All Treats, No Tricks: National Partnership for Student Success Celebrates Progress and the Work Ahead

AmeriCorps' P-12 Education Advisor Terra Wallin highlights the progress of the National Partnership for Student Success and the need for continued student support.

When AmeriCorps joined the White House on July 5, 2022, to launch the National Partnership for Student Success alongside the U.S. Department of Education and the Johns Hopkins Everyone Graduates Center, the goal was simple but ambitious - collaborate to recruit and support 250,000 additional adults to serve students as tutors, mentors, and in other student success roles. Given the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic layered on top of existing inequities, the Biden-Harris administration knew that students needed as many people as possible to provide academic and wraparound supports.

Since the launch, NPSS has supported schools, school districts, community-based organizations, AmeriCorps programs and sponsors, state and local governments, and colleges and universities to create, improve, and scale high-quality programs that deploy adults in evidence-based, student support roles. This work has included:

• Building a network of more than 200 supporting champions and 55 colleges and universities taking direct action to support P-12 students across the country.
• Releasing voluntary quality standards created by a coalition of leading national organizations.
• Engaging leading national experts to answer hundreds of technical assistance requests.
• Providing a plethora of resources, including guides, communications tools, and professional learning opportunities, to diverse audiences.
• Providing funding under AmeriCorps Volunteer Generation Fund and the NPSS Support Hub's Community Collaboration Challenge.
• Leading strategic efforts to engage specific populations, including college students and older Americans in service.

And in October, AmeriCorps was thrilled to join our partners to celebrate NPSS' success in not only meeting, but exceeding President Biden's goal one year early with an estimated 323,000 additional adults stepping up to help students over the last two school years. Based on a new report from the Johns Hopkins Everyone Graduates Center, during the 2023-24 school year, an estimated additional 136,000 adults provided tutoring, mentoring, college and career advising, and other essential support in public schools. When combined with the estimated additional 187,000 adults who had already joined these efforts in the 2022-23 school year, it shows schools, youth organizations, and other community groups have successfully met the President's challenge, well before the summer 2025 deadline.

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The Work Ahead

Though student outcomes are beginning to improve, students still need the critical supports provided by adults in NPSS-aligned roles. And these caring adults also need programs like AmeriCorps VISTA that support their service, recruit and manage volunteers, and more. That's why the NPSS will continue to provide support to national, state, and local organizations to ensure that all students have what they need to succeed and thrive.

This includes advancing the work of the NPSS Higher Education Coalition. Members of this coalition gathered earlier in October in Washington, DC, to not only celebrate their progress to engage more college students with younger students, but also to plan for the expansion of their efforts in the coming year. AmeriCorps State and National Director Sonali Nijhawan joined the summit to highlight how AmeriCorps and higher education have partnered for decades to provide college students with opportunities to serve while earning money to pay for their education.

The NPSS Support Hub has released the application for the 2025 Community Collaboration Challenge, an opportunity for nonprofit organizations, school districts, city or state agencies, and higher education institutions to apply for microgrants ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 to launch, expand, and test evidence-based, people-powered support initiatives for the betterment of children and youth in their communities. Organizations looking to utilize these supports as part of a larger strategy to address chronic absenteeism and/or to engage high school students in NPSS-aligned roles are invited to apply by November 15.

Though we have answered President's Biden's call, the NPSS will continue to provide professional development and resources to the public at no-cost. Later this year, the NPSS Support Hub will release a rich training resource library, including new materials from MENTOR, to bolster training of individuals in evidence-based student support roles.

Whether it was college students or caring older adults, thank you to the AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers who served to empower and support the nation's students and made the launch of this initiative so successful.

Terra Wallin is an AmeriCorps alumna who served with Teach For America and is currently P-12 Education Advisor at AmeriCorps. In this role, she manages AmeriCorps' engagement in the National Partnership for Student Success and the Youth Mental Health Corpsand supports grantees and partners in implementing activities to support P-12 students.