“I really hope I can come back year after year after year and year to come, and maybe when I’m old enough, I can work as a staff member that helps out the students here for the summer. I really like it here.”
Our Success
Middle Grades Partnership increases opportunities for academically promising Baltimore City public middle school students through public and private school partnerships.
Since 2005, Middle Grades Partnership has served more than 4,500 Baltimore City middle school students.
Before COVID, our summer program had grown to serve nearly 500 students. In 2020, we served 311 students virtually. In 2021, we served 355 students in a hybrid program. In 2022, Middle Grades Partnership is providing 150 hours of summer programming for 475 students in person, in eight public and private school partnerships.
Of all MGP students, 65% of our students identified as African American/Black, 44% identified as male, and 87% of the students were eligible for free meals.
Our attendance rate is 93%, meeting the benchmark for excellence in summer programming. Even more compelling? The majority of our students have to get up early enough to catch a public bus to their home school prior to boarding the bus to the private school.
Our three-year retention rate is 78%.
Last year, 85% of Middle Grades Partnership’s rising ninth graders were accepted into citywide academic entrance criteria public high schools (including City, Poly, Western, Dunbar, Baltimore School for the Arts, Bard Early College, parochial, or private schools). This is even more extraordinary given that Middle Grades Partnership recruits the often-overlooked students in the middle academically, not students identified as high achieving before their entrance in Middle Grades Partnership. Note that the citywide average for student acceptance into the top academic criteria public high schools is 26%.