PUENTE Learning Center
People United to Enrich the Neighborhood Through Education
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Everyone deserves access to quality education. We’re moving the needle of achievement, guided by our unique approach that educates the whole student within the context of her or his family and community. Through our four program areas, we’re changing what a learning experience can be for children, youth, adults, and the community. Over the last 36 years, PUENTE has served over 110,000 individuals, enabling children to develop a lifelong love of learning, helping parents succeed in their role as their children’s first and most important teachers, supporting youth as they move toward high school graduation and beyond, and assisting adults in need of English-language fluency and modern workforce skills.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Adult Education
PUENTE offers adult education classes year-round, providing support in English as a Second Language, High School Diploma & HiSET Preparation, and Workforce Development. Many adult students attend multiple classes, filling over 800 classroom seats monthly. Last year, 91% of adult students rated their learning experience as “excellent.”
Beyond the academic, many of our adult students also attend our community activities and have family members in our classes for children and youth.
Every day, PUENTE adult program staff members provide direct client services as well as supplement the courses of study of our co-located educational partners, East Los Angeles Occupational Center and Los Angeles City College. Together with our partners, PUENTE offers opportunities for adult students to increase employability opportunities, obtain technical training, and acquire language and academic skills for career readiness.
Childhood
PUENTE fosters a powerful home-to-school connection and an inclusive learning environment through preschool, charter elementary school, and summer camp programs for over 300 students annually. We empower students and their parents to improve outcomes for the whole family.
PUENTE Preschool is a licensed child care provider providing high-quality early education to 40+ children aged 3 1/2-5 years. Our goal is for 100% of students to reach their DRDP goals for kindergarten readiness.
Charter Elementary school serves 200+ students in grades TK-4 and by 2022-23, the school will serve grades TK-5. PUENTE Charter families have the option of After School, offered in partnership with Think Together, as well as Summer Camp for summer bridge learning, enrichment classes, and outdoor activities that prevent summer learning loss and close the opportunity gap.
Youth Programs
The College and Career Program begins in 9th grade and provides continual services for up to 10 years to motivate and empower youth from low-income communities of color to succeed in their pre-college performance, gain acceptance to and persist through college, obtain a competitive degree, and contribute their gifts and skills to professional communities.
College Access reaches 400 high school students at LAUSD-partner schools Mendez High School and Roybal Learning Center with services that include in-school weekly classes, one-on-one counseling, SAT test preparation, and summer enrichment. In partnership with Keck School of Medicine of USC, the program offers monthly workshops in-person at Mendez and virtually for students throughout LA County.
College Success serves 45 post-secondary students and is expanding to serve an additional 30 students per year. The program includes monthly workshops, case management, peer mentoring, and scholarships.
Where we work
Awards
Neighborhood Builder Award 2009
Bank of America
Community Progress Maker 2021
Citi Foundation
HALO Award 2021
The Carl & Roberta Deutsch Foundation
Affiliations & memberships
UnidosUS Affiliate 2020
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsNumber of children who have access to education
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Infants and toddlers, Children and youth
Related Program
Childhood
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Preschool, Charter School, and After School Enrichment including Summer Camp. Preschool switched its service model to serve less students in favor of higher teacher to student ratio.
Number of family members participating in school activities
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Caregivers, Families, Parents
Related Program
Childhood
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
There is 95% family and parent engagement among Preschool, Elementary School, After School and Summer Enrichment.
Rate of student attendance during the reporting period
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Infants and toddlers, Children and youth
Related Program
Childhood
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Rate of student attendance for PUENTE Preschool (97%) and Charter Elementary School (96%).
Number of students per classroom during the reporting period
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Childhood
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
From 2002 to 2016, PUENTE Charter School operated as Kindergarten only. Expansion to serve grades TK to 5 was achieved at the start of academic year 2022-23.
Number of program participants who receive a secondary school diploma or GED
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Adult Education
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
PUENTE provides High School Diploma and HiSET Certification for adult students. 2020 and 2021 decline due to COVID-19 and students cancelling or pausing their education.
Number children performing average or above average academically
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Childhood
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Based on grade-level proficiency averages in English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics among students attending PUENTE Charter Elementary School.
Number of seniors who pursue Post-secondary Educational opportunities
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Youth Programs
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
In 2021-2022, College and Career Program served 59 high school seniors with 97% college acceptance rate. The remaining 3% enrolled in military service. Annual goal is 90% college acceptance rate.
