At DREAM, 29% of students have identified special needs, a number that is well above the New York City average. This is because DREAM is committed to our All Kids Can. This Kid Can. maxim—the strong belief that every student belongs and every student can achieve.

First, DREAM’s approach to teaching is from an asset-strength perspective. Each year, DREAM teachers conduct home visits with every family, meeting students and learning what their assets and strengths are so they can leverage them. DREAM is also flexible and adaptable, helping children gradually work toward goals with a responsive curriculum that allows teachers to teach grade-level content, while also meeting the needs of individual students. And finally, DREAM believes that an accelerated approach and diverse environments are important for all learners. “When you have kids explaining their thinking in sophisticated ways, that’s good for everyone, and when kids are thinking about something in different ways than you were thinking before, that’s also good for everybody,” says DREAM co-Chief Executive Officer Eve Colavito. “Learning is not linear, and flexible thinking is one of the greatest assets to have as an adult.”

Before DREAM Charter School at 20 Bruckner officially opened its doors this past winter, DREAM brought together current and prospective families, alumni, staff, and local community partners for Vecinos: A Neighborhood Block Party. During a festive afternoon of live music, dancing, and free food, Vecinos celebrated our Mott Haven neighborhood and connected the extended DREAM family to our newest neighbors on and around Bruckner Boulevard.

Throughout the day, children enjoyed face painting, block building, clubhouse games, and a book drive, all while their families were treated to salsa lessons and tasty bites from local vendors. Stepping inside, hundreds of attendees opted for tours of DREAM’s new building—a century-old Bronx ice house abandoned for four decades before DREAM reimagined it as a state-of-the-art school. With more than 1,500 people attending the block party,Vecinos was truly a catalyst for growing the DREAM family in Mott Haven.

Founded in the 1980s when a group of teenagers began tagging subway cars with their graffiti, the South Bronx’s Tats Cru has grown into an internationally acclaimed cohort of artists that have paved the way for graffiti’s appreciation as an artistic medium.

Today, the group is also DREAM’s partner in the creation of original works within DREAM’s East Harlem and Mott Haven locations. At the DREAM Charter School at 20 Bruckner, Tats Cru’s mural serves as the gateway to the building’s Arts Wing, a 19x100-foot mural depicting DREAM’s three-decade history. In East Harlem, Tats Cru’s work brings DREAM’s maxims alive, connecting each one to a representation of some of the DREAM family’s most special moments throughout the years. In both buildings, the works’ vast spectrums of color enliven DREAM’s hallways, and create a vibrant energy for all the students, families, and staff members who pass by. The murals also pay homage to DREAM’s aspirations for all students and Legends—to recognize their potential and realize their dreams.

In 2022-23, DREAM saw a 10+ percentage-point increase in both ELA and math assessment results for our K-2 students. These gains were achieved in large part due to the partnership between the organization’s Data and Curriculum Teams, which has been key to overcoming pandemic-driven learning obstacles and achieving student success. Working together, these teams created new DREAM systems for collecting and analyzing student data, equipping teachers and school leaders with the information and resources needed to more quickly identify learning gaps and implement strategies.

For example, as DREAM’s schools shifted to a new reading curriculum and reinforced their focus on math instruction, DREAM’s Data and Curriculum Teams introduced new assessment processes and more consistent procedures for assessing student learning. What’s more, the two teams partnered in the development of a new DREAM dashboard that makes it easier to analyze data within each classroom and specific school, as well as across DREAM’s network. This past summer, Chief Strategy Officer Katie Doctor and Managing Director of Curriculum and Instruction Adam Feiler were asked to present these initiatives at the National Charter Schools Conference, helping peer networks deepen their understanding of data analysis and cross-functional data dashboards.

DREAM’s summer programming—and our combined model of academic and wellness support—combats summer learning loss, bridges the gap between academic years, and sets students up for success. This past summer, our free summer programming—fueled by Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Summer Boost funding—provided more than 1,000 students in East Harlem and the South Bronx with the academic instruction, physical activity, and wellness support needed to better prepare for the upcoming school year.

And the results were extraordinary. Over five weeks, students’ ELA proficiency grew 20%, while students deepened their mastery of DREAM’s math instruction and continued to grow in their social-emotional development. At the elementary and middle school levels, students participated in 63 hours each of physical activity, taking part in new sport offerings, like soccer. More than 75 DREAM Charter High School students worked as summer coaches, providing guidance and mentorship to DREAM’s younger students. And 93% of REAL Kids participants said they felt adults expected them to try hard and do their best.

DREAM Mott Haven Elementary School third grader Javier seemed unmotivated to his math teachers Jessica Collins and Shauntai Quinlon. He would hide in the back of the room, slouch in his seat, and respond quietly when asked a question. As the year progressed, they realized he lacked confidence, and devised a strategy to build up Javier’s courage. When Jessica worked with him one-on-one, she’d coach him through problems and encourage him to search for the answers on his own. “I would tell him, ‘You have the same capabilities and tools to do what I would do to find the answer,’” she explains.

This approach empowered not only Javier, but all of his classmates to dream big, as evidenced by their historic results on the New York State math exam—80% of the grade achieved proficiency, surpassing NYC students by 25 percentage points, and District 7 students by 43 percentage points. What’s more, Javier grew to become a leader of his grade, tutoring others and advocating for them in the classroom. “Once he was given the courage to keep going, he started to see that he could do it,” says Jessica. “I told him he is the keeper of his own knowledge.”