cindy25
11-21-2011, 05:10 AM
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/schools/article640811.ece
College tuition guarantee in the works
The Buffalo district is close to closing an exciting deal with Say Yes to Education, a nonprofit group dedicated to ensuring that every student who graduates from high school and is admitted to college will be able to attend one -- for FREE
The guarantee is this: college tuition for every student in Buffalo who graduates from a public or charter high school in the city and receives admission to college.
Local officials hope to announce just such a guarantee soon -- possibly in the next few weeks.
A similar guarantee already exists in Syracuse, where a national group, Say Yes to Education, is in its fourth year working with the schools there.
The nonprofit is ready to launch a partnership with a second urban district in New York.
While those involved emphasize that Buffalo has not closed the deal, it's clear that the Queen City has entered the home stretch of negotiations.
"It's a game-changer," Buffalo School Board President Louis J. Petrucci said. "What it does is take the thought of a college education from the nebulous and makes it concrete. It makes college a reality -- the financial hurdle is removed. So I hope it happens -- and we're working very hard to make sure it does."
Interim Superintendent Amber M. Dixon, too, hopes Say Yes will partner with the district.
"If you tell 30,000 students they're going to have their college paid for, it's going to ignite a lot of excitement," she said. "Think of the enormity of what this could do for the city. They come in and bring with them the challenge to the community."
There is much work to be done, she acknowledges.
Currently, 47 percent of students in the Buffalo Public Schools graduate in four years. And most of them, according to state education officials, are not adequately prepared for college.
Say Yes promises to help the district change those numbers.
While the tuition guarantee carries the biggest "wow" factor, Say Yes brings with it a much bigger package: a long-term plan to get school, government and union officials working together to give kids the supports they need to not only graduate from high school, but succeed in college.
Those spearheading the fundraising effort for Buffalo's tuition guarantee -- leaders from two local foundations -- say they are still trying to secure enough commitments from donors to underwrite the tuition guarantee for 20 years. It's not yet clear which high school graduating class would be the first to be eligible.
At this point, local organizers are working toward a guarantee that Buffalo students would be able to attend any public institution in New York State. They hope to eventually attract private colleges as partners, as well.
In Syracuse, 26 private colleges -- in addition to all SUNY and CUNY schools -- participate. In the past three years, 1,200 Syracuse students -- about half of those who graduated -- have benefited from the tuition guarantee.
A real opportunity
Students have to get accepted to the colleges on their own merits. Once they do, the guarantee covers any gap between their tuition costs and any other financial aid they receive.
"We have a very real opportunity to change the future of 33,000 kids who are part of the Buffalo school system," said Clotilde Perez-Bode Dedecker, president and CEO of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.
She and Blythe T. Merrill, senior program officer of the John R. Oishei Foundation, have been working for four years to try to realize this effort in Buffalo. They believe such a program has the potential to revitalize Buffalo's economy, as more of the city's young people graduate from high school and go on to college.
"The kids in our school system are no less intelligent than kids in suburban school systems," Dedecker said. "They just have different home realities."
Twenty-five years ago, George Weiss, a money manager in Hartford, Conn., made a promise to more than 100 seventh-graders from the Belmont School in Philadelphia: if they graduated from high school, he would send them to college.
And with that, Say Yes to Education was born.
Since then, the group has branched out to other places -- such as Cambridge, Mass., Hartford, Conn., and Harlem -- identifying a particular grade level or group of students in each place to work with from a young age.
Over time, Say Yes added support services, such as tutoring, mentoring and summer programs.
"What the foundation found over its first 18 years was that the combination of incentive and comprehensive supports was a phenomenally powerful intervention," said Mary Anne Schmitt-Carey, president of Say Yes. "In each case, you saw dramatic increases in high school and college completion. The earlier you started, the more dramatic the impact on outcomes."
Sixty-two percent of the students from the Belmont School graduated from high school -- double the expected rate. Say Yes now boasts high school graduation rates from its programs averaging 78 percent -- which compares with a graduation rate of less than 50 percent in places like Syracuse and Buffalo.
Six years ago, about the time Schmitt-Carey took the helm, Say Yes decided to find a way to implement that model on a much broader scale. The group worked with the American Institutes for Research to determine how much it would cost per student to provide the support services necessary for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to graduate from high school.
The answer: $3,500 per student.
Say Yes looked for a school district in New York to partner with and chose Syracuse, a district with about the same demographics as Buffalo, but about one-third smaller. For the first time, Say Yes sought to establish itself across an entire district.
