Informed by the recommendations and data collection from the 2010-2011 Project Teams, Graduate NYC worked with CUNY, the DOE, and the Mayor’s Office through the summer of 2011 to identify key priorities within the institutions to advance the ‘double the numbers’ goals, and outline the scope of collaborative work to be accomplished by Graduate NYC. In 2011-2012, Graduate NYC focused on several major projects:
- Engage in High school (Grade 12) and college curriculum (developmental and first credit-bearing) alignment in reading and writing and math. The goal is to develop curricular materials using a team of high school teachers and college faculty and widely disseminate them across CUNY and DOE, as well as to create a structure for ongoing teacher/faculty collaboration.
- Develop academic intervention for high school students in their Junior and Senior years not on track to be college ready. The College Focus Program will begin in summer 2012 and the goal is to to scale across CUNY and DOE in 2013-2014.
- Develop a NYC-specific college knowledge, access, and success web resource (would become NYC College Line) for students and parents, and an online learning community for youth development/college support professionals. This resource aims to accomplish the following goals:
- Increase awareness for all users about postsecondary options (e.g. college, careers, military, etc.,), and the steps related to college preparation and completion.
- Increase access for all users to accurate and timely information about college preparation and completion, New York City specific programs and services, and self-directed learning.
- Increase the number of college access and completion support staff with training and resources for college preparation through completion.
- Increase connections for all users within and across peer groups.
- Increase college preparation, enrollment, retention and completion for students defined as NYC public school students and City University of New York students.
- Design “Academy” for professionals working with students in NYC to support professional and organizational development to improve student college transition and success services within the five boroughs. The GradNYC Academy for Transition Professionals launched in Spring 2012 (click here for the Academy’s promotional flyer). The Academy consisted of a 5-day workshop series developed by program staff in CUNY’s College Now and Collaborative Programs Research & Evaluation Unit to help program providers from area Community Based Organizations (CBOs) to systematically analyze their own program designs and learn how to best use data to inform their program practices. The workshop series was designed to provide participants with the opportunity to explore the wide range of data, whether collected by the program or publicly available, that can be used to help inform program practices and report on program outcomes. During the Spring 2012 workshop series, Academy participants framed their program components, using program management tools like logic models and backwards mapping techniques, to identify and quantify tangible organizational goals and outcomes. Click here for the Academy Training Manual, which contains information and strategies for data-informed program management practices, and provides copies (or links) to all of the references and material shared during the workshop series.
- Continue development of a data warehouse to hold CUNY and DOE student data by Summer, 2012.
- Host the Graduate NYC Community Best Practices Forum series, which invites representatives from all youth-serving organizations in NYC – including the DOE, CUNY, the Mayor’s Office, and a range of community-based organizations – to learn more about the latest research and best practices in college readiness and success. The Forum series seeks primarily to increase awareness and share information about critical issues in the field. It also provides a space for professionals who work in college access and success to come together as a community, and to recognize the importance of collective, cross-institutional support for the college readiness and success of all NYC students.
