
community-based initiatives that support public education and policy efforts around the
importance of early childhood education and national service14
• # Corps member alumni, volunteers, and in- kind donors engaged with Jumpstart
• # events like Jumpstart’s annual Read for the Record Campaign, a global public awareness effort around the importance of early literacy
• Participate in kindergarten transition projects
• Showcase Jumpstart’s initiatives and success with local, state and national policy makers Ensure sustainable sources of revenue and
strong financial management practices
• Increase in private dollars raised
• Strength of traditional financial metrics
• Ensure continued success in management of current and pursuit of new government funding streams
CURRENT OPERATING MODEL
At the local level, teams of Jumpstart Corps members work with preschool children in their classrooms for a full school year, and Corps members commit to an average of 300 service hours.
Corps members are trained on proven, research-based curriculum and techniques that improve preschool children’s language and literacy and socio-emotional development – the same things researchers have found to be critical for school and life success: “Young children become more engaged and learn better when the curriculum is not skimming lightly over a great many areas but instead allows for sustained time with a more select set. When learning is meaningful, integrated, and in-depth, it is also more likely to stick.”15 As a supplemental program, Jumpstart designs its
curriculum in a sequential, intentional way to make the most out of the time Jumpstart has with preschool children. Jumpstart’s curriculum focuses on six critical skills within three domains:
Language and Literacy Domain Skills
Books and Print Knowledge Alphabet Knowledge
Meaning and Use of Print
Phonological Awareness Phonemic Awareness
Rhyme Awareness
Oral Language Vocabulary
Comprehension
Delivery of the curriculum is based on four key principles: (1) utilizing developmentally appropriate practices, (2) engaging children in active learning, (3) striking a balance of adult-initiated and child-
14 Please note that until Jumpstart have effectively developed and saturated a neighborhood, 95% of its resources will focus on deepening its presence and building relationships with community partners. The remaining 5% will be allocated to the other
community efforts to support children. As Jumpstart’s presence expands, this capacity split may shift, but its primary focus will always remain on deepening impact through direct service.
Copple and Bredekamp, 2006.
initiated learning, and (4) supporting children's emergent reading and writing. These provide a road map through which to maximize gains for children and build strong adult-child relationships.
A significant reason why Jumpstart is ready to scale now is because it has the tools in place to ramp up quickly and with quality. A robust national network, which includes major city offices across the country, supports site-level program operations and quality assurance. To drive performance and consistency across sites, Jumpstart documents all of its best practices, tools, and resources in its Site Management Binder, which is updated annually by national Education and Program staff. This online resource library offers guides and tools for planning, training Corps members, implementing sessions, and developing strong and sustainable partnerships with local preschools.
Core Elements and Success Factors
The core elements of Jumpstart’s model include a philosophical foundation in developmentally- appropriate practices, a belief that the family is the child’s first and most important teacher, and a respect for preschool programs and the role that teachers play in children’s lives. The primary focus of the model is to develop children’s language and literacy skills and provide ongoing opportunities to support social-emotional development.
The Jumpstart session is the centerpiece of Jumpstart’s model. Each team of Corps members conducts sessions twice per week, for two hours each. Sessions provide children with a balance of individual and group learning, quiet and
active learning, and child and adult- initiated learning. Every session is based on a different developmentally-
appropriate children’s storybook, and all session elements draw from the book to continually reinforce the goals of the curriculum. Throughout the session, Corps members engage children in meaningful conversations that develop children’s range of expression,
vocabulary, reading comprehension, book knowledge, initiative, and
invaluable social skills that are necessary to succeed not only in school but throughout a child’s life. Please see
Appendix B for an example of a Jumpstart session.
The following outlines how each session flows from one activity to another:
• Welcome. Children understand the elements of the Jumpstart session and what comes next.
• Reading. Corps members and children read a pre-selected storybook together.
• Circle Time. Children and Corps members sing songs, recite poems, and play word games.
• Introduction to Center Time Activities. Children learn the activities list for the afternoon.
• Center Time/Let’s Find Out About It. Children choose from the activities, and a subgroup participate in “Let’s Find Out About It” to investigate a topic related to the storybook.
• Sharing and Goodbye. With the whole group, children talk about their favorite Center Time activities. Children learn about upcoming session plans and sing a goodbye song.
JUMPSTART’S FORMULA FOR SCHOOL READINESS
Throughout the school year Corps members may serve an additional two to four hours per week in a preschool classroom with Jumpstart children during the regular school day. This time is used to observe and support children and provide general teacher assistance.