In Syracuse, the spending has worked out to be closer to $3,200 per student -- and much of it has involved reallocating existing resources, rather than finding new money, Schmitt-Carey said.
Support of leaders
The group's research-based, data-driven approach is predicated on bringing all partners to the table in a structured way to coordinate resources and efforts. It has won the support of leaders at the local as well as state levels.
"The Say Yes to Education model is effective because it engages cross-sector collaboration to ensure that every child in the community has an opportunity to go to, and is prepared for, college," said Katie Campos, assistant secretary for education to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
Twice a month in Syracuse, representatives from the school district, the teachers union, the mayor's office, county government and higher education meet to review results and talk about ways to better serve students.
"This is kind of an unprecedented marriage between all of us. I really can't overstate how important that is and how difficult that is -- and Say Yes has done a tremendous job to make sure we make the right decisions together," said Kevin Ahern, president of the Syracuse Teachers Association.
There have been bumps in the road, he says.
Some of the partners involved do not always understand how union contracts factor into decisions, he said. And some of the recommendations flowing from Say Yes consultants have not been popular with the unions -- for instance, in the midst of the most recent budget crunch, a consultant recommended cutting about 150 of 800 teaching assistants.
Still, Ahern offers high praise for Say Yes and its leaders.
"I support this thing 100 percent," he said. "But there are issues that need to be worked through. It's not always happy talk at our regular meetings. And Say Yes understands that. They've, over time, figured out that everybody has to figure out how to work together on these things. In general, it's worked out very well."
Syracuse School Superintendent Sharon Contreras said that Say Yes has introduced a new way of bringing the city and county together to support children.
"The children are no longer simply the responsibility of the school district, but we all own them and we are all vested in their success," she said.
She credits the efforts of Say Yes for many improvements.
The district now has one social worker for every 200 students -- a significant improvement from its previous ratio of one social worker for every 500 to 700 students, which is about the current ratio in Buffalo.
Legal clinics throughout the city provide free support to families on custody issues, housing and more.
Every elementary school offers two hours of enrichment activities after classes. About 60 percent of students participate.
Tutors -- 360 of them, many from Syracuse University -- work with students both during the school day and afterward on their academics.
Every elementary school will have its own mental health clinic, staffed by an outside agency, by the end of the school year.
"It's a collective commitment to the future of children in our city. Everyone's at the table, in one form or another," said Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor, who has been playing a lead role in the Say Yes efforts in Syracuse.
Praise for program
Schmitt-Carey and nearly everyone involved with the school-improvement efforts in Syracuse emphasize that it will take years to see the full results.
"The research will tell you if a child isn't on grade level for reading or math by third grade, their chances of graduating are very slim," said Ned Deuel, a School Board member.
The full impact of Say Yes' efforts, he said, will not be known until current elementary students reach high school. Still, many Syracuse officials offer unqualified praise for the program.
"This is the most incredible partnership I've seen in public education during my career," Contreras said. "And I think it holds tremendous promise for district transformation."
In Buffalo, Dixon acknowledges that the district has a lot of work to do to help more students graduate from high school.
"The same old, same old, isn't working," she said. "All I've been about since I got here is opening things up, trying things from a different angle. I have this vision for how I want to turn things around. Say Yes could be the blueprint to do that."
Say Yes leaders acknowledge that turning around a failing school system will take years. If the group agrees to come to Buffalo, it will commit to spending six years here to help the schools -- bringing $10 million in grants and another $5 million in pro bono services. (The college tuition guarantees would be funded entirely through local donations.)
The idea is to analyze how money is being spent in the district, and how effective it is -- and then set about getting everyone to work together to help kids. The goal is that after six years, Say Yes will have created an infrastructure and established a momentum that will enable the community to continue the work on its own.
Making progress
Local organizers seeking to bring Say Yes here have already secured letters of commitment from Dixon, Petrucci, outgoing County Executive Chris Collins, Mayor Byron W. Brown and Buffalo Teachers Federation President Philip Rumore -- along with letters of support from state and federal legislators.
And the mayor has already earmarked $500,000 over three years in seed money for Say Yes, which he hopes will signal the city's commitment to the program.
Dedecker and Merrill say they have made progress lining up donors but have some ground to cover to realize their full goal.
They believe enough donors will step forward.
