About
LEAP Innovations is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization that connects innovation and education to reinvent our one-size-fits-all education system and transform the way kids learn. Through the Next Generation Learning Model (NGLM) program, LEAP aims to transform learning into a holistic, tailored experience that is built around preparing, empowering, and inspiring every learner to ignite their own unlimited potential. To achieve this, LEAP developed a robust technology platform, the LEAP Learner Hub, that holds both individualized student profiles and a curated marketplace of program providers across four categories: tutoring, mentoring, 21st-century skill-building, and enrichment.
Why We Invested
LEAP’s Next Generation Learning Model represents a particularly innovative approach to supporting student academic acceleration and well-being. Given challenges both created and exacerbated by the pandemic, there exists a significant need to holistically understand individual students and their needs, and to connect them to the right supports at the right time. The NGLM does exactly this through its programming which places students at the center, surrounded by various learning and well-being supports. Led by a compelling and experienced team, the model research of the NGLM’s various components also points to a strong reason to believe in potential impact. An investment from A Better Chicago will ensure the program can both be implemented and refined meaningfully to ensure impact and serve as an opportunity for sector learning.
Looking Ahead
LEAP is focused on implementing its Learner Hub across five schools in SY2021. Through this alpha pilot, LEAP is collecting learnings and evaluating impact outcomes in order to develop and refine an approach to the second-year beta pilot. LEAP aims to scale its Learner Hub across CPS schools and in community-based organizations across Chicago. LEAP is partnering with ABC to achieve these scale ambitions and maximize the impact on students’ academic and social-emotional outcomes.