Number of adult learners enrolled
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Economically disadvantaged people, Immigrants and migrants
Related Program
Adult Education
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Many of PUENTE's Adult learners were considered "essential workers". Our service area had some of the highest rates of COVID-19 infection in Los Angeles County, 1 in 5 people.
Number of adults who advance a full literacy level
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Economically disadvantaged people, Immigrants and migrants
Related Program
Adult Education
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Reflects number of adults who advanced at least one level in ESL (English as a Second Language) classes at PUENTE.
Number of participants engaged in programs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Age groups, Ethnic and racial groups, Social and economic status
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Reflects all participants in PUENTE education programs.
Number of participants who pass citizenship exam
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Immigrants and migrants
Related Program
Adult Education
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
In 2020 and 2021, lower number of participants passing citizenship exam due to COVID-19 disruption.
Number of teachers trained
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Work status and occupations
Related Program
Childhood
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
All PUENTE Charter School teachers participate in weekly professional development opportunities.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn 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?
Annually, PUENTE strives to achieve the following outcomes across four program areas: children, youth, adults, and community.
Children: Our preschool is serving 42 children ages 3.5 to 5 years old in two half-day sessions. Main goals for PUENTE Preschool is to prepare children for kindergarten in a high-quality rated program with standards and rating designed by Quality Start LA (QSLA). Our priority is to earn a Tier 5 QSLA.
PUENTE Charter Elementary School is serving 247 students in grades TK-4. Main goals are to maintain and surpass a 95% daily average student attendance, ensure students reclassify as English Learner proficient, and increase English Language Arts and Math proficiency rates among all students.
Afterschool Enrichment: The goal is to serve 84 PUENTE Charter School students in the Afterschool Enrichment Program during regular school year and 150 TK-6 grade students in a six-week summer camp with a focus on literacy, arts enrichment, project-based learning activities, and physical education.
Youth: College and Career Program is empowering 450 high school and college students through a series of classes, workshops, mentor meetings, career counseling sessions, and college field trips so that our students may graduate high school and persist through their post-secondary education. Main goals are 100% high school graduation and financial aid application completion rate, to host 16 workshops for career exploration with Keck School of Medicine of USC, 90% college acceptance rate, and 100% college persistence rate towards graduation.
Adults: Adult Education is serving 753 adult students, six days a week with classes in English as a Second Language (ESL), High School Diploma & High School Equivalency, and Career Skills (workforce certifications, technical training). Main goals are for adult students to complete their postsecondary educational goals by learning English, earning a high school diploma or equivalent, and to acquire workforce development training and certificates.
Community: PUENTE strives to support child and family’s health and social service needs through community partners. For free and low-cost immunization clinics, PUENTE refers families to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health that provides a list of clinics in the area. PUENTE has a long-standing partnership with AltaMed, a local health and human services provider staffed with bilingual health care professionals. Families in need of clinical services such as medical, dental, women’s health, and health education are also referred to AltaMed. PUENTE enjoys a long-standing partnership with Adventist Health White Memorial Hospital. Adventist Health White Memorial Hospital provided vaccines for all PUENTE staff and led two community workshops on COVID-19 vaccine information and managing stress during difficult times.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
PUENTE’s 2022-2024 Strategic Plan is grounded in a commitment to greater engagement, visibility, and data. Our five strategic priorities are:
(1) To strengthen Family Engagement;
(2) Increase visibility and awareness through Community Outreach;
(3) Identify, cultivate, and strengthen Partnerships and Networking to build a more robust safety net;
(4) Continuous Improvement by investing in internal systems, processes, and infrastructure to enable our continued success; and
(5) Stewardship and Sustainability by investing in board infrastructure and engagement, and expanding and diversifying revenue for sustainable growth.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Strong organization infrastructure is vital to the success and vitality of PUENTE Learning Center. For the past three years, PUENTE has enhanced its procedures for board governance, fiscal operations, organizational management, programs and operations. A reflection of this hard work is evident in the PUENTE Charter School’s consistently highly rated annual comprehensive and detailed oversight visits by the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Charter School Division.
