THE
OSO
INITIATIVE
OUR
WORK
Redefining Education Through Community-Based
Innovation
THEORY OF CHANGE
1
Empower the
School Unit
The school unit is one of the primary levers for community development.
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Therefore, constructing a vision and agenda leveraging specific community assets yields increased innovation and collective action.
2
Align Systems
of Support
An asset-based analysis of communities reveals a broad array of untapped human capital and resources.
Therefore, training community leaders to design, fund, and sustain transformational learning environments can catalyze cultural and economic growth.
3
Bond granular and system growth.
Innovation and data-driven learning ecosystems can activate individual students and community leaders.
Therefore, we must cultivate learning communities that transcend outdated advocacy, learning, and philanthropy frameworks.
In collaboration with local nonprofits and Chicago educators, the New American Scholars Program [NAS] offers enrichment and after-school opportunities for newly arrived immigrants.
WHY THIS WORK IS SO IMPORTANT...
The Chicago humanitarian crisis
More than 36,000 migrants have landed in Chicago since August 2022. Most are asylum-seeking Venezuelans who fled violence, job and food shortages, and a collapsed healthcare system in their home country. They’ve traveled thousands of miles to reach the United States, only to find a precarious future.
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Achievement gap among language learners
Nationwide, 90% of fourth graders who are English language learners score below proficient in reading. By comparison: 64% of their English-fluent classmates do not achieve reading proficiency.
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Preparing Educators for the Future
Even though one out of every four children in the United States is an immigrant or the U.S.-born child of immigrants, many schools are ill-equipped to meet their needs. Immigrant youth frequently are learning two languages, an incredible asset but one that many schools have yet to learn to support effectively.
[Associate Professor Natasha Warikoo, Harvard Graduate School of Education]