Horizons National Student Enrichment Program Inc.

We believe all children should have the opportunity to discover the joy of learning. The first Horizons program began in 1964 at New Canaan Country School with the goal to keep local public school students learning during the summer months. After decades of success building a hands-on learning community, Horizons National was formed in 1995 to bring the Horizons program to more students and families across the country.

Over the past 25+ years, Horizons National has built partnerships with schools, families, and communities in 19 states to expand our programs and reach more students. Along the way, Horizons' hallmark 6-week summer program has engaged over 10,000 students from Pre-K through high school, who return to the program each year for project-based literacy, art, and STEM learning, field trips, swimming, healthy living, and community building in a joyful, supportive environment.

Each year, Horizons National forms new relationships and partnerships to continue growing our Network. We invest resources to ensure each new affiliate program is strong and sustainable from the start, and support program success over the long-term with peer-to-peer learning, material development, fundraising opportunities, and more.

Horizons programs operate in over 40 cities across the country, serving more than 6,000 students. As a decentralized Network of local affiliates supported by Horizons National, Horizons offers affiliates a flexible recipe for success: rather than requiring a strict fidelity to a standard curriculum, Horizons affiliates are encouraged to customize their program to reflect the unique resources of their community, while still maintaining the integrity of the Horizons program model and approach to student success. This approach allows for strong local program ownership, giving each affiliate the opportunity to form deep community ties, to respond directly to the needs of their students, and to represent the diversity, challenges, and strengths of the districts they serve.

The decentralized Horizons model is both highly effective and cost-efficient. Rather than losing ground over the summer, Horizons students gain 40% more growth in reading and math over the 6-week session for less than the cost of the same amount of time in school. Plus, our initial investment in an affiliate yields a seven-fold ROI at affiliate maturity.

Our ongoing services to affiliates across the Network include:
• Strategic planning expertise
• Board development and support
• Annual Meeting and Conference
• Program materials
• Monthly training and Professional Development opportunities
• Marketing and communications
• Central data management (assessment, analysis, database)
• Quality assurance
• Network-wide fundraising
• A clearinghouse for great ideas & resources

At Horizons, we are committed to positive results for our students, families, and communities. In a recent study of 5 years of school district data for Horizons students and their peers, Horizons students achieved significantly:

• Higher attendance rates
• Lower rates of chronic absenteeism
• Higher scores on standardized assessments of elementary math and science
• Higher GPAs in 9th grade
• More course credit earned in 9th and 10th grade
• Fewer incidents of repeating a grade
• Fewer disciplinary referrals

Every year, our students gain an average of 8-12 weeks of grade equivalency in reading and math over their 6-week summer session.