Spartanburg Academic Movement

The history and a detailed description of sam's program accomplishments are available on the organization's website: www.learnwithsam.org. The Spartanburg Academic Movement (sam) is both a non-profit organization and a collaborative impact Movement to improve the economic mobility of Spartanburg county residents, anchored in Academic acheivement, cradle through career. Sam was formed in 2013, combining the work of the children's services alliance and the college hub to create the cradle through career perspective for community building and action. Sam works to ensure that children and youth reach Academic and life success by convening program and service delivery partners, aligning resources, and driving equity across achievement indicators. Sam specifically monitors Academic achievement indicators: kindergarten readiness, third grade reading, eighth grade math, college/career-ready high school graduation, postsecondary enrollment, and postsecondary persistence and completion. Sam published countywide achievement data, disaggregated by race/ethnicity, gender and socio-economic status indicators to drive equity. To date, sam has built collaborative action/collective impact partnerships with well over 150 program and service providers across the many sectors impacting children, youth, and families: academic/schools, healthcare, social services and supports, government and housing agencies. We engage these partners with one another and our data to implement action plans that respond directly to the needs of the children/families/communities we serve. We use the strivetogether (www.strivetogether.org) impact model and theory of action to guide the process. Sam offers training in continuous improvement practices through its wardlaw institute for continuous improvement, providing partners a data-driven approach for tracking impact and guiding future action planning. Sam also offers training through the center for resilient schools and communities by working with Spartanburg county families, schools, and communities to build supports and systems that increase children's success, particularly in neighborhoods where educational disparities exist.