Overdeck Family Foundation

As the ESSER cliff approaches, districts and states that initiated high-impact tutoring using federal ESSER dollars have options on how to ensure their programs sustain into the future. Susanna Loeb, founder and executive director of the National Student Support Accelerator at Stanford University, and Alan Safran, co-founder and CEO of Saga Education—both Overdeck Family Foundation grantees—outline six alternate funding streams to help provide effective tutoring in new, cost-saving ways.

Research shows that play is a critical component of healthy cognitive and social-emotional development for children: it promotes self-regulation and executive functioning, develops skills such as collaboration and critical thinking, and enhances academic outcomes like early language development and math skills. However, young children’s opportunities for play are declining. On New America, associate program director Carly Roberts and portfolio associate Katelyn Fletcher call on educators—especially in elementary school—to prioritize incorporating play into day-to-day learning.

Please join us in welcoming Yashna Jhaveri to our team! As a portfolio associate, Yashna will source and support organizations focused on enhancing education in kindergarten through ninth grade. She will collect and analyze data from grantees and researchers to determine high-impact investment areas and aligned organizations primarily for the Innovative Schools grantmaking portfolio, which aims to expand access to tech-enabled, student-centered learning environments. Yashna has spent her career seeking to understand and transform education systems in the U.S. and India. Prior to joining Overdeck Family Foundation, she worked on the Strategy and Impact team at Teach For India where she directed strategy planning, implemented monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and advised internal teams to strengthen learning and efficiency. Her experiences as a former middle school teacher and policy consultant for district and state departments also inform her work at the Foundation. Welcome, Yashna!

Overdeck Family Foundation is proud to announce a grant of $900,000 to RPPL (Research Partnership for Professional Learning) to manage three studies focused on identifying the features and traits of genAI tools that show potential to improve teacher quality and student learning, and disseminate those results to the education community at large. Our hope is that investing in an expanded body of evidence will help guide future product development decisions, as well as district procurement choices, improving the experience of millions of teachers and students for decades to come. cc: Center for Public Research and Leadership, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Stanford University Graduate School of Education, Teaching Lab, Teaching Matters, University of Maryland

“Every day there is a new story about an exciting AI-related development, but given the time it takes to conduct careful evaluation, very limited evidence exists about whether any of these tools have positive benefits for students,” explains research and impact officer Meghan McCormick. “As schools start facing hard choices about where to spend their resources in response to continued learning gaps and the ESSER funding cliff, it’s important to take a look at what we know about the impact of genAI on education and what more we need to learn.” In a new op-ed, Meghan examines the potential of genAI to improve teaching and student learning, calling for rigorous, evidence-based evaluation of what’s being used in classrooms.

Sometimes, the program design principles most important for making high-dosage #tutoring effective may not be obvious. Using new evidence on the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of Saga Education’s blended learning tutoring model, University of Chicago Education Lab researchers highlight three seemingly counterintuitive changes districts and schools can make to help ensure high-dosage tutoring programs realize their full potential.

Teachers and students are increasingly experimenting with generative AI tools, both in and out of the classroom. But rapid changes in AI technology and the speed of adoption are far outpacing the field’s understanding of impacts on teaching and learning. This begs the question: is genAI good for students? In The 74 Media, research and impact officer Meghan McCormick examines what the research tells us about the impact of genAI on education, and what more we need to learn. “Now is the time — before these technologies become pervasive — to rigorously evaluate what is being sold into and used in schools.”

“Our early growth was fueled by word of mouth between teachers and families, showing that our solution was so greatly needed,” said Heejae Lim, founder and CEO of TalkingPoints, an Overdeck Family Foundation grantee. “Since then, we’ve started partnering with school districts to drive systems-level change and shift family engagement from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘must-have,’ and from a goal in and of itself to a strategy that drives student outcomes and equitable outcomes.” Watch the full conversation between Heejae and our senior director of communications, Lina Eroh, to learn about TalkingPoints’ growth strategy and how the nonprofit utilizes AI to personalize communication between schools and families, driving family engagement best practices for teachers.

Decades of research have demonstrated the positive impact of Pre-K, yet in the latest debate, critics argue that much of this evidence is old and that the impacts of modern-day programs are smaller and unlikely to be sustained. “This discussion ignores the large and rigorous body of evidence we do have on what works to strengthen pre-K quality,” said Research and Impact Officer Meghan McCormick. “Numerous studies have found that the field’s best bet is to implement evidence-based curricula that explicitly target specific learning domains like math, language, literacy, and social-emotional skills, following a pre-specified scope and sequence, supported by training and coaching aligned to those curricula.” Read more in her recent New America op-ed exploring the current body of evidence on effective Pre-K curricula.

We are thrilled to announce the newest addition to the Overdeck Family Foundation team! Shaili Kapadia, MPH has joined as Senior People & Operations Associate. In this role, she will support the Foundation's strategic initiatives, organizational operations, and talent development. Drawing upon over seven years of experience in mission-oriented organizations, Shaili specializes in driving operational excellence and implementing talent acquisition strategies. During her tenure at BRAC International, she was pivotal in facilitating organizational development, contributing to a team growth of over 250 percent. Prior to joining Overdeck Family Foundation, Shaili also held roles at Shanti Bhavan Children's Project, Food Bank for NYC, and the Neighborhood Charter School of Harlem. Please join us in welcoming Shaili!