Corps member training is another core element to Jumpstart’s success. Jumpstart ensures that all Corps members receive the tools and training they need to deliver a high-quality program with strong child outcomes. Corps members receive up to a total of 60 hours of intensive training and coaching before and during their service.
Finally, active and intentional collaboration is essential for Jumpstart to succeed. In every
neighborhood it serves, Jumpstart partners with local preschools, Head Start centers, colleges, and universities. This business plan, which focuses on replicating its neighborhood-based School Readiness for All initiative, will be successful because Jumpstart is experienced in collaborating across sectors. Jumpstart leverages core programmatic relationships to open doors with other nonprofit organizations, early childhood education coalitions and local government, among others.
In Boston, for example, Jumpstart partners with Read Boston and Coats for Kids to provide books and coats to local children and their families. Jumpstart is truly a collaborative and community-based program. From ensuring that Jumpstart can meet community-defined educational outcomes to providing a means through which adults can volunteer and give back to their community, Jumpstart offers a real and working solution to the school readiness crisis in America.
Evidence of Results
Child Impact. For more than a decade, Jumpstart has evaluated the impact it has had on young children in the program. Jumpstart has tracked consistent student gains each year, with as much as 29% gains in language and literacy skills and socio-emotional development. These gains have remained consistent over the years – and have even grown – as Jumpstart expanded its services to more children in more communities, as shown on the graphs below. Statistically significant differences in individual skill areas over time provide evidence of the specific areas Jumpstart is having the greatest effect for children. Based on
a multi-year analysis of children in Jumpstart’s program, Jumpstart participants have made significantly greater gains than comparison children in the following skill areas for three years in a row:
• Demonstrating knowledge about books
• Using vocabulary
• Using complex patterns of speech
• Beginning writing
• Initiating play
• Relating to adults
As one Jumpstart parent acknowledges, the gains have a clear and immediate impact on a child and his or her family: “Jumpstart Corps members have impacted my family by making reading a lot more fun, while at the same time stressing family involvement. I enjoy seeing the look on Adam’s face when it’s Jumpstart day. This excitement motivates me to plan weekend activities and home projects for us to explore together.”
In addition to Jumpstart’s annual evaluation, there is a growing body of external evidence in support of the program. Such independent studies are exciting, and they are only a beginning:
• A randomized, experimental study conducted from 1999-2003 found positive impacts on children's language, literacy, and social outcomes during their Jumpstart participation in Head Start that lasted beyond their Jumpstart year. Jumpstart children had significant gains on story and print concepts, letter and word identification, as well as other language and literacy skills – all critical for school readiness.16
• A quasi-experimental study conducted by Jumpstart staff members found enhanced outcomes for Jumpstart children working with Corps members enrolled in Service Learning
coursework.17
• A team of researchers at Illinois State conducted an experimental study of 62 four-year-olds enrolled in childcare or preschool programs in Illinois in 2008-09. There were almost no differences between Jumpstart participants and comparison children at the
beginning of the year on a range of school readiness, early language, and literacy measures. At the end of the school year, Jumpstart children exceeded comparison children in gains in school readiness and literacy skills. Effect sizes (which measure the strength, or size, of these group differences) were medium to large, indicating
impressive growth in program-targeted outcomes. On average, Jumpstart children showed fall-to-spring gains that were two to three times larger than the gains of same-classroom comparison children. This rigorously designed, small-scale study suggests that the mix of Jumpstart's focused, intensive model and well-articulated, research-based early literacy curriculum is highly successful in achieving its targeted end-of-year goals of improving the literacy skills and overall school readiness of children in low-income communities.
• Jumpstart is currently partnering with Boston Public Schools staff in conducting a longitudinal analysis of its largest program (in Boston) to identify longer-term gains of participating
children.
Volunteer Impact. Although helping young children is at the heart of its work, Jumpstart also impacts the lives of adult volunteers. Jumpstart has shown that, with energy and expert training, anyone can change the trajectory of a child’s life; as children thrive, Corps members see the lasting
16 “2000-2003 Follow-up Study of Jumpstart Children.” Daniel-Echols, M. & Xiang, Z. (2003). Ypsilanti, MI: High/Scope Educational Research Foundation.
17 “Jumpstart's Service Learning Initiative: Enhanced Outcomes for At-Risk Children.” Elson, D., Johns, L. & Petrie, J.T. (2007). In Shelly Billings (Ed.), From Passion to Objectivity: International and Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Service Learning Research. Information Age Publishing, pp. 65-87.
impact they can have on others. One college student Corps member described his experience this way: “Without Jumpstart, I would never have found my true calling. I am proud to put on a Jumpstart shirt and be a part of something amazing.” For retired, senior, and community-based Corps members, Jumpstart can be a new beginning. One Corps member, a grandmother, said,
“Through Jumpstart, I discovered my strengths and career in the remaining senior years. Thank you.
