Young Achievers Science and Math Pilot K-8 (BPS)

MISSION: To develop pioneering models of education within the Boston Public School district and to disseminate best practices to other urban public schools. DESCRIPTION: Young Achievers Science & Mathematics Pilot School is part of a pilot school project that was launched in 1993 with the Massachusetts Educational Reform Act. The pilot schools were set to be publicly-funded laboratories of experimentation and innovation in school education. In 1999, Friends of Young Achievers, Inc. formed as a private charity to assist the Young Achievers Pilot School with community outreach and fundraising, in the belief that public funding alone cannot provide the dollars needed to produce exceptional science education. The Young Achievers Pilot School serves 303 students from kindergarten through eighth grade, selected by lottery. IMPACT: Young Achievers was the first elementary school in Boston wired with high speed T1 Internet access and through special partnerships the school now offers wireless access and a mobile laptop computer laboratory. In the past nine years, Friends of Young Achievers has raised over $2.7 million to support educational programs at the pilot school.