School the World, Inc.
Making A World of Difference
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
School the World aims to address the Learning Crisis. "The Learning Crisis is a moral and economic crisis" -World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. Marked by 38% of children not learning basic literacy and numeracy, the Learning Crisis is a global problem. 263 million children of school age are out of school. 130 million children complete four years of school without learning basics. 400 million children complete four years of school and learn the basics. 120 million children do not complete four years of school (Source: EFA Global Monitoring Report 2013-2014). Combating the Learning Crisis points towards eliminating extreme poverty and creating shared opportunity and prosperity for all.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Build Schools
Our program reaches deep into the isolated communities of Guatemala and Honduras. Often, we are providing the first schools these villages have ever seen; or worse, existing schools are in desperate need of repair to ensure safety of the children and teachers.
In Honduras, due to prevalence of violence and political unrest, we are often the only organization actively engaged to ensure children and families in Honduras have access to quality education. (Please note that our Student Service Trips are limited to Guatemala.)
The schools we build are a first step, and often the most important. We collaborate with the local community so they provide the labor and some of the materials needed for the build. Additionally, we require matching funds from local governments and partners so that they remain deeply committed to our process. Finally, we raise funds from corporate sponsors and generous individuals to supplement materials like books and school supplies necessary to learning.
Together, we change lives. Our program gives the people living in rural villages of Central America a chance to live beyond the drudgery of poverty and life rooted in illiteracy.
Play is an important part of the learning experience. Most of the children enrolled in our schools go to work before and after school to help support their families. It is not uncommon to find children as young as 5 years old shining shoes, selling goods in the market or tending to their family farm.This leaves them with very little time for play.
While developing literacy skills is a cornerstone to our education, we believe giving our students a safe place to discover, imagine and explore is equally important. On the playground the children can develop social and cognitive skills, mature emotionally, and gain the self confidence required to engage in new experiences and environments.
Furthermore, the playground serves as a safe place for girls (and boys) to play free from prescribed gender roles. In a society that is culturally rooted in specific gender roles, hierarchy, and expectations, girls are able to break away and experience play on equal grounds.
Teamwork, leadership, and communication; these are skills children mold and develop in school. However, these skills derive from playtime just as much, or even more than, in the classroom. Play isn't an alternative, but an aid to learning.
Quality Learning
At School the World, we help support the teachers by building schools so they have a safe place to teach. We also deeply engage parents and local community so they can provide a quality learning experience to the children. Finally, we provide books & supplies and train teachers so they can provide quality learning experience to the children.
We deliver extensive monthly training to our teachers over two years using a tested and proven methodology developed by US AID (Centers for Excellence in Teacher Training or “CETT”). Our expert trainers work with teachers in groups once a month and visit each teacher for in-classroom training every month.
The training strives toward child-centric teaching with a special focus on methods for teaching literacy using supplemental reading materials. While CETT develops teaching skills, we build a culture of professional pride, peer influence and motivation with teaching prizes and best practices sharing.
The teachers in our schools are all local teams. They are personally invested in their nation’s educational progress and familiar with the challenges children and families face day in and day out. Our teachers also speak the native language, know the customs, and understand what it takes to keep our students motivated .
We challenge parents to begin investing in books by promising that School the World will multiply what they give by 5 in the first year, by 4 in the second year, by 3 in the third year, by 2 in the fourth year and by 1 in the fifth year. After 5 years, we have a full mini-library in every classroom!
These parents often support their entire families on less than $2 a day, but they are rising to the challenge. They organize around the incentive and pledge between $1.25 and $2.50 per child for books, sometimes in 2 installments.
Local Support
We all know education begins in the home. And the more involved parents are, both in and out of school, the more a child is likely to learn. The majority of our parents cannot read or write, but they desperately want an education for their children. These parents have a tremendous influence over what happens in their local school, and we help them understand how best to use that influence.
With our parental engagement program, we organize parent meetings every two weeks. We engage them in discussion and strive for outcomes like a “code of care” for school property and peer-to-peer outreach to the parents of children who are not in school. And we educate them about some of the most important indicators of learning, such as instructional time.
One very important part of the equation for success is our ability to partner with local governments. Actually, we make it a requirement.
Every village we invest in, the local government donates the land, raw materials and/or labor to help with the school build. We supplement their resources with our expertise, resources and experience.
Partnering with the local community guarantees that everybody has a vested interest in the success of the school. Equally important, it creates a lasting culture that values education and progress.
Student Service Learning
We call them World Changers because of their passion for service and desire to drive change.
Students spend time before their spring or summer break fundraising for a nine-day service trip in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. Funds they raise go directly towards buying materials and supplies to build a school or playground in a Guatemalan village. Students visit the community to participate in the actual construction process and complete in time to join the dedication ceremony.
Each group that travels completes 1 new school building during their journey of discovery. We also believe cultural exposure and understanding is an important part of our program. During their trip, students experience the wonders of the Mayan world, visit the Spanish colonial city of Antigua, climb the active Pecaya volcano, explore a local coffee farm and barter in the largest open air market in Central America.
During their trip, our student travelers begin to open their eyes and minds to the deep, complicated causes underlying poverty and gender discrimination prevalent in the rural villages. They also walk away with first hand insights to economic realities that force mothers and fathers to send their young children across our treacherous borders. More importantly, they experience the power and influence of education in ordinary people’s lives.
Model for Success
We take success very seriously. That is why we measure student achievement in the most reliable way possible, through testing at our schools and at similarly situated control schools. We test at the beginning of the teacher training program, again at the end of the first year, and again at the end of the second year of teacher training. After just one year, our schools are outperforming the control schools in both reading and math.
But we use test results for a lot more than that. We analyze the results to look for patterns – patterns that often tells us about how kids, teachers and schools are performing and sometimes even why. We take these learnings and optimize our program so we are continuously improving and creating positive change.
6,464 students enrolled!
We recognize there is a gap between girls and boys when it comes to access and expectations.
Giving girls access to education is the first of many steps essential to reducing gender discrimination and breaking down gender barriers. It is not uncommon to see families send only their sons to school, leaving the girls to domestic duties and childrearing. As a result, girls are more susceptible to be left behind in poverty and continue to be dependent on their families for support. Providing access to education allows girls to have the skills they need to negotiate key life decisions and to have the license to seek lifestyles and choices that are not bound by prescribed gender roles.
We have high expectations for our girls and expect the same from our students and their families. Our program reinforces girls' commitment to their own education, works with girls to develop essential life skills and increases support for girls’ education among their parents, school staff, and communities.
Where we work
Awards
Concorida P3 Impact Finalist 2022
Concordia
External reviews

Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of teachers trained
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Quality Learning
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
2 Years of teacher training on social-emotional learning, literacy, digital literacy and remedial teaching techniques.
Number of parents/guardians engaged in student activities
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Local Support
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of children who have access to education
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Quality Learning
Type of Metric
Context - describing the issue we work on
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of schools built
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Build Schools
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Our goal is to provide access for quality education to those living in the rural villages of Central America. Together with local governments, our partners and deeply engaged parents, we provide young children living in the poorest communities the opportunity to learn so that they can work towards a brighter future.
Founded in 2009, School the World broke ground at its first school in Guatemala. Since then, we have built 118 primary schools, trained 7,395 teachers and enrolled 13,377 students in Honduras, Guatemala and Panama.
We are one of the first NGOs to mandate community partnership. We require municipality to contribute 50% of the costs and the community must contribute land and unskilled labor. We also require the parents to participate in parent education programs; even our supply chain of books and supplies depend on partial parental contribution.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
School the World transforms lives by working to make quality education accessible to all children and families living in rural villages of Central America.
We believe education is a vital component to alleviating poverty, increasing gender equality and promoting economic sustainability.
Our work is built on the belief that lasting change can only happen by:
creating a safe place for children to learn and thrive
securing physical and financial commitment from local government
deeply engaging parents through mandatory parent education classes
providing on-going training for teachers
supplying much needed books and learning materials
constantly measuring for improvement and success
nurturing global leaders through our Student Service Learning Program
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
School the World hires seasoned non-profit leaders from within the countries that we work to lead our extensive programs (listed on this page). We hire local staff to train the parents within the local community on the education we will be providing their children and how the experience will benefit them. We hire local Universities and/or experienced trainers to lead our teacher training programs to ensure our schools provide a quality and fair education. Finally we hire local architects and engineers to manage the construction of our schools and playgrounds in Guatemala and Honduras aligning with our mission to support and improve the local community.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
School the world, thus far, has built 127 schools, enrolled15,354 students, trained 7,395 teachers, built 64 playgrounds, stocked 725 classroom libraries with 50,955 books, and trained 8,075 parents. From our first cohorts, the data shows an increase in first grade passing rates, a dramatic reduction in drop out rates, and an increase in completion rates of school. Our surveys demonstrate improved morale among stakeholders, parent understanding of and compliance with the school schedule, and teacher sense of accountability.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
School the World, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 09/08/2023
Cindy Clemson
Morgan Stanley
Merrily Bodell
IvyWise LLC
Keith Clausen
Envisage International Corporation
Joseph Cronin
International Travel Insurance Group
Kate Curran
School the World
Claudia Pinto
Investor, Former EU & Portuguese Foreign Service
Nicole Sahin
Globalization Partners
Andrea Hoff
Spiros Giannaros
Charles River Development
Meredith Massaro
Social Worker, MSW
Jim Pelusi
Valero Capital Partners
Cynthia Clemson
Morgan Stanley
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 09/08/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.