Whereas children in high-poverty neighborhoods lose on average 3-4 months of reading during the summer, consistently over 95% of similar children enrolled in AIC Freedom School actually maintain or gain in reading levels!

In addition to a multi-cultural, racially diverse literacy curriculum, students also participate in engaging enrichments and weekly adventure-filled field trips.

A hallmark of the Freedom School model is that it is staffed by Student Leader Interns (SLI’s) who are racially diverse and local to the community.  Each SLI completes extensive training at the Ella Baker Child Policy Training Institute at CDF’s Haley Farm in Clinton, Tennessee prior to starting. To get a glimpse inside the world of AIC SLIs, click the video below.

To support 2020 AIC Freedom School, please consider donating today!

CDF’s Freedom Schools were designed in 1995 by civil rights activist and early childhood educator Marian Wright Edelman. She was inspired by her own participation in the 1964 Freedom Schools in Mississippi. CDF’s Freedom Schools have grown into a national model with an award willing literacy-based curriculum and dynamic student and parent leadership development component.

More than half of the achievement gap between lower- and higher-income youth can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities. As a result, low-income youth are less likely to graduate from high school or enter college and more likely to enter the juvenile justice system or prison. This Freedom School program changes that trajectory!

Watch the videos below to learn more about Freedom Schools: