Breakthrough Miami

Describe the product or program that is the focus of your proposed LEAP project.

Miami’s Opportunity Generator. Breakthrough Miami uses a unique “students-teaching-students” model to create a rigorous, vibrant learning community, where highly motivated, traditionally underrepresented 5th-12th grade students are supported to achieve post-secondary success and emerging leaders are inspired to become the next generation of educators and advocates. Positioned as an opportunity generator in our community for 30 years, Breakthrough Miami is closing the opportunity gap, generating social mobility, nurturing self-actualization and promoting an inclusive and engaged community. Why Breakthrough? In Miami, more than half of all families with children live at or below 150% of the poverty level (The Annie E Casey Fund, KIDS COUNT). This poverty level percentage is concerning given research indicating students from low-income, minority and under-resourced environments are at a critical academic and social disadvantage due to inequitable in-school and out-of-school-time (OST) learning opportunities. The disparity in academic achievement for low-income and under-represented students is well-documented and persistent in K-12 data. In 2019, National Assessment of Educational Process data showed only 13% of Black 4th graders reached proficiency in reading, and 21% in math, compared to 46% proficiency in reading and 55% in math among White students. While the 5-year graduation rate for Miami Dade County Public Schools shows an upward trend, nearly 20% of Black, 15% of Latino, and 15% of low-income students do not graduate from high school (FDOE, 2019). Research evidence indicates gaps in opportunity relating to learning time beyond the classroom to be highly dependent on family socio-economic status (McCombs et al., 2017). Higher-income families spend seven times more on enriching activities than lower-income families (Duncan & Murnane, 2011). This disparity is likely to produce compounding effects, as many enrichment activities help develop critical skills, beliefs, and behaviors associated with college readiness (Richmond & Sibthorp, 2019). Additionally, skill loss that occurs during the summer (summer slide) is more prevalent in lower-resourced communities, and its effect is cumulative, resulting in wider gaps as time goes on (Quinn and Polikoff, 2017). Miami Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) reports summer slide is the most critical factor in the achievement gap (Blazer, 2011). As the COVID-19 crisis continues, low-income and minority communities are disproportionately affected, compounding pre-existing disparities and creating new ones. The Breakthrough Effect. In an effort to improve the academic achievement and college graduation rates of low-income and traditionally underrepresented students in Miami, Breakthrough Miami prepares and 17-24 year olds serving as Teaching Fellows to lead academic instruction and mentorship for 5th-9th grade students in our academic Summer Institute, and 24 Success Coaches to provide academic advising and mentorship in our academic year programming for 5th-12th graders and recent high school graduates. Through a combination of out-of-school learning time and individualized advising support, Breakthrough Miami targets course planning/enrollment, academic achievement, and college-ready milestone completion for low-income students. Breakthrough Miami’s eight-year, tuition-free year-round programming addresses the opportunity gap by providing interventions to support students in accessing rigorous courses and learning environments, deep out-of-school time (OST) learning, academic advising, and socio-emotional development to help students meet distinct developmental needs at each grade level. Breakthrough Miami’s work is informed by research that shows academic OST programs can demonstrably improve academic outcomes, linked to progress in reading and math performance and non-cognitive outcomes such as teamwork, self-efficacy, and social responsibility (McCombs et al., 2017; Siddiqui et al., 2019). Breakthrough Miami’s success is rooted in our students-teaching-students model. Aligned with education research, which shows that near-peer mentoring improves skills and cultivates interests for mentees, while simultaneously furthering the training and development of the mentors (DuBois and Karcher, 2014; Wilson and Grigorian, 2018), our model engages outstanding older students as teachers and near-peer mentors. Recruited in the 4th grade, Breakthrough Scholars begin the program in the summer before 5th grade and are served through graduation from high school and then welcomed to our Alumni Network. Scholars are offered:: ● Year-round academic programming utilizing a near-peer model and experiential learning approach in a 6-week Summer Institute and school-year Saturday programs. ● Enrichment, character and leadership development to broaden their experiences, build self-efficacy, problem solving, interpersonal skills, and promote engaged citizenship. ● School options guidance and academic advising uniquely supports families in navigating school choice to ensure Scholars are enrolled in rigorous programs and schools that align with their interests, talents and aspirations. ● College access and readiness for rising 9th-12th graders, hosted at the University of Miami, focusing on competencies for post-secondary life including advanced academic support, test prep, financial aid assistance. ● Signature student-teaching-students model employs older students as teachers, mentors and role models in a Fellowship that has been named a Top Ten service learning experience by The Princeton Review. ● College Transition Support and Professional Networking offered through the Breakthrough Miami Alumni Network Our Population. Breakthrough Miami programming annually impacts: ● 1,300 Breakthrough Scholars: high-potential rising 5th through 12th graders who participate in our six-week Summer Institute and school year programs ● 130 Teaching Fellows: outstanding high school seniors and college students who participate in a highly competitive, 8-week summer fellowship ● 400 Volunteers: high school students (including current Breakthrough Scholars), Breakthrough alumni, and local residents/professionals who serve as teachers, coaches, mentors and program assistants Scholar acceptance is based on a competitive application and interview process, in which we identify students striving for educational opportunities who meet at least two of the following five risk factors associated with failure to enter/complete college. Approximately 80% of Breakthrough Scholars meet three or more of these risk factors: ● Ethnic/racial minorities (96% of our students) ● Family income qualifies for free/reduced lunch (86%) ● First generation in their families to attend college in the U.S. (53%) ● Single-parent household (47%) ● Primary language other than English (53%) Approximately 95% of Breakthrough Miami Scholars attend Miami Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS), the nation's fourth largest school district.

