Bluum

Blog

Bluum is a nonprofit organization helping Idaho become a national model for how to maximize learning outcomes for children and families.

Subscribe To The Blog

Bluum’s Inaugural Paraprofessional Training Summit

By Sarah Meskin
One of the central themes during the summit revolved around fostering inclusion and emphasizing how important it is that students of all abilities have the same access to resources and opportunities. By providing students equal access, they are able to thrive in specific learning environments for a variety of reasons, whether that be language based, having extra help if needed, feeling emotionally safe or simply having their progress tracked and sent to parents.

Here to Stay

The fastest-growing student demographic in Idaho is Hispanic students. Through our new study, Here to Stay, we sought to learn more about the experiences of Idaho’s Hispanic parents around their education hopes, concerns, and opportunities. We are hopeful the findings from this research study can help Idaho’s leaders better design policies in each of these areas.

Bluum Exceeds Its Five-Year Charter School Growth Plans

Darren Svan, Idaho Ed News
This story originally appeared on Idaho Ed News

As Bluum awards the last federal grant funds that five years ago kicked off the rapid expansion of charter schools, the organization predicts 2,800 more seats and eight more schools than originally promised. While those results can’t be celebrated until the last six schools are built and the other 22 completed schools finish growing, Bluum expects to fly by their expansion expectations, made to the U.S. Department of Education in 2018. And with a new Department of Education grant application process currently underway, and millions of dollars more of federal grant money up for grabs, Bluum is back to work looking for opportunities, new innovations and partnerships. The organization has not applied yet, but expects to make that decision this spring.

Parent Survey and Focus Group Findings from Idaho’s Empowering Parents Program

Results from the focus groups and survey of Idaho parents who received funding from Idaho’s Empowering Parents grant program. These findings are based on an online survey conducted January 17-26, 2023, with 359 parents who applied for an Empowering Parents grant. The survey work was conducted by the New York City-based FDR Group and funded by the Walton Family Foundation. Bluum was proud to coordinate the efforts on the ground in Idaho. Our hope is that this work helps strengthen support for the Empowering Parents Program while also providing ideas for improvements.

Four Idaho Public Charter Schools Awarded $1.9M in New School Grants

Four Idaho public charter schools have been awarded $1,913,068 in federal funding from Idaho’s Communities of Excellence Federal Charter Schools Program (CSP). This is the seventh and final round of grant awards under the terms of this competitive CSP grant. The grant awards are aimed at increasing the number of high-quality public charter school seats for Idaho families and students.    

These grants will allow the four subgrantee schools to add a total of 1,702 new students. Funding comes from a $22 million U.S. Department of Education grant awarded to Bluum in 2018.