Envision Schools

Envision Education is a Bay Area network of high performing charter schools, founded in June 2002 by Daniel McLaughlin and Bob Lenz,^[2] that currently runs five public middle and high Envision Schools in the San Francisco Bay Area.^[3]

Envision Education
Location
California
Information
Type	Charter schools
Founded	2002
Founder	Bob Lenz & Daniel McLaughlin[1]
Website	envisionschools.org

Established in 2002, Envision Education serves approximately 1,500 students in the San Francisco Bay Area: 70% are low-income; 94% from communities of color; and 75% first generation college bound.  From this population, 100% of graduates are accepted to 2- or 4-year colleges, with 77% accepted to 4-year institutions.  Envision graduates also persist in college once they enroll. Their college persistence rate is 87% from first to second year, compared to the national average of 74%.

Envision also operates Envision Learning Partners, a coaching and training division working with schools across the country to adapt and adopt the Portfolio Defense model.  ELP works with more than 1,000 educators in 30+ school networks and reaching more than 200,000 students.

Investment

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation helped launch the school network with a $3 million investment in 2003 to form an initial group of five charter schools.^[4] In 2006, the foundation invested another $6.9 million aimed at helping the program duplicate its arts and technology programs.

Schools

Current

• City Arts & Leadership Academy in San Francisco, opened in 2004 with an inaugural class of 100 freshmen.^[5] The school now has students in all four high school grades starting with the 2007-08 school year. CAT graduated its first class of Seniors in 2008.
• Envision Academy of Arts & Technology in Oakland, California, opened in 2007-08 school year with students in grades 9 and 10; today, it serves students in grades 6-7 and 9-12. It will add 8th grade in school year 2021-22.
• Impact Academy of Arts & Technology in Hayward, California, opened for 2007-08 with 125 students in grade 9.^[6] Today, it serves over 700 students in grades 6-12.

Combined with other Envision Schools

• Marin School of Arts and Technology (MSAT), Novato, California
• Metropolitan Arts and Technology Highschool, San Francisco, California