According to sayyestoeducation.org, the Syracuse University program designed to reduce the effects of the documented achievement gap between urban and suburban students has had great success since its inception.
To summarize, the program was created with the intent to provide a K-12 program meant to address the financial and geographic barriers that most often derail college attendance for urban children.
According to the website, each child selected for the program will receive:
• Student diagnostic testing and ongoing monitoring to identify strengths as well as weaknesses and effectively manage academic and social-emotional supports
• Individual student growth plans (conducted annually and monitored regularly)
• Tutoring (small-group and one-on-one)
• Research-based, school-wide academic and social-emotional programming of the caliber that suburban and affluent families value for their own children. (e.g., International Baccalaureate and PATHS programs)
• Inclusive settings, curriculum, and support for students with disabilities and English language learners
• Classroom and school climate that nurtures, enriches, and assumes competence
• After-school program
• Summer school program
• Counseling and family engagement (including 1 social worker for every 200 students in each participating school)
• Mentoring
• Financial aid and college selection counseling
More often than not, family history for education success and local demographics play a large part in a child’s ability to achieve a college education. The Say Yes program removes many of these pre-existing conditions and gives each child a better chance at a college education.
The Providence Effect is in support of these community-based education reform programs that focus on the long-term advantages of a college education, and find the ways to make it happen for kids of the community. With the budget cuts and layoffs facing schools throughout the US, it is programs like these that will be among the pioneers of the new wave of community-based education reform.
Posted By: Paul Adams
Wednesday, May 12th 2010 at 6:14PM
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