A third-party reviewer of the Saving Lives and Minds Academic Performance Program found that 71% of students enrolled in the SLAM after-school tutoring program improved reading or math levels by one grade level over the course of the 2012-2013 school year. Of the students who participated, 55% leaped ahead by one grade level in reading, and 67% in math.

In addition to the drastic improvement in academic performance, SLAM students are found to have better overall attitudes about school after a year with our program, and parents say they are more engaged as well. According to the evaluation report, SLAM parents felt that they have “become more involved with their children’s activities as a result of the program,” and they care more now about the academic success of the children. They feel the program is “good for the children’s intellectual curiosity, their enjoyment, their learning and their education.”

Many of the children also felt more positively about education and their career trajectories after spending the year with the program. At the start of the year, only 73% of our students planned to finish high school. At year end, every single child was very sure (s)he would finish high school, and 70% had plans to attend college (compared to 55% at the beginning of the year). Fewer students planned to go directly into the workforce — 86% at the end of the program, compared with 93% at the start of the year, but more are now considering vocational or technical school as an option. Seventy-eight percent, compared with 60% at the beginning of the year, are now considering vocational/technical school as an option. More students are also now considering an internship program as a viable option (76% vs. 57%), and fewer see the military as a good option (28% vs. 37% at the end of the year).