"I don't think it's a matter of resources. I think it's a matter of will for us," Dedecker said. "Everybody believes this is possible. Everybody wants to be part of the solution
College tuition guarantee in the works
The Buffalo district is close to closing an exciting deal with Say Yes to Education, a nonprofit group dedicated to ensuring that every student who graduates from high school and is admitted to college will be able to attend one -- for FREE
The guarantee is this: college tuition for every student in Buffalo who graduates from a public or charter high school in the city and receives admission to college.
Local officials hope to announce just such a guarantee soon -- possibly in the next few weeks.
A similar guarantee already exists in Syracuse, where a national group, Say Yes to Education, is in its fourth year working with the schools there.
The nonprofit is ready to launch a partnership with a second urban district in New York.
While those involved emphasize that Buffalo has not closed the deal, it's clear that the Queen City has entered the home stretch of negotiations.
"It's a game-changer," Buffalo School Board President Louis J. Petrucci said. "What it does is take the thought of a college education from the nebulous and makes it concrete. It makes college a reality -- the financial hurdle is removed. So I hope it happens -- and we're working very hard to make sure it does."
Interim Superintendent Amber M. Dixon, too, hopes Say Yes will partner with the district.
"If you tell 30,000 students they're going to have their college paid for, it's going to ignite a lot of excitement," she said. "Think of the enormity of what this could do for the city. They come in and bring with them the challenge to the community."
There is much work to be done, she acknowledges.
Currently, 47 percent of students in the Buffalo Public Schools graduate in four years. And most of them, according to state education officials, are not adequately prepared for college.
Say Yes promises to help the district change those numbers.
While the tuition guarantee carries the biggest "wow" factor, Say Yes brings with it a much bigger package: a long-term plan to get school, government and union officials working together to give kids the supports they need to not only graduate from high school, but succeed in college.
Those spearheading the fundraising effort for Buffalo's tuition guarantee -- leaders from two local foundations -- say they are still trying to secure enough commitments from donors to underwrite the tuition guarantee for 20 years. It's not yet clear which high school graduating class would be the first to be eligible.
At this point, local organizers are working toward a guarantee that Buffalo students would be able to attend any public institution in New York State. They hope to eventually attract private colleges as partners, as well.
In Syracuse, 26 private colleges -- in addition to all SUNY and CUNY schools -- participate. In the past three years, 1,200 Syracuse students -- about half of those who graduated -- have benefited from the tuition guarantee.
A real opportunity
Students have to get accepted to the colleges on their own merits. Once they do, the guarantee covers any gap between their tuition costs and any other financial aid they receive.
"We have a very real opportunity to change the future of 33,000 kids who are part of the Buffalo school system," said Clotilde Perez-Bode Dedecker, president and CEO of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.
She and Blythe T. Merrill, senior program officer of the John R. Oishei Foundation, have been working for four years to try to realize this effort in Buffalo. They believe such a program has the potential to revitalize Buffalo's economy, as more of the city's young people graduate from high school and go on to college.
"The kids in our school system are no less intelligent than kids in suburban school systems," Dedecker said. "They just have different home realities."
Twenty-five years ago, George Weiss, a money manager in Hartford, Conn., made a promise to more than 100 seventh-graders from the Belmont School in Philadelphia: if they graduated from high school, he would send them to college.
And with that, Say Yes to Education was born.
Since then, the group has branched out to other places -- such as Cambridge, Mass., Hartford, Conn., and Harlem -- identifying a particular grade level or group of students in each place to work with from a young age.
Over time, Say Yes added support services, such as tutoring, mentoring and summer programs.
"What the foundation found over its first 18 years was that the combination of incentive and comprehensive supports was a phenomenally powerful intervention," said Mary Anne Schmitt-Carey, president of Say Yes. "In each case, you saw dramatic increases in high school and college completion. The earlier you started, the more dramatic the impact on outcomes."
Sixty-two percent of the students from the Belmont School graduated from high school -- double the expected rate. Say Yes now boasts high school graduation rates from its programs averaging 78 percent -- which compares with a graduation rate of less than 50 percent in places like Syracuse and Buffalo.
Six years ago, about the time Schmitt-Carey took the helm, Say Yes decided to find a way to implement that model on a much broader scale. The group worked with the American Institutes for Research to determine how much it would cost per student to provide the support services necessary for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to graduate from high school.
The answer: $3,500 per student.
Say Yes looked for a school district in New York to partner with and chose Syracuse, a district with about the same demographics as Buffalo, but about one-third smaller. For the first time, Say Yes sought to establish itself across an entire district.
In Syracuse, the spending has worked out to be closer to $3,200 per student -- and much of it has involved reallocating existing resources, rather than finding new money, Schmitt-Carey said.
Support of leaders
The group's research-based, data-driven approach is predicated on bringing all partners to the table in a structured way to coordinate resources and efforts. It has won the support of leaders at the local as well as state levels.
"The Say Yes to Education model is effective because it engages cross-sector collaboration to ensure that every child in the community has an opportunity to go to, and is prepared for, college," said Katie Campos, assistant secretary for education to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
Twice a month in Syracuse, representatives from the school district, the teachers union, the mayor's office, county government and higher education meet to review results and talk about ways to better serve students.
"This is kind of an unprecedented marriage between all of us. I really can't overstate how important that is and how difficult that is -- and Say Yes has done a tremendous job to make sure we make the right decisions together," said Kevin Ahern, president of the Syracuse Teachers Association.
There have been bumps in the road, he says.
Some of the partners involved do not always understand how union contracts factor into decisions, he said. And some of the recommendations flowing from Say Yes consultants have not been popular with the unions -- for instance, in the midst of the most recent budget crunch, a consultant recommended cutting about 150 of 800 teaching assistants.
Still, Ahern offers high praise for Say Yes and its leaders.
"I support this thing 100 percent," he said. "But there are issues that need to be worked through. It's not always happy talk at our regular meetings. And Say Yes understands that. They've, over time, figured out that everybody has to figure out how to work together on these things. In general, it's worked out very well."
Syracuse School Superintendent Sharon Contreras said that Say Yes has introduced a new way of bringing the city and county together to support children.
"The children are no longer simply the responsibility of the school district, but we all own them and we are all vested in their success," she said.
She credits the efforts of Say Yes for many improvements.
The district now has one social worker for every 200 students -- a significant improvement from its previous ratio of one social worker for every 500 to 700 students, which is about the current ratio in Buffalo.
Legal clinics throughout the city provide free support to families on custody issues, housing and more.
Every elementary school offers two hours of enrichment activities after classes. About 60 percent of students participate.
Tutors -- 360 of them, many from Syracuse University -- work with students both during the school day and afterward on their academics.
Every elementary school will have its own mental health clinic, staffed by an outside agency, by the end of the school year.
"It's a collective commitment to the future of children in our city. Everyone's at the table, in one form or another," said Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor, who has been playing a lead role in the Say Yes efforts in Syracuse.
Praise for program
Schmitt-Carey and nearly everyone involved with the school-improvement efforts in Syracuse emphasize that it will take years to see the full results.
"The research will tell you if a child isn't on grade level for reading or math by third grade, their chances of graduating are very slim," said Ned Deuel, a School Board member.
The full impact of Say Yes' efforts, he said, will not be known until current elementary students reach high school. Still, many Syracuse officials offer unqualified praise for the program.
"This is the most incredible partnership I've seen in public education during my career," Contreras said. "And I think it holds tremendous promise for district transformation."
In Buffalo, Dixon acknowledges that the district has a lot of work to do to help more students graduate from high school.
"The same old, same old, isn't working," she said. "All I've been about since I got here is opening things up, trying things from a different angle. I have this vision for how I want to turn things around. Say Yes could be the blueprint to do that."
Say Yes leaders acknowledge that turning around a failing school system will take years. If the group agrees to come to Buffalo, it will commit to spending six years here to help the schools -- bringing $10 million in grants and another $5 million in pro bono services. (The college tuition guarantees would be funded entirely through local donations.)
The idea is to analyze how money is being spent in the district, and how effective it is -- and then set about getting everyone to work together to help kids. The goal is that after six years, Say Yes will have created an infrastructure and established a momentum that will enable the community to continue the work on its own.
Making progress
Local organizers seeking to bring Say Yes here have already secured letters of commitment from Dixon, Petrucci, outgoing County Executive Chris Collins, Mayor Byron W. Brown and Buffalo Teachers Federation President Philip Rumore -- along with letters of support from state and federal legislators.
And the mayor has already earmarked $500,000 over three years in seed money for Say Yes, which he hopes will signal the city's commitment to the program.
Dedecker and Merrill say they have made progress lining up donors but have some ground to cover to realize their full goal.
They believe enough donors will step forward.
"I don't think it's a matter of resources. I think it's a matter of will for us," Dedecker said. "Everybody believes this is possible. Everybody wants to be part of the solution