Youth Transitions:
High School Reform and Programs Serving Out-of-School Youth in New York City
An American Youth Policy Forum Field Trip — May 15, 1997
The site visit to New York City was part of a two-day gathering of foundation funders concerned about the transition of young people into careers and post-secondary education and training. The purpose of the meeting was to improve the effectiveness of grant makers by observing exemplary sites and by discussing lessons gleaned from grant making in the field.
The visit, planned and advanced by the American Youth Policy Forum [1], provided opportunities to learn about strategies and institutional reforms focused on in-school and out-of-school youth (see Attachment A for site visit agenda). In all, 21 grant makers participated in one of two visitation streams which encompassed:
- three public high schools--International, La Guardia Middle College and Economics and Finance--(a) successfully improving academic outcomes and career exploration for youth; (b) actively engaging in whole-school reform affecting the structure of time, curriculum and assessment, and staff development; (c) engaging networks with other schools and organizations for staff development and technical assistance; and (d) employing deep and established relationships with employers, community resources and postsecondary institutions to effect a range of academic, career preparation and social outcomes for youth
- two institutions--the Young Adult Learning Academy and Vocational Foundation--providing opportunities for dropