Breakthrough Houston

In 2022-2023, Breakthrough Houston served 800 students and 100 teaching fellows across its four programs. BTH is an affiliate of the national Breakthrough Collaborative that serves a network of 25 affiliates by providing program standards and resources, including: curricula, evaluation tools, and Teaching Fellow recruitment. For our 2022-2023 overall program student profile, 98% are students of color, 88% qualify for Free and Reduced Lunch, and 77% will be first generation college students. For our Teaching Fellow profile, 78% identify as teachers of color, 63% receive financial aid, and 53% are first generation college students. Continued on Schedule O(Continued) Summer Program: BTH hosts a summer program for middle school students. We deliver a six week summer experience that supports 7th-9th graders for full day learning opportunities. This summer program also supports college students who serve as Teaching Fellows and over a 9.5-week program. The first two weeks are their training, and the last half week is for evaluations. The summer 2023 program served 380 7th-9th grade students from Houston-area schools with sessions in math, science, ELAR, social science, and a host of elective opportunities and 100 Teaching Fellows. In the summer students averaged 4+ months of growth in math and reading over the 6-week program.

College Bound Program: BTH continues support for 9th-12th graders. The year-round College Bound program provides resources, training, and support for BTH high school students to ensure they are prepared for admittance into financially friendly colleges and universities and have the social and emotional tools and self advocacy to thrive. Established in 2008, this program offers an academic component including tutoring and entrance exam prep, a college and career exploration component to ensure students know what they want to do and where they are best positioned to get access to the academics needed to achieve that in financially friendly ways, and a social-emotional component that offers mentoring and leadership development. Continued on Schedule OSome of the specific support for students includes career and college counseling, resume-buildinging activities including summer internships, financial aid and scholarship application support; and college essay writing support. With that, 92% of the class of 2023 enrolled into a four-year college and have generated an average of $37,000 per student in financial aid.

School Year Program: Following up on our summer program, we deliver a school year program (SYP) consisting of 11 Saturday sessions centered on Project-Based Learning (PBL) in English Language Arts and Math/Science as well as high school options support for students and families. These sessions are run by our staff as well as instructional coaches and a site coordinator and leverages high school student teachers who are given ongoing support and development. Our goal is to continue students' academic development and excitement for learning as well as continue to foster the relationships students build with their Breakthrough cohort from the summer. We also provide tutoring to students whose school grades fall below an 80% average.

College Completion: Established in 2019, BTH supports its students through college graduation with specific programming. BTH supports students through multiple 1:1 and group touch points both in person and virtually each semester and focuses on three areas of support: financial, academic, and social-emotional, either directly or through connecting students with resources at their university. As BTH has grown, it has launched an emergency fund for financial emergencies and is working on a "near peer" mentoring program that will launch in 2024. We are excited to report that of our original cohort of students, 73% have now earned their degree.