I realize my life is not over – it’s only just begun.” Results from Corps member surveys conducted three times every year have shown the following:18
• College students are inspired to change majors to education or a related field (over 30%)
• 97% of volunteers report that Jumpstart gives them skills and knowledge to improve their communities
• Over 98% feel an increase in personal responsibility to their communities through Jumpstart
• 75% of college students believe that Jumpstart has helped improve their academic performance
• 100% non-college student Corps members rate their experience as “good” or “excellent”19 Furthermore, some college student receive service-learning experience that increases knowledge of early childhood best practices, leadership skills, awareness of issues facing their community, and confidence levels in speaking to groups, over non-service learning students.20 Other Corps members report having increased their professional teaching skills and learning about best practices in
education.21 Finally, officials at Jumpstart’s university partners have found that Jumpstart improves minority college student retention by helping to provide a supportive service and community experience, while strengthening student connections to the school.22
Community Impact. Communities are best positioned to identify its own needs, and Jumpstart works closely with community leaders to support efforts already in motion. Jumpstart is currently working to find ways to effectively gauge this type of impact, from family involvement to external community service. There is, however, a sense of positive effect simply from the support provided to early learning centers. Surveys given twice a year to teachers and center directors demonstrate how well collaborations with Jumpstart work.23 Teachers rate Jumpstart on a scale of 1 to 4, with a score of 3.5-4 meeting expectations.24 Jumpstart has found that, on average, teachers:
• rate Jumpstart teams 3.7 for enhancing the preschool’s current educational services;
• rate Jumpstart teams 3.7 for Corps member interactions and communications with preschool teachers/staff; and
• give Jumpstart almost a 4.0 for Site Manager communication with center teachers and staff.
18 Data compiled from Jumpstart matched college student Corps member surveys, 2008-2009
19 “Topline Report of Jumpstart Community Corps,” by Marylander Marketing Research, February 2008.
20 Testing Tutor Training Effectiveness: Jumpstart at Fresno State. Lukianov, A. (2007). In Bowley, E. (Ed.) Earn, Learn, and Serve:
Getting the Most from Community Service Federal Work-Study. Campus Compact.
21 College Students’ Beliefs about Preschooler’s Literacy Development Adler, M.A., & Trepanier-Street. (2007). “College students’
beliefs about preschooler’s literacy development: results from a national study of Jumpstart.” Early Childhood Research and Practice, 9 (2).
22 For example, Wheelock College’s Dean of First Year Students found through the college’s data that students who participated in Jumpstart had higher GPAs and higher retention rates. Wheelock believes the reasons for the results were because students had an intense and deeply supported full year experience that gave them immediate personal and professional relationships on campus. A common and shared experience among students allowed for a greater understanding of professors of the service work the members were completing as well as a social network with common ground.
23 Jumpstart does not collect the kind of robust data for preschool impact as it does for child outcomes. The information collected, however, is a useful resource to help gauge preschool satisfaction with their Jumpstart collaboration.
24 This data reflects centers participating in Jumpstart’s Full-Classroom Model, where every child in the class receives Jumpstart’s program. Starting in fall 2010, nearly all Jumpstart sites will be using this model.
Please see the Evaluation and Knowledge Management plan on page 23 for more information about external evaluation plans.
ORGANIZATION, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT Organizational Structure and Governance
Jumpstart has created economies of scale by supporting programming through an infrastructure with site, city, and national resources dedicated to ensuring program quality and fiscal sustainability. This structure provides support across the network and reduces duplication of efforts. The national office coordinates strategic planning, evaluations, financial management, supply management, training, and curriculum design. City offices are each led by an Executive Director, who ensures that Jumpstart’s mission, values, and expectations of quality in programming and fundraising are sustained locally.
Executive Directors manage their city’s budgets and contracts, and city staff provides ongoing technical assistance and training to sites. Program Directors oversee Site Managers, and Site Managers work closely with Campus Champions, who are faculty or staff members that advocates for Jumpstart within the university community.
Jumpstart is overseen by a governing national Board of Directors, members of which are experts in the fields of education, business, and the communities where Jumpstart serves. Together these individuals are responsible for driving Jumpstart’s strategic planning, operations, and growth. The Board approves annual operational priorities and monitors fiscal performance, reaching agreement with the President on necessary corrective actions. Standing committees carry out detailed governing work of the Board and review the President’s performance. Currently, the following committees are in place:
• Executive. Advises Jumpstart's President regularly to oversee the direction and performance of the organization through active, strategic leadership.