Deep family and community engagement has always been an essential component to PUENTE’s integrated service model. Our multigenerational approach to education engages the child, student, and family as a whole. Family engagement is woven into all children and youth programs. PUENTE Charter Elementary School hosts over thirty parent events each year with an average of four every month. Strong family engagement practices support favorable student attendance evident in PUENTE’s overall attendance rate of 96% for the 2020-2021 school year. The College and Career Program hosts college and FAFSA informational workshops for students and parents to increase college persistence by strengthening the family support system. Our “Ready for College” workshops created by College and Career staff geared towards parents of elementary students to start preparing their children for a post-secondary education.
PUENTE relies on effective partnerships for the continued growth and sustainability of its programs. Partnerships by program are:
(1) PUENTE Preschool, Charter Elementary School, Afterschool and Summer Enrichment – Los Angeles Unified School District, UCLA Stein Mobile Eye Clinic, Los Angeles Clippers, Hollenbeck Police Activities League (PALS), Neighborhood Music School, Theatre of Hearts/Youth First, and Think Together.
(2) College and Career Program - Mendez High School, Roybal Learning Center, UnidosUS, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Southern California College Access Network, and Mundo Academy.
(3) Adult Education – Los Angeles Unified School District, Division of Adult and Career Education; Los Angeles City College; UCLA Extension
(4) Community Engagement – Adventist Health White Memorial Medical Center, SCE Credit Union, State Assembly Member Miguel Santiago, Los Angeles City Council Member Kevin DeLeon, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, Citi Bank, SCE Credit Union, USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, and Comite Pro Uno.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
After operating as private, tuition-free preschool for 32 years, the PUENTE California State Preschool Program (CSPP) opened at the start of the pandemic in January 2020. . PUENTE Preschool uses the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP) administered as a pre- and post-assessment. By the age of 5, children should score above 80% in the main domain mastery outcomes – social & emotional learning, Language & Literacy Development, and Math Cognition. In 2020-21, PUENTE Preschool DRDP proficiency outcomes were 82% for Social and Emotional Learning, 86% in Language and Literacy Development, and 77% in Math Cognition.
The expansion of PUENTE Charter Elementary School to 5th grade by 2022-23 was driven by the community’s demand for high-quality elementary school education. Our school has a 96% attendance rate, only 2% chronic absenteeism rate, and 0% suspension and expulsion rate. For the 2020-2021 academic year of mostly distance learning, only four students reclassified as English Proficient, and internal assessments revealed 64% of students met or exceeded ELA and Math grade-level proficiency, an 8 to 10% percent loss. Statewide student outcomes are 9% reclassification rate, 49% proficient in ELA and 34% in Math. Our goal is to return to and surpass pre-pandemic academic student outcomes as we continue to mitigate the effects of learning loss from COVID-19.
Over three years, PUENTE has grown the College and Career Program by 60% from 178 students served in 2018-2019 to 446 in 2020-2021. Two factors for the robust increase in student participation and engagement are College Access partnerships and the expansion of College Success. In 2020-21 academic year, 98% of high school senior participants enrolled in college and 88% of college student participants persisted through to the following academic year. Our commitment to our students is demonstrated by the growth of post-secondary students served by the program. In three years, the number of youth served ages 18 to 24 has expanded from 13 to 27 to 66 in 2021-2022. Scholarships have increased from $7,500 in June 2020 to a projected $36,150 for June 2022.
PUENTE Adult Education is providing a hybrid class schedule and adapting to the needs of its students to make sure they stay on track and attain their educational goals. PUENTE is currently conducting a targeted survey of adult students, instructors, and local stakeholders through a partnership with USC Sol Price School of Public Policy as we re-imagine Adult Education at PUENTE over the next five years to address the opportunities and gaps that currently exist in education and workforce development in Los Angeles County.
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 identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, 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 take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, It is difficult to get honest feedback from the people we serve
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- 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.
PUENTE Learning Center
Board of directorsas of 12/08/2023
Mr. Chun Wong
Asolva, Inc
Term: 2020 - 2024
Greg Gonzalez
Harvard-Westlake School
Chun Wong
Asolva, Inc.
Oscar A. Cabrales
American & Efird
Tyler M.P. Sutherland
Public Law Center
Jocelyn Rosenwald
Beach Front Properties, LLC
Lara Lightbody
Alumni Services
Albert Reyes
Kutak Rock, LLP
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 ? Yes -
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
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 01/29/2021GuideStar 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 ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- 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 disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- 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 use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- 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.