Educational Diamond in the Bronx

From CUNY Prep website

Andrew Moore from the Institute for Youth, Education, and Families at the National League of Cities shares his insights from a site visit to CUNY Prep in his post Educational Diamond in the Bronx.  He points out that CUNY Prep is a great example of the Back on Track design as outlined by Jobs for the Future: enriched preparation, postsecondary bridging, and supports during the first year in college and beyond

Notably, with a few years’ experience under its belt, CUNY Prep now operates its own variant of the three-phase model.  In an initial three-month cycle, students prepare to take the GED in classes taught at a college level.  Once they pass the test – often with months to go before the beginning of the semester at one of CUNY’s six community colleges — students enter a College Transition Academy (CTA).   CTA provides classes to start earning credits, as well as catch-up classes to eliminate the need for remediation.  CTA’s director tells students, “give us six months, and we’ll save you $3,000” – the fees students would otherwise pay, or charge against financial aid, for remedial classes.  Upon admission to college, students gain access to the College Success Network, which includes two on-site college success coaches and a job program to support students’ financial needs.   Of the first 100 students benefiting from CTA, nearly half have persisted through the first year of college classes.

I visited CUNY prep ages and ages ago...and it was already a beacon, pointing us in the direction that our field had to go.  While some alternative schools are still stuck in digital worksheets others are stretching our understanding of what we can do and what our young people can do.  There are a handful of schools across the country that are pulling this off...and we need to take a hard look about how to refine policy to support them. They also promise to be the best place to understand how our high schools need to be redesigned around youth development practices, accelerated learning and transitional supports.

JFF has put together a great website with resources to get students ... Back on Track.