Education is one of the most effective means of preventing poverty. People who graduate from high school earn, on average, $6,000 a year more than those who do not receive their degree. That’s why Robin Hood supports superior schools — public, private, and parochial — in the city’s poorest neighborhoods. These schools emphasize rigorous academics, dynamic leadership and utilize an extended day and extended year model. By the time students in Robin Hood-supported middle schools finish eighth grade, they have had an additional three years of schooling.

We also support programs that reinvigorate learning through new teaching approaches; social and mental support services that intervene before there is a problem, helping to reduce the number of school days missed due to illness or behavioral issues; and New York City’s Center for Charter School Excellence, which provides administrative support and expertise to schools setting up charters.

When statistics revealed that nearly sixty percent of New York City public school students in grades 3 through 8 read below grade level, Robin Hood, together with the Department of Education, launched the L!brary Initiative. This innovative, public-private partnership seeks to reverse low literacy skills and underachievement by creating libraries that are vibrant centers of teaching and learning. Thirty-one state-of-the-art libraries have been designed, built, equipped, and staffed and 25 more are opening in 2008.

Robin Hood-supported after-school programs provide elementary and high-school tutoring and teenage pregnancy prevention (“Carrera”) programs. These after-school programs boast high retention and high attendance rates, and data shows that high attendance in after-school activities triggers higher attendance during regular school, delivering a further boost to future earnings. Additionally, Robin Hood’s support of the Carrera program and its replication at sites around the city has lowered participants’ pregnancy rates by more than 50 percent, cut the birth rate by two thirds, and produced significant improvements in high school graduation and college matriculation.


Learn more about Robin Hood’s Education Programs. Or download Kids Having Kids, a Robin Hood white paper on the costs and lasting effects of adolescent childbearing.