• Governance. Manages the effective health of the board by developing and maintaining board expectations and bylaws, standards for board membership and nomination processes,
assessments on board strengths and needs, and regional and national board connections.
• Development. Informs Jumpstart’s development strategy, ensures short- and long-term fundraising metrics are met, and inspires board’s participation in Jumpstart’s fundraising.
• Finance. Oversees financial matters including the annual audit procedure and handle specific human resources issues such as compensation and benefits packages.
• Program. Provides support on curriculum development, early childhood expertise, Corps member growth, alumni relations, community leadership, higher education cultivation and stewardship, and national program credibility.
To ensure that Jumpstart has the financial resources required to carry out its mission and implement operational plans effectively and efficiently, Board members are expected to do the following:
• Participate in fundraising by providing key donor contacts and assisting in securing funds
• Give an annual gift that would place Jumpstart among their top three philanthropic recipients
• Commit to a significant give/get pledge in each fiscal year during their tenure on the Board, which is currently set at $100,000
At a local level, each city-based Executive Director is responsible for cultivating and leveraging a Local Advisory Board. These non-governing boards concentrate on a strategic area of focus with the overarching goals to expand and improve Jumpstart's financial sustainability and program quality.
Please see Appendix C for a full list of the members of the National Board of Directors and Local Advisory Boards.
Current Size and Reach
Jumpstart has a national footprint that includes 62 sites in 15 states and the District of Columbia.
Jumpstart currently engages 3,500 Corps members in direct service to 6,000 children in nearly 300 early learning centers. Please see the Appendix D for a map of Jumpstart’s current locations.
Management Team
President, James Cleveland and Chief Operating Officer, Paul Leech lead Jumpstart’s Management Team, comprising the organization’s leaders – three Vice Presidents, five Executive Directors, and three veteran Senior Directors – all of whom assume responsibility for Jumpstart’s performance, operations, and effectiveness. The Management Team meets weekly to review progress toward operational and strategic goals. It draws from leadership across Jumpstart’s network, bringing together different geographic and professional perspectives to discuss goals and long-term strategy.
Because of this breadth, input from across Jumpstart’s network is ensured, providing a platform for deliberation, decision making, and consistent communication to staff and Corps members.
The Management Team promotes institutional memory and provides continuity in the absence of any one leader, even during times of crisis. Jumpstart has a thoughtful succession plan in place for organizational leadership and will maintain stability and accountability throughout any transition. If the President, for example, were to leave his position unexpectedly, interim leadership would fall to the Chief Operating Officer, and the national Board would devise a long-term solution. During such a time, the Management Team would continue providing support to the organization, as usual, and the Board would provide increased support to the Chief Operating Officer. Replacement candidates would be solicited from external sources, as well as from the pool of current employees, given the organization’s commitment to professional development and staff advancement. Currently, the President, Board and Human Resources team are updating succession plans to detail transition for all leadership positions. Please see Appendix E for an overview of Jumpstart’s Management Team and a copy of the organizational chart.
SCALING PLAN To serve a total of 50,000 children by 2014, Jumpstart will replicate School Readiness for All initiatives in 10 key neighborhoods throughout five target cities: Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. This approach has proven itself effective in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston during the past five years. This plan links successful in-classroom success with broad community engagement so that Jumpstart can unlock doors to new, increasingly sustainable sources of influence and funding. As funding increases, Jumpstart will have more resources to implement programs, communicate its impact to the broader public, and
advocate for improvements in early childhood education.
School Readiness for All:
How It Works
• Develop partnerships with higher education institutions to drive growth
• Develop partnerships with early education centers
• Continue growing the number of children served annually who achieve significant student gains
• Cultivate strong relationships with community leaders and ensure they are informed and involved in the Initiative
• Broadly communicate impact to help evolve public understanding of this crisis
• Rigorously evaluate the efficacy of the overall Initiative, ensuring increased effectiveness and efficiency
Strategy
Jumpstart’s growth strategy for the next four years focuses on three seemingly simple things: (1) serve more children (2) by continuously deepening community relationships and (3) raise more local funds to ultimately serve more children and raise awareness of the importance of high-quality early childhood education. This nuanced interdependence between social impact and locally-driven fiscal sustainability, however, are essential to the success of this strategy, as shown below:
1. Open more Jumpstart programs within existing cities where there are large underserved populations preschool children living in poverty.
