Program & Grants
Education
Increasing the academic achievement of low-income students in historically disinvested Chicago public schools
The Fry Foundation's Education program has been a cornerstone of our grantmaking since our inception.
What we fund
We support this goal through work that strengthens the preparation and development of principals to lead high-performing schools, the development of teacher leaders to support professional learning in schools, and programs that provide rigorous academic enrichment opportunities for students.
We look for programs that assess improvements in academic achievement and instructional quality and that monitor the ongoing effectiveness of their work. The Foundation encourages proposals that include efforts to enhance the quality of programs. These efforts might include incorporating new program elements, professional development for program staff, or the development of evaluation tools, among others.
The Foundation gives priority to programs working at the middle school and high school levels and in historically disinvested schools with high percentages of students of color. We also will consider grant requests for policy advocacy when the connection to academic achievement is clear. We generally do not fund scholarship programs or unsolicited proposals from individual schools.
The Fry Foundation encouraged us to be formalized, rigorous, and clear as we honed a set of metrics for what it means to be successful, while also understanding we needed flexibility because different schools have different problems. As the initial funder of Change Agent, the Fry Foundation took a chance on us and since then has deepened its commitment.”
—Josh Kaufmann, Senior Executive Director, Teach Plus
Grants awarded in Education