Irene Morgan Schools

High quality, full service micro schools for kids who have been incarcerated

1. The Problem

Mass incarceration is a pressing social problem. Not only is the US outstanding in terms of the percentage of our population incarcerated, but the racial disparity in charging, persecution and sentencing has resulted in the mass disenfranchisement of Black people. Michelle Alexander wasn't wrong when she called mass incarceration the new Jim Crow in it's capacity to and practices that strip people of their fundamental rights (voting, access to financial aid and employment, housing subsidies, college and certain careers, etc). 

The A side of the problem, is that we put too many people in jails and prisons and strip them of their ability to transform their lives. 

The B side is that we do this to children. We setup a generation of Black and Brown children to fail. It's cruel and inhumane. Not only do schools send children towards a future of incarceration and disenfranchisement via the school to prison pipeline, but most schools are ill equipped to help students rebuild and transform, work on their social and emotional growth, expunge their records and fight back against the system of mass incarceration.

2. The Solution

Irene Morgan Schools are the A side solution to this problem. IM Schools are micro schools specifically designed to meet the needs and highlight the talents of 30-50 students who have been incarcerated. Each student gets an individualized learning plan, individualized instruction, individualized social and emotional learning, individualized therapy, and individualized legal advocacy along with collective entrepreneurship training. 

Our classes aren't just different, they're better. Students learn in research supported multi modal, hyper engaging lessons and have significant team work time each day so that students can learn to monitor their own learning and that of their peers. Everything from our classroom design to our curriculum is engaging and transformative (no teachers in front of the class for us, teachers WITH and in the class). 

Additionally, we don't suspend students. We work one on one with students and their families to help them do better. IM Schools are small so that we can make restorative plans when students make harmful choices. The goal isn't to make perfect people, the goal is to make students who are brilliant committed learners, both academically and in terms of their social and emotional health. 

3. The Change

We know we've done our work well when we partner with juvenile courts and become the alternative to incarceration that keeps 100% of students from future involvement in the courts and 100% expungement of student records. We can and will help students wipe their slate clean and gain back the franchise. 

We can't erase this country's history of chattel slavery, Jim Crow and mass incarceration. We can, however, remove some of the harm caused by mass incarceration and return the franchise to those children who have had it stripped away. This is a world changing result, not just for our children, but also for the impact they will have on others. 

Most schools put kids into the school to prison pipeline, our schools are explicitly designed to pull kids out.

Each of our students have Individualized Learning Plans which they use to track all of their goals, restorative plans and daily learning. We couldn't do our innovative work without this technological integration. 

In 2019 we launch our summer schools and in 2020 we launch our year round schools we plan to operate as true alternatives to incarceration. 

Here's our 5 year plan (so glad you asked :))

1. Build 6 micro schools  with 100% high school graduation, 70% college graduation rates and no students returning to the system of mass incarceration

2. Funding bail for 60  Black youth per year

3. Build an entrepreneur pipeline that results in 10 successful ventures launched by former students

4. Engage in impact litigation that reduces the amount of children incarcerated in our target communities through:

   1. Increased accountability and scrutiny for DAs

   2. Increased accountability for and scrutiny Police

   3. Increased accountability for and scrutiny Juvenile Detention Centers

We'll deploy our ILP system in all of our schools! 

The IM Schools approach has been in use for 2 years with more than 100 formerly gang involved youth in Latin America. None of these students returned to gangs or to jail. 

In 12 months we will be serving: 160 students

In 3 years: 360 students 

Collectively IM Schools team has more than 20 years of insider knowledge about schools, school funding and government partnerships. Additionally, each of us have separately and successfully funded ventures. We've spent years cultivating powerful and influential donors and as such were able to launch with several impactful major gifts. 

Here is our funding plan:

School Side:

-Grants
-Individual Giving
-Trainings for Other Schools

Cafe Side:
-Social Entrepreneurship
-Venture Funding

Government Side:
-Per pupil (as alternative to incarceration)

Solve, to put it in urban vernacular, builds networks of genius, dope, brilliant innovators. We have to be on your team so we can do the right thing for our students. 

A key barrier to our work is both our own technological integration and prioritizing to ensure our students and teachers have access to the best edtech resources available.