In an effort to improve national graduation rates, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation granted $9.9 million to Boston area organizations last Wednesday, as part of a larger $31 million national grant to assist in the creation or improvement of alternative high schools across the nation.
The Commonwealth Corporation’s Center for Youth Development and Education received $4.5 million to improve or transform five schools and to create 10 new alternative high schools, according to Ephraim Weisstein, vice president of the organization.
The schools will participate in the organization’s ‘Diploma Plus’ programs, which target students ages 16 to 22 who were unsuccessful in a traditional high school environment, Weisstein said.
According to Weisstein, the program reaches beyond high school learning through internships, community service and college courses.
‘We are talking to Boston public schools that have expressed interest in becoming Diploma Plus schools,’ Weisstein said. ‘There is a distinct possibility that one or more will be in Boston.’
Cambridge-based YouthBuild USA received $5.4 million to transform 23 high schools and create 10 new alternative high schools, according to a YouthBuild press release.
YouthBuild programs help undereducated people ages 16 to 24 work toward their GED or high school diploma while learning to build housing for homeless and low-income people through a partnership with Habitat for Humanity.
At least two Massachusetts YouthBuild programs are closing due to lack of funding after former Governor Jane Swift’s July 2002 budget vetoes, which cut all state funding to the Massachusetts YouthBuild programs, according to a spokesperson for YouthBuild USA.
‘The Foundation’s support will strengthen and expand our efforts to help educate and prepare low-income youth for successful futures as they transform their communities and rebuild their lives,’ said YouthBuild USA President Dorothy Stoneman in a press release.
Among the schools currently benefiting from the grant is the Boston Technical Academy at Madison Park High School in Roxbury, which grants high school equivalency education to students ages 20 to 22, and the Champion Charter School in Brockton.
Other alternative education programs receiving funds are the community-based organizations El Centro Del Cardenal in Boston, which provides bilingual alternative education; South Boston City Roots; and Just-A-Start in Cambridge.
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