Black Star Rising more than doubled its impact this summer

This summer, Spark joined Superintendent Su and Spark Board members for a tour of AAALI’s Black Star Rising summer program and Freedom School.  For ten years, Spark has funded Black Star Rising (BSR), a core AAALI program. BSR pairs rigorous STEM instruction — accelerated math, college-credit courses, hands-on engineering — with identity-affirming support for rising 9th–12th graders.

In its sixth summer, SFUSD's Black Star Rising grew from 45 scholars to 97 — and widened what it could offer them. For the first time, BSR ran its own Accelerated Geometry section: 24 students enrolled, all 24 passed, and all 24 are now on track for AP-level math their senior year.

Dual enrollment doubled to two City College sections taught by two CCSF professors — Health 221 and Learn 50 — where 43 students earned transferable college credit and every one of them passed. Twenty-two rising 9th graders completed Algebra 1 prep alongside a Study Skills Prep course worth 5 high school credits, and all 22 passed. Among credit-recovery students, 22 of 24 passed, 15 of them while also carrying a college course, keeping them on-track for a four-year graduation.

In their words

"[Black Star Rising] shows me teachers that have gone through what I've gone through. They show me educators that look like me and have done amazing things, like gone to Stanford, Brown, other great schools. They get on a level where they treat me as an equal, and they teach me as an equal. It allows me to learn better and take in what I learn more."
— Hunter, Lincoln High School '27

"Black Star Rising means, as an African American student, you have to rise above the challenges that we face — inside of school and outside of school — and just all help each other out. Being in Black Star made me more able to ask for help, especially from people like me. I used to rather sit down and struggle on my own and get it wrong than open up and ask for help."
— Ty'Rae, Mission High School '29

"Being at Black Star Rising, I learned a lot about myself and what it's like to be uncomfortable in unfamiliar spaces. It doesn't matter how you feel at first, because in the ending, you'll feel better. When I started, I would take little things so seriously and let them affect my whole day. But being in BSR, I learned how to calm myself down and how to go about certain situations."
— Erianna, Washington High School '29