2. With more programs, increase the number of Corps members.
3. With more Corps members, increase the number of classrooms served.
4. With more classrooms, increase the number of children being directly impacted by Jumpstart.
5. With more impact, increase awareness of the important role Jumpstart plays in each neighborhood.
6. With more awareness, strengthen each community’s investment in high-quality early education resources and programs.
7. With more investment, create demand for additional Jumpstart programs and gain credibility in local and national politics.
8. With more demand, move into and serve new markets and replicate the growth process.
As an organization with a history of rapid growth while maintaining consistently strong results, Jumpstart is confident in its ability to develop relationships necessary to enter new neighborhoods, open new sites, and deliver its program with positive results.
Target Neighborhoods
Jumpstart has selected the target cities within which it intends to grow based on the following:
• Large population of preschool-aged children living in poverty
• Limited access to high-quality early childhood education programs
• Presence of local champions and private funders
• Presence of early childhood education-friendly school districts, nonprofits, or initiatives
• Presence of public funding and support for early childhood education
Neighborhoods will be equally assessed in order to set Jumpstart up for success. Local Executive Directors will select which neighborhoods to target for growth in their city, and in all instances, these will be communities with some of the highest levels of poverty in the area. During the next four years, Jumpstart’s Executive Directors will select where to grow from the following list:
• Boston: Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Dorchester, South Boston, Mattapan
• San Francisco: Bayview, Visitacion Valley
Oakland: Lower San Antonio, Fruitvale
East Palo Alto: Ravenswood School District
• New York City: Lower East Side
• Los Angeles: Boyle Heights, Huntington Park, South Gate
• Washington, D.C.: Ward 7, Ward 8
Please see Appendix F for more information on the Roxbury initiative.
Target Beneficiaries
It is clear that Jumpstart works with a variety of stakeholders, ranging from individual children to members of the Federal government. Its primary beneficiaries, however, are the children directly served in Jumpstart sessions and the Corps members who work with them.
Before entering Jumpstart’s program, preschool children are not prepared to enter kindergarten and achieve personal and academic success. They live in predominantly low-income communities that do not benefit from the high-quality early education services available to more affluent families, and they are part of the half of low-income children who enter first grade already lagging two years behind their middle-income peers.25 Jumpstart levels the playing field for these children by giving them the tools and opportunity to catch up academically, preventing the achievement gap from opening in the first place. Across the network, the racial and ethnic demographics of the
preschoolers with whom we work are as follows: 43% African American or Black, 30% Hispanic or Latino, 13% White, 9% Asian, 4% bi- or multi-racial, and 2% other.
College students make up the overwhelming majority of Jumpstart’s Corps, and Jumpstart leverages Federal Work- Study and AmeriCorps funding to recruit college students who commit up to 300 hours of service. This is no small commitment for a college student, and yet Jumpstart recruitment is so successful that the organization must turn away a significant percentage of interested college students, allowing Jumpstart to thoughtfully choose the most qualified applicants. Corps member demographics vary. In 2010, Corps members are between 18- and 23-years-old. Forty-one percent are White, 26% are Black or African American, 20%
are Hispanic or Latino, 12% are Asian and 11% are multi- racial or other.26 Twenty-five percent major in human services
(psychology, nursing, social work, or sociology), 11% in science, and 10% in business.
Jumpstart is proud to have begun engaging a new population of community members who serve as Corps members. This group, referred to as Jumpstart’s Community Corps, are generally long-term residents of the neighborhoods in which they choose to serve. In Boston, Community Corps members’ ages range from 46 to over 70, with 48% between 60 and 69. Seventy-one percent of volunteers have some college education or less, and 80% are retired. Ninety-one percent are women, and 45% make under $25,000 per year. This opportunity for people to serve their communities and create wonderful, caring, cross-generational relationships broadens the possibilities for community- wide influence and allows for greater impact on children’s families and home environments.
Jumpstart recognizes that other constituents, such as policy makers, donors, and leaders of
nonprofit organizations, are also customers of its work. The organization allocates internal resources in its Government Relations and Development departments to steward these relationships.
25 “The Foundations for High Quality Pre-kindergarten: What All Children Need.” Trust for Early Education, 2004.
26 These demographics are based on Jumpstart’s Fall 2009 Corps member survey; 85% percent of respondents answered the questions about race and ethnicity.
Last week my partner child wrote her full name out for the first time. In college, I have read books by
philosophers, artists, and political theorists. In three years, no words have been more powerful than those of my 4-year-old friend. Thank you for the opportunity to work for something and with someone I believe in.
2006 Corps Member
