Learn Fresh Education Co.

Learn Fresh seeks to boost student engagement and achievement through the creation and distribution of innovative, fun, and effective educational tools and programs. We specifically aim to serve low-income students and students of color across the United States, and seek out partners who explicitly share our focus. Our programs help to reduce racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps by improving students' core math and STEM skills and social emotional skills, and providing them with and understanding of the importance of math in the real world, their awareness of STEM-related careers, and their role as members of their communities. Our programs specifically aim to create the following outcomes for students: 1) Improved math scores, understanding of math concepts, and increased readiness for Pre-Algebra, Algebra, and math at the high school level; 2) improved social emotional skills and ability to work as part of a team; 3) improved attitudes towards learning and increased engagement in the learning process 4) improved understanding of the importance of math in the real world and awareness of STEM-related careers; 5) improved understanding of their role as members of their communities.

Learn Fresh programs and experiences include NBA Math Hoops, Math Hits, STEM Goals, the Youth Assist Tracker Challenge, and the Learn Fresh Fellowship for Culturally Inclusive Education. All program models have combined to serve over 500,000 low-income students and students of color in grades 3–8 in partnership with over 30 professional sports teams and leagues, and countless local implementation partners across the United States. Through these programs, we help to improve students' achievement and understanding of fundamental STEM concepts, increase engagement in the learning process, and better prepare students for STEM courses at the high school level. We provide these programs at no cost to students, teachers, schools, and afterschool programs, including all physical materials and program experiences, such as the Regional and National Championship experiences. We are dedicated to keeping our programs free to low cost because many of the students in our target demographic attend schools and districts that lack resources for basic supplies, much less supplemental programs; these are the conditions that perpetuate achievement gaps in the first place.

Programming takes place at schools and program sites around a given city, where an educator leads 20-30 students through weekly sessions. In each session, students compete and explore various STEM-related themes inherent to the sport through each program's curriculum, all of which are mapped to Common Core standards and 21st Century Learning Skills. Throughout the season, educators receive consistent support at in-person trainings and through the Learn Fresh Coaches Association (LFCA), an online portal that allows educators to communicate efficiently with our staff and share resources and best practices with other educators. At the conclusion of each season, we host Regional Championship events in each city, in addition to the NBA Math Hoops National Championship event, featuring 20 highly-engaged students from partner programs across the country.

The community program model, which leverages partnerships with our pro franchise partners, is a key component to the experience for our educators and students. Teams provide exposure, brand capital, limited funding, and in-kind support for program implementation and events such as training and championship tournaments. At the start of each school year, we host training sessions at team facilities, where we guide educators through all of the program's components and prepare them to lead their students through the experience. To conclude the season, our team partners host each region's most engaged students for a special championship experience.

We are well equipped to carry out the goals of the organization. Using the community program model, we have spent the past 6 years scaling NBA Math Hoops into over 35 cities and in partnership with 25 pro teams across the country. At the end of the 2019-20 school year, Learn Fresh programming was serving over 100,000 students on a weekly basis. We have continuously improved the program components and implementation strategy with each season, and this refinement has allowed us to retain over 95 percent of all organizations that have participated in Learn Fresh programs.

Three partnerships form the core of this community program model, providing various capacities to the overall operation: A royalty-free license from the NBA/NBPA allows us to use player images and likenesses at no cost—an essential component to the authenticity of the NBA Math Hoops brand. Another royalty-free license from Getty Images allows us to use their images at no cost on all program materials. Lastly, Hasbro manufactures all of the physical board games as an in-kind donation, allowing us to provide unlimited copies to students, teachers, or schools. In addition to these high-level partnerships, we have relationships with hundreds of community implementation partners across the country, a network that will be instrumental as we continue to scale existing and future programs.

In addition to our program model and partner network, we have a devoted staff with a diverse range of identities, skills, and backgrounds. All of our staff are lifelong educators in some capacity, and come from very different backgrounds. Calvin Sibert, our Director of Program Support and Content, is a 20+ year math teacher from Detroit, MI who spent his career teaching students in our target demographic, experience that is crucial in helping the program best serve students' needs. Colleen Serafini is a 15+ year leader from one of our biggest community partners in San Francisco, and she has a deep understanding of the types of organizations and networks we work with in each region. Nick Monzi, our CEO & Co-Founder, has grown the program on the national level over the past six years, engaging with students, partners, and funders in every region of the country. These staff round out our expertise in educational design, program and partnership management, and the execution of unique and impactful educational experiences for students.

Over the course of a five-year period, regular program evaluations by the American Institutes for Research have shown consistent gains among students participating in NBA Math Hoops across all major demographic groups (female, male, Black, Latinx, White), as well as consistent improvement in the program’s impact each year. After normalizing the data, students across all demographics completing the full program experience in 2018 improved by 0.46 standard deviations against the mean, an uptick from the 2017 (0.40 SD) and 2016 (0.34 SD) evaluations. Considering the raw data for 2018, this equates to 23% percent mathematical gains for students who completed the program and assessments, while a control group from the same classrooms and buildings demonstrated gains of just 7%.

The social-emotional evaluation also documented promising gains across the participating student population. When compared with non-participants from their schools and after-school programs, students who completed the NBA Math Hoops program in 2019 were 30 percent more likely achieve developmental gains in key areas such as persistence, resilience, grit, goal-setting, and communication.

Additional key findings from recent evaluations are included below:

- During the 2019-20 season, students who completed the program experienced a 28% increase in their math fluency scores, compared with a 19% increase for students in a control group.

- The same population of students who completed the program experienced an 21% improvement on a NAEP-aligned math assessment evaluating higher-order math skills, compared with a 8% increase for a control group from the same programs and communities.

- A new social-emotional competency evaluation has also documented promising gains across the participating student population. As an example, a few specific data points that were tracked are included below for reference:

- The percentage of students who reported being able to stay calm during a problem or argument improved by 23% from pre to post-test, compared with a 4% decline amongst the control group.
- The percentage of students who reported that they don’t give up when faced with a challenge improved by 11% from pre to post-test, compared with a 7% decline amongst the control group.
- The percentage of students who reported that they saw themselves as a leader improved by 15% from pre to post-test, compared with a 17% decline amongst the control group.

These are tremendously positive social-emotional gains for a program that is predominantly focused on improving mathematical achievement and engagement, and they represent an area that we will continue to evaluate more deeply in the coming years.