Green Dot Public Schools (Green Dot) operates  charter high schools in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in Los Angeles. By creating a small school environment more conducive to learning (numbering no more than 560 students per school, compared to over 3,500 in a typical public high school in Los Angeles), it maintains attendance rates close to 97 percent and its students achieve higher test scores than their counterparts with similar backgrounds in traditional public schools. Currently serves approximately 4,100 students, Green Dot plans to open 20 more schools by 2010, serving 16,000 students at full scale.

Evaluation Status: High-Level Apparent Effectiveness

Green Dot’s model, with a strong commitment to quality, produces very positive results: 78 percent of students who enter in the ninth grade graduate high school, and 67 percent of these graduates go on to four-year colleges and universities, compared to the Los Angeles Unified School District’s graduation rate of just 46 percent of its ninth-graders and a college attendance rate of only 24 percent.

EMCF Investment

Since 2004, the Foundation has invested $6 million in Green Dot to implement its business plan. During this period, Green Dot doubled its school enrollment from 1,500 to 3,100. The Foundation’s first investment in Green Dot was part of a pilot program (which also included the See Forever Foundation/Maya Angelou Public Charter School) to test the Foundation’s grantmaking approach with alternative schools. Based on the success the two organizations achieved during the pilot, both Green Dot and the See Forever Foundation/Maya Angelou Public Charter School became part of the Foundation’s full grantee portfolio in 2007.

For more information, visit Green Dot’s website at www.greendot.org.