Downtown College Prep
25
6
"Up" is the number of experts who agree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in the
field. "Down" is the number of experts who disagree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in field.
Headquarters Location: San Jose, CA
Founded: 1999
Mission: DCP prepares underachieving students—who will be the first in their families to go to college—to thrive at four-year universities. DCP has a singular goal for every student: DCP graduates will enroll in and graduate from a four-year college. DCP recognizes that its students need a rigorous curriculum that builds college-ready skills and a school culture that develops their college aspirations. DCP performance outcomes are designed to promote academic resilience and independence among students in order to prepare them for the challenge of college.
Tags:
bay area, middle-secondary education, direct services, educational preparation, afterschool program, academic support, college advising, school choice counseling, college achievement
Summary
Stories
Expert Reviews
Leadership
From the Nonprofit
Leadership
Jennifer Andaluz.
Jennifer graduated with a BA from the University of California Santa Cruz and believes "DCP is changing the lives of families across San Jose by helping students get to and through college. My greatest inspiration is seeing our alumni grow and thrive in college while discovering how they want to contribute to creating positive change for our community and world."
See full bio.
Financial Data
| Read Annual Report | Overhead Ratio: n/a |
| Total Revenue: $5,082,347 |
From the Nonprofit
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Contact Info
Address:
1460 the Alameda
San Jose, CA 95126, USA
Story:
Read about the success story behind Elizabeth Silva, a graduate of Downtown College Prep of 2008:
Elizabeth Silva is currently a sophomore at UC Davis. She is the 2nd of 3 Silva siblings to graduate from Downtown College Prep (Jose – Class of 2004 and a graduate of Chico State University, and Benny, Class of 2010).
Her father says: "I am about to be the father of three college graduates!" Benny Silva, Sr.
DCP Class of 2010 has been accepted to over 40 four-year colleges and universities including: UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Merced, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, Santa Clara University, University of San Francisco, San Jose State, Mt. Holyoke, Wesleyan, San Jose State, CSU Monterey Bay, CSU Northridge, and CSU East Bay. DCP has graduated nearly 400 students since 2004.
(Learn more about Downtown College Prep at: http://www.downtowncollegeprep.org/content/elizabeth-silva-class-2008)
Expert Reviews of Downtown College Prep
Evidence of Impact Summary:
Downtown College Prep has created a context in San Jose where college success for all is a reasonable goal to be talking about, especially for the low-income Latino students that are so underrepresented in colleges and universities. Downtown College Prep has a strong track record of taking troubled high school students and getting them into college.See expert comments.
Organization Strengths Summary:
Experts consistently cite the strength of Downtown College Prep leadership, mission focus and program quality. Others mention strong PR and their data-driven continuous program improvement.See expert comments.
Areas for Improvement Summary:
While acknowledging DCP's success, most experts believe scaling and expanding its model represents the organization's largest challenge. Others express concern over student performance volatility and non-trivial dropout rate.See expert comments.
Expert Comments: Evidence of Impact
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Impact |
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I am pleased with the work Downtown College Prep has done with low-income high school students and I am happy that they are building out school services to serve the middle school level. | ||
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Downtown College Prep has created a context in San Jose where college success for all is a reasonable goal to be talking about, especially for the low-income Latino students that are so underrepresented in colleges and universities. | ||
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Downtown College Prep has a strong track record of taking troubled high school students and getting them into college. | ||
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Downtown College Prep (DCP) enables low-income students to prepare for four-year colleges, making them the first in their family to receive higher education. | ||
Expert Comments: Organization Strengths
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Foundation Professionals (F)
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Researchers and Faculty (R)
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Nonprofit Senior Staff (N)
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Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
Strong PR |
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Downtown College Prep employs excellent PR for its programs. | ||
Leadership |
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I believe that Jennifer Andaluz (Founder) is a very strong leader who is committed to creating a school environment where all adults and students are focused on ambitious goals. In DCP's case, the goal is getting kids to and through college. I commend her for her leadership. | ||
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Downtown College Prep has visionary leadership and a strong board. | ||
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Downtown College Prep boasts a remarkably driven, mission-focused founder and leadership group. | ||
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The leadership, staff, and board of Downtown College Prep are stable and talented. They have successfully opened two schools and can truly be described as a learning organization. DCP continuously studies its impact and practices, then refines and adjusts their strategies according to sound data. | ||
Reputation |
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DCP has a very strong reputation, and has galvanized a whole host of political and funding leaders to be interested in charter schools, school reform, and college-going culture work. | ||
Program Design |
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Downtown College Prep has excellent rigor in its curriculum. This provides students the opportunity to take advantage of higher education. | ||
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I really feel like the school has the secret sauce of high expectations. | ||
Expert Comments: Areas for Improvement
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Foundation Professionals (F)
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Researchers and Faculty (R)
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Nonprofit Senior Staff (N)
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Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
Unclear impact |
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Downtown College Prep uses an over-rated educational model with too much volatility. They need to show greater consistency in academic performance over time. | ||
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Downtown College Prep's success must be taken with a bit of a grain of salt given the high dropout rate. | ||
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The Downtown College Prep leadership has sacrificed too many values to achieve its success. There is not enough value placed on teaching students to acculturate, rather than assimilate to the system in order to become successful--all the while ignoring the false assumption that students are fully-educated. For example, students who leave DCP go to college but lose their sense of the issues at home. Denial by the DCP leadership about the inequities within their own community (environmental issues, etc.) is troublesome. | ||
Scalability |
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Since the middle school program is new, there is room improve student achievement levels but I have confidence that DCP will continue to help students to meet ambitious growth targets. | ||
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DCP, like most growing charter organizations, must find a way to maintain quality as they get bigger. | ||
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Downtown College Prep needs to start more schools and lower its dropout rate. | ||
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I don't know if Downtown College Prep can grow its programming. | ||
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DCP has developed a powerful model for grades 9-12. They are in the process of refining their middle school instructional program through their second school which will ultimately serve grades 6-12. | ||
Leadership
Jennifer Andaluz
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Co-Founder and Executive Director
From the Nonprofit
The nonprofit has not added any comments yet. If you are a representative of this nonprofit and would like to leave a comment, please email us at
feedback@myphilanthropedia.org
with your request.