Congratulations to Our New Grantees

CME Group Foundation awarded $1,293,000 in new grants to Chicago Public Schools and nonprofits to support K-12 financial education, computer science, personalized learning, and STEM research and policy. These grants will be used for programs now and throughout the next two school years. Congratulations to the following:

Junior Achievement - $100,000 over two years to support the JA Whole School Program

Junior Achievement of Chicago (JA) was founded in 1940 and now operates in 12 Chicago-area counties. The Whole School program allows schools to have JA programs year after year, benefiting the students with sequential programming. JA of Chicago piloted the Whole School Program in 1993, starting with 16 schools, and other JA areas have adapted the program. Since its inception, the program has grown dramatically to 635 schools last year.

Children First Fund of the Chicago Public Schools Foundation - $100,000 over two years to support financial education programs

Junior In July 2018, CPS launched a Public-Private Partnership to increase equity, access and quality of financial education over the next five years. The first step has been to make Financial Literacy a graduation requirement. This platform will be a critical component in the district’s Financial Education Initiative as it will help CPS build a much-needed baseline and infrastructure to understand the status of financial education in schools, map equity, and continue ensuring quality and equity of all program offerings available to CPS students.

Kids First Chicago - $100,000 over two years to support System Innovation for World Class Education)

Junior Kids First Chicago has been at the forefront of transforming Chicago public education since 2004, initially through the incubation and expansion of new public-school models throughout the city. Support will fuel the systems-level innovations needed to guarantee that more PK-12 students have access to the kind of quality educational experiences they deserve. By deploying its unique combination of direct community and family engagement with policy and system-level change, Kids First Chicago seeks to dramatically increase the share of students in high-quality schools to 70% by 2025.

SAGA Innovations - $100,000 over two years to support expansion of blended tutoring

Junior Since 2015, Saga has served public school students in Chicago and New York City. Now, Washington D.C. CPS Chief Education Officer, LaTanya McDade, is working with Saga to create a five-year plan to scale its Blended Learning Model within the city.

Northwestern University Office of Community and Education Partnerships - $125,000 over two years to support out of school computer science opportunity analysis

Junior Chicago City of Learning (CCOL) is a mayoral initiative designed to connect youth to out-of-school learning opportunities by making them more visible. CCOL will sustain and expand its out of school computer science work with these funds.

Children First Fund of the Chicago Public Schools Foundation ($443,000 over three years to support Computer Science 4 All and after-school computer science clubs

Junior The mission of CS4All is to provide rigorous, engaging computer science to all students in CPS. CPS estimates that approximately 130-150 students will participate in the eight Intermediate Clubs and 150-200 students will be involved in the Engagement Clubs. The main impact from the Intermediate Clubs will be increase CS knowledge for students along with an increase in interest and engagement with CS. The Engagement Clubs will allow CPS to test a model for accelerating growth of CS programs at the elementary school level while also directly growing the pool of teachers trained in introductory programming curriculum.

After School Matters - $25,000 to support the Techworld Apprenticeship Program

Junior Founded in 1991, ASM was created to bring arts apprenticeship programming to hundreds of Chicago teens over the summer. Held at Farragut Career Academy High School in Chicago’s South Lawndale community, the Techworld program running over the Summer 2019 program session will introduce 15 high school teens to the field of information technology and robotics through an immersive and hands-on apprenticeship experience.

Chicago Pre-college Science & Engineering Program - $25,000 to support the Summer Enrichment STEM Program

Junior The Chicago Pre-College Science and Engineering Program (ChiS&E) started in January 2008. The ChiS&E mission is to increase the number of African American and Latino students who, though historically underrepresented, are motivated and academically prepared to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). All summer 2019 ChiS&E student participants will be facilitated by CPS Computer Science Teachers to explore computer architecture through active, hands on, project-based learning.

Code Nation - $25,000 to support the Foundations Coding Course

Junior Code Nation’s mission is to equip students in under-resourced high schools with the skills, experiences, and connections that together create access to careers in technology. The Foundations Course curriculum is an introduction to web development, including increasingly advanced skills in front-end coding languages HTML, CSS and JavaScript using a project-based approach.

Loyola University Chicago - $25,000 to support STEAHM

Junior Loyola University Chicago’s STEAHM is a pilot community initiative out of the Center for Textual Studies and Digital Humanities, in conjunction with the School of Education. The initiative responds to the gender gap in tech fields and STEM majors. STEAHM is invested in teaching computer science skills to 6-12th grade girls (an age group where interest in computing and STEM fields typically drops off for girls) primarily through the practice of teaching circles, peer-to-peer mentorship training, and Girls Who Code (GWC) chapters at Loyola and neighborhood public schools.

Museum of Science and Industry - $25,000 to support Fab YOUth

Junior Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) been a home for curiosity and innovation since doors first opened in 1933. The structure for the online education platform is based on a simple and recognizable system for demonstrating mastery, similar to a karate belt system, using color to acknowledge proficiency in a particular task or subject. For making, design or computer science programs developed by MSI within each level or ‘belt”, there are a variety of resources and teacher guides available to help teachers facilitate and manage their programs, and within the network of MSI trained alumni the opportunity to share resources and programs is available and is managed by MSI Fab Lab staff.

Project Exploration - $25,000 to support West Side STEM Learning Center

Junior Founded in 1999, Project Exploration (PE) uses STEM education to address challenges to equity, access, and opportunity in public education, higher education, and the professional STEM world. Chicago Public School students are engaged in hands-on experiences with real science and real scientists and provides critical leadership in the national conversation about out-of-school time STEM education. Incorporating PE’s Youth-Science Pathways framework, there are numerous on-ramps for students at the West Side STEM Learning Center to be exposed to computer science.

Project SYNCERE - $25,000 to support E-CADEMY Program: CS for Innovators

Junior Project SYNCERE is a youth service organization dedicated to preparing underrepresented students for careers in STEM. The primary outcome of E-CADEMY is to increase students’ proficiency in computer science.

STEMConnector - $50,000 over two years to support general operations

Junior STEMConnector is a professional services organization committed to increasing the number of STEM-ready workers in the global talent pool. The organization provides a platform to engage leaders in both public and private sectors who collectively are re-envisioning the workforce. Working with pioneering leaders across over 200 organizations, STEMConnector’s overall goal is to inform, stimulate and connect leaders with a passion for and vested interest in growing a STEM-ready workforce.

100Kin10 - $50,000 over two years to support general operations

Junior The mission of 100Kin10 is to train and retain 100,000 STEM teachers over a decade, through the creation of a national network of the nation’s top academic institutions, nonprofits, foundations, companies, and government agencies. To accomplish this ambitious goal, 100Kin10 developed an approach to social change called Networked Impact, which brings its partner organizations together to form a unified identity and work collaboratively to develop solutions to shared challenges. Partner organizations are on track to meet the full 100,000 STEM teacher goal by 2021.

Illinois Network of Charter Schools ($50,000 over two years to support Expanding STEM Programming in the Charter Sector

Junior INCS advocates for the improvement of public education by leveraging the charter school model as a catalyst to transform lives and communities. INCS will build a strong charter school community around STEM education, supporting charter schools as they strive to increase STEM programming in all grade levels and prepare students for the 21st century. The proposed convening series will gauge individual charter schools’ specific needs in implementing STEM programs, introduce them to resources that can assist with this process, and connect them with other charter schools who have a strong STEM focus.