September Newsletter by Helen
This September marks the first academic term of the new year, and a lot has happened in the past few months! As you may have read in our past newsletters, this summer was the first time when we had the capacity and technical expertise to implement a rigorous assessment to evaluate our work. Our team is currently analyzing the data of our Monitoring and Evaluation Survey, and the results will be published soon! I am also pleased to announce that the preliminary data shows that Exponential Education programs significantly improve the Math and English skills of the involved students! In addition, our qualitative research and interviews with teachers, parents, and students show that our programs positively influence our students' behaviors, attitudes, and motivations towards learning. They are more willing and able to participate in class, ask questions, and are more vocal about their academics. Our results will be disseminated as they become available, and posted on our website for the public. Looking forward to the coming year, we have new volunteers on the ground to continue and expand our programs. We are growing our Girls Leadership Program and revamping our tutor training and curriculum. We are also incorporating improvements to our program design by using the qualitative research from our M&E Survey to inform our teaching methods, and are excited for these new changes! As always, we are so thankful for all of your support, which has allowed us to grow from a small backyard project into an established, well-staffed organization. Let us know if you want to become involved in any way, know someone who would like to volunteer on the ground, or are interested in helping us raise funds. We always appreciate your help, advice and suggestions. Thank you! Helen Gradstein, Founder and Executive Director