About Alvo's Clients

About Alvo’s Clients

The Alvo Institute works with a range of schools that are interested in using blended learning methods to deliver high-quality, data-driven, technology enhanced, personalized learning for students. Alvo’s portfolio includes urban, suburban and rural public school districts, regional agencies, individual traditional public schools, public charter schools, independent schools, foundations and education advocacy and support groups. The following are a sample of Alvo’s current and former client engagements.

Hamilton County Community Unit 10 School District, McLeansboro, IL

Hamilton County Community Unit 10 School District is a rural school district located in McLeansboro, Illinois. The Alvo team is working closely with district leadership and teachers to help design a 21^st century district with technology enhanced classrooms for students. The first phase of the work will include using in-class rotational models in the elementary school to develop both cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Alvo’s work, sponsored by The James Family Foundation, is part of a larger community centered initiative of economic revitalization in the McLeansboro area of Southern Illinois. Unit 10 has been recognized by The Christensen Institute for documenting gains in student achievement using blended learning as a pathway to personalized instruction. Read about it here!

Grant Wood Area Education Agency, Cedar Rapids, IA

Grant Wood Area Eduction Agency is one of nine Area Education Agencies in Iowa, and part of a system that is widely regarded as one of the finest intermediate service systems in the country. The staff at Grant Wood AEA continue to evolve programs and curriculum support to ensure teachers and districts are empowered to meet the educational needs of the next generation of learners.

The Alvo team is currently working with GWAEA leadership and schools from GWAEA districts who are participating in a multi-district pilot exploring ways to use blended learning as a pathway to personalized instruction. Five districts, nine schools, fifty-four school site staff, and fourteen GWAEA staff participate in the pilot. Participating districts represent GWAEA’s region well consisting of both urban and rural schools and reaching nearly 1,000 students in total. With strong results mid-way through year one of the pilot, Alvo and GWAEA are developing plans for continued instructional design, professional development and coaching through a second pilot year, which will include expanding to other districts and schools.

KIPP Courage, Houston, TX

KIPP Courage College Prep opened in July of 2012 and serves approximately 300 college-bound 5th, 6th and 7th graders from Houston’s Spring Branch community. KIPP Courage will add an 8th grade in 2015-16. The school will expand by one grade level each year until it eventually serves nearly 400 5th- through 8th-grade students. KIPP Courage is part of the SKY Partnership between the Spring Branch Independent School District, KIPP Houston, and YES Prep. The academic and co-curricular programs at KIPP Courage will develop the academic skills, intellectual habits, and qualities of character that prepare students for high school and going to and through college. Alvo is currently working with KIPP Courage to develop its in-class rotational, lab and cross-curricular blended instructional designs in grades 5-8.

Thrive Public Schools, San Diego, CA

Thrive Alvo is honored to be a design and professional development support provider for the award winning Thrive Public Schools. Thrive is a K-8 public charter school in San Diego that prepares students to be community-minded, college-prepared, and career-inspired. They engage learners and personalize learning through:
• Discovering students’ passions
• Hands-on learning that engages students to create and explore
• Adapting curriculum to personalize learning based on students’ needs
• Preparing students for life beyond K-12
• Supporting personal development and creating a collaborative learning community

grimmwaylogo Grimmway Academy is a public charter school located in Arvin, California. In 2011, Grimmway’s founding leadership team invited Alvo to help them design the Academy’s blended learning instruction model that best fit the needs of its students. For the school’s launch in 2011, they decided on the Lab Rotational Instructional Design. Alvo is currently working with Grimmway to expand their model. In its first two years, Grimmway has out performed all other public elementary schools in Southern Kern County and for the last two years, has achieved the highest California test scores in Arvin’s history. To learn more about Alvo’s work with Grimmway, watch this video.

Over the past three years, Alvo has worked with The Girard Education Foundation to help develop Activate Instruction. Activate Instruction is an open platform where teachers can browse, search, rate, add, share, and organize their favorite Common Core-aligned resources, and put them together in personalized playlists for students. Parents and students can follow sets of resources teachers have prescribed, or search for the ones they like best. Activate Instruction is the only free curricular platform that enables school systems to personalize instruction according to student needs because it fully integrates with backend assessment systems. The technology allows curricular resources to link electronically to any school system’s student achievement data management systems.

Activate Instruction was created through a unique collaboration of educators from both the non-profit and for-profit sectors. Illuminate Education, Inc., developed and continues to improve the software.. Summit Public Schools, a high-performing charter management organization, piloted Activate Instruction and provided user feedback to improve the technology. The Alvo Institute is providing implementation and professional development expertise. To learn more, watch this video.

Alpha Public Schools, San Jose, CA

Alpha Public Schools is a new network of public charter secondary schools that aims to put middle school students on the path to college success – and keep them there. All Alpha students will develop not only the knowledge, but also the skills and character traits they will need to succeed in college and career. Alvo worked with Alpha Public Schools’ founder John Glover to plan and design his blended learning program. Glover used the design plan to share his vision with funders and stakeholders as well as to outline the major school development milestones such as building a team, hiring teachers and selecting technology. Watch the video to hear Glover speak about his work with Alvo.

Rogers Family Foundation, Oakland, CA

Alvo is thrilled to be working with the Rogers Family Foundation to provide support to a city wide cohort of districts and schools in Oakland, CA. Alvo will be collaborating with Rogers and other providers to help Oakland schools explore, design and implement Blended Learning and other NextGen school designs.

The following is a list of current and past Alvo clients:

State Agencies/Districts/CMOs
Education for Change
Hamilton County, Unit 10
Los Angeles Unified School District
Oakland Unified School District
San Mateo Unified High School District
Summit Public Schools
The DaVinci Schools
Thrive Public Schools
Alpha Public Schools
Jefferson County School District 509-J
KIPP Houston
Grant Wood Area Eduction Agency

Amethod Public Schools, Oakland CA

Riverside Unified School District

Educational Organizations
EnCorps
The Center for Education Innovation
The Jewish Education Project
Jewish Education Center of Cleveland
Australian Publisher’s Association
Copyright Agency, Australia

Schools
East Bay Innovation Academy, Oakland, CA
Grimmway Academy, Arvin, CA
Health Science High and Middle Charter School, San Diego, CA
Oakland Unity High School, Oakland, CA
Rocky Mount Prep Academy, Rocky Mount, NC
Yeshivat He’Atid Bergenfield, NJ
Encompass Academy, OUSD, Oakland, CA
Peralta Elementary School, OUSD, Oakland, CA

Amethod Public Schools, Oakland CA

Foundations
Grimm Family Education Foundation
The Avi Chai Foundation
The Broad Foundation
The Girard Education Foundation
The Girard Foundation
The James Family Foundation
The KIPP Foundation
The LA Fund
The Rogers Family Foundation
The Riordan Foundation
The Walker Family Foundation