Select the key characteristics of your target population. Select all that apply.

• Primary school children (ages 5-12)
• Youth and adolescents (ages 12-24)
• Urban
• Poor
• Low-Income
• Minorities & Previously Excluded Populations

How have you worked with affected communities to design your solution?

For thirty years Breakthrough Miami has been positioned as an opportunity generator, bridging diverse communities to address educational inequities. We engage diverse neighborhoods, our youth, Scholar families, and host school communities, in nearly all aspects of our program planning, execution and analysis. Breakthrough Miami has enduring partnerships with over 100 Title 1 schools where we directly recruit fourth graders in historic and emerging BIPOC neighborhoods of Liberty City, Overtown, North Miami, Homestead, Florida City, Perrine, Goulds, West Coconut Grove among others. Principals, counselors, teachers, existing Scholar families, and community-based organizations are positioned as partners in recruiting and identifying our incoming class of Scholars. We nurture these relationships by providing a variety of services throughout the school year to community partners, including workshops, supply and food distributions, and recognition opportunities, As a student-centric organization, youth voice and choice is embedded deeply into our program model. Our Teaching Fellows, Volunteers and Scholars are actively consulted, involved in planning and take on leadership roles during activities and projects. Involving our young leaders in this way empowers and motivates them, heightens interest and engagement and sets the stage for lasting learning. Breakthrough Scholar families are passionate about the value of our unparalleled programming, the wrap-around advising and community of peers. Centering the Scholar and Scholar family voice throughout our work, Breakthrough Miami recently created a Board Position to be held by a current Scholar caregiver, to further position the voice of our families at the core of our decision-making and planning. Caregivers support recruiting by encouraging friends, co-workers, church members and neighbors to consider Breakthrough for their children. Notably, we deeply understand the importance of representation. Over 96% of our students are racial/ethnic minorities and specifically (and consistently) well over 50% Black. Against the backdrop of a national education force that is 80% white, nearly 80% of our full-time staff identify as people of color including executive leadership. Committed to diversifying the next generation of educators, nearly 50% of our Teaching Fellows are Black and over 90% are racial/ethnic minorities.

What is your theory of change?

Breakthrough Miami’s Theory of Change asserts that if students have access to out-of-school learning, peer mentorship and academic advising then they will: access learning environments that match their interests, improve academic and social skills, increase educational attainment, and establish meaningful career pathways.

How are you currently using evidence within your theory of change?

Breakthrough Miami currently achieves a preliminary level of evidence (Level two), based on three main components: A) Breakthrough Miami program evaluations conducted by evaluators from the University of Miami and the published impact evaluation of the Breakthrough Central Texas affiliate; B) education research focused on out-of-school time (OST) learning and educational attainment; and C) Breakthrough Miami internal documentation of student achievement supporting the program model. A) Since 2012, Breakthrough Miami has participated in 4 outcomes-focused external evaluations conducted by evaluators at UM. The 2012 evaluation included pre- and post-tests of select academic and psycho-social skills, analysis of school district data, and key informant interviews. The evaluations focused on self-esteem, leadership skills, motivation, enrollment in college or post-secondary education, academic skills, grade point average, challenging course work, and ACT/SAT completion. Official MDCPS student transcripts and attendance and conduct records were also included in the data set. Overall results indicate: significant summer learning gains in language arts, history and math skills; and positive correlations between academic and psychosocial variables such as math and leadership, and solely psychosocial variables such as racial and ethnic socialization and self-efficacy. An external impact evaluation conducted with the Breakthrough affiliate in Central Texas, which evaluated students receiving the Breakthrough interventions compared to a group of their public school peers who did not receive the intervention, demonstrated significant differences in the following areas: fewer absences, fewer disciplinary referrals, higher grades, more likely to take advanced math classes, five times more likely to take the SAT, and were more likely to say they would graduate high school. Each of these areas are predictors of high school graduation, college enrollment and later college success. B) Education research focused on OST learning and educational attainment further supports the Breakthrough Miami model: (1) Summer learning programs have the potential to reduce the academic achievement gap between students from low-income and higher-income households (Lauer, et al., 2006; Augustine, et al., 2016); (2) Near-peer mentors with whom mentees can identify with positively impact mentee self-efficacy and academic achievement (DuBois and Karcher, 2014; Wilson and Grigorian, 2018); (3) The longer students are involved in academic OST programs, the greater their academic improvement (McCombs, et al., 2011); (4) Interventions designed to increase college going and degree achievement are most effective when started before high school, as student academic achievement by 8th grade is a greater predictor of college success than high school success alone (ACT, 2008); (5) Participation in any type of pre-college program doubles the odds of enrollment in a 4-year college (Pell Institute, 2015); (6) Social emotional learning impacts executive functioning, which is associated with academic achievement, improved career-decision making and career self-efficacy and (Lemberger et al., 2018; Jemini-Gashi et. al., 2019). (7) Postsecondary education is associated with numerous benefits such as increased income, higher satisfaction with one’s job, improved health, and more engagement in civic activities including voting and volunteerism (Le, Mariano & Faxon-Mills, 2015). C) Internal program documentation, compiled by Breakthrough Miami provides ongoing evidence in support of the BTM model: (1) For the last 10 years of graduating seniors, 100% graduated on time from high school, and 97% enrolled in college, with 91% selecting four-year institutions, 25 Scholars received Posse or Gates Millennium awards during the past eight years; (2) 97% of Scholars took the ACT or SAT, and 100% completed the FAFSA; (3) Academic data from the last 10 years consistently demonstrates, 82% of 11th grade students took two or more advanced classes, 75% of 10th grade students had GPAs of 3.0 or higher, 65% of 9th graders took Geometry of Algebra II, and 73% of 8th graders took Algebra I or Geometry. Breakthrough Miami is now in the tenth year of reliably tracking persistence and 6-year degree attainment: (1) The average immediate enrollment in four-year institutions by Scholars exceeded 85%, compared with 60% of all students nationally, regardless of socio-economic background; (2) More than 80% of Breakthrough Miami alumni with the opportunity to persist to the second year of college are doing so, as compared with 70% of college students nationwide, and 52% of Pell Grant recipients; (3) Our six-year graduation rate of 60% is on par with national averages for all students, regardless of socio-economic background.

How are you currently tracking and measuring your solution’s impact?

We collect and follow long-term data and evidence to assess the efficacy and impact of the Breakthrough Miami model: Academic Progress ● 6th and 7th Grade GPA ● 8th Grade - enrollment in advanced math and science courses ● 9th Grade - enrollment in advanced math and science courses ● 10th Grade - GPA above a 3.0 ● 11th Grade - enrollment in two or more advanced courses ● 12th Grade - FAFSA completion, college applications, college entrance exam completion, high school graduation, enrollment in post-secondary (2-year and 4-year), scholarship attainment Scholar Programming ● Summer learning gains ● Social Emotional Wellness and leadership gains ● Scholar and Family surveys ● Teaching Fellow and Volunteer surveys Additionally, Breakthrough Miami is currently executing a program outcome evaluation led by external researchers, QQ Research team. The evaluation will assess the program effectiveness by examining the impact of the school year and summer learning interventions on short- and mid-term outcomes among students in grades 7 and 8. By focusing on these grades, the evaluation will examine program effectiveness during the critical years leading up to the transition into high school. A quasi-experimental control group design (QED) will be conducted comparing the outcomes of 7th and 8th grade students who participated in the Breakthrough Miami program (treatment group) with the outcomes of selected control students enrolled in the same year, in the same grades, and in the same school. The evaluation focuses on school academic performance (e.g., report card grades, grade point average), student achievement (e.g., standardized test scores), attendance rates, behavior, and advanced course enrollment rates. The evaluation also examines the extent to which advising interventions led by Breakthrough Miami resulted in enrollment at school matriculation programs that were aligned with student interest. The evaluation model allows for the use of informed, data-driven decision-making to assess program performance and effectiveness through the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods, that will produce evidence of promise. The process evaluation component explores implementation fidelity and serve as a tool for continuous program improvement.

One-line project summary:

We seek the expertise of a LEAP Fellow to support us in leveraging and aligning our program evaluation -- which takes our level of evidence from level two to level three -- to inform, support and advance our five-year goals to significantly scale our impact.

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Growth

Pitch your LEAP project: How and where would integrating evidence (or stronger evidence) into your theory of change increase your organization’s impact?

Breakthrough Miami stands at an inflection point in our organizational history. Over the past thirty years we have evolved and refined our students-teaching-students model to positively impact students’ academic and social achievement and leadership development. This past year we reached a historic milestone, receiving allocation in the State of Florida budget to forge our pathway towards expansion. Embarking on this new decade of breakthroughs, we are preparing for a strategic planning process to guide our articulation of vision, goals and a roadmap to our future to make more breakthroughs possible for more students in more communities. Our program evaluation, a process started two years ago, will serve as a critical pillar in informing our strategic plan. The current evaluation of Breakthrough Miami’s program is addressing process and outcome evaluation questions noted below. We seek the expertise of a LEAP Fellow to work closely with Q-Q Research (external evaluation partner) to help us deepen, leverage and align our program evaluation, taking our level of evidence from level two to level three, to inform, support and advance our five year goals to significantly scale our impact. Outcome Evaluation Questions: 1. Did students participating in the Breakthrough Miami program demonstrate significantly better academic performance as measured by report card grades and GPA than comparison students? 2. Did students participating in the Breakthrough Miami program perform significantly better on state assessments of English/language arts, mathematics and science than comparison students? 3. Did students participating in the Breakthrough Miami program demonstrate significantly better attendance rates than comparison students? 4. Did students participating in the Breakthrough Miami program demonstrate significantly better school behavior than comparison students as measured by fewer disciplinary referrals? 5. To what extent did the Breakthrough Miami program result in students enrolling in advanced placement courses? 6. Did students participating in the Breakthrough Miami program demonstrate significantly higher grades in advanced placement courses than comparison students? Process Evaluation Questions: 7. To what extent were Breakthrough Miami program activities and services implemented with fidelity? 8. To what extent did the professional development build the capacity of Teaching Fellows to deliver rigorous curriculum preparing students for their next grade? 9. To what extent did the professional development build the capacity of Success Coaches to deliver advising services to maximize students’ in-school opportunities and acceleration, and support OST academic and social enrichment during the school year? 10. To what extent were student participants and parents satisfied with the Breakthrough Miami program? Two types of performance measures have been developed and will address the above stated evaluation questions: outcome measures and process measures. Outcome measures focus on the effectiveness of Breakthrough Miami and its short- to mid-term outcomes as delineated in the logic model. Process measures focus on Breakthrough Miami operations, implementation, and service delivery. To address research questions 1-6, a quasi-experimental control group design (QED) will be conducted comparing the outcomes of 7th and 8th grade students who participated in the Breakthrough Miami program (treatment group) with the outcomes of selected control students enrolled in the same year, in the same grades, and in the same school. For each sample, baseline data used for matching will come from the 2021-2022 school year, when the samples are in the 6th and 7th grade respectively. Data will be drawn from the 2022-2023 school year to determine how program participation influenced outcomes of interest. Evaluation Outcomes of Interest Research evidence indicates that the program activities, namely academic support, academic advising, and mentoring are related to the outcomes of interest. For example, research indicates that academic OST programs can demonstrably improve academic outcomes, linked to progress in reading and math performance and non-cognitive outcomes such as teamwork, self-efficacy and social responsibility (McCombs et al; 2017; Siddiqui et al. 2019). Furthermore, research which shows that summer learning programs have the potential to reduce the academic achievement gap between students from low-income and higher-income households (Lauer, et al., 2006; Augustine, et al., 2016). Given the above-mentioned research literature, the evaluation of Breakthrough Miami, and correlating support from LEAP Fellows, will provide an important body of evidence to support strategic goals, including increased funding, program fidelity measures, and models for replication and scale.