Pods in Action: The Boston Community Learning Collaborative. A Pandemic Response Offers an Opportunity to Pilot Community-Led School System Change

During the spring of 2020, two months into the global COVID-19 pandemic, four leading CBOs in Boston--the YMCA of Greater Boston, Latinos For Education (LFE), Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA), and The BASE--came together to discuss what they can do to help underserved children in the city experiencing education disruption. In response to the challenge, the organizations used their existing partnership, called the Community Learning Collaborative (CLC), to organize a series of in-person learning centers to meet the needs of youth who found themselves facing a whole year outside of physical school buildings. This case study provides a description of the implementation of the CLC pods during the 2020-21 school year, including initial information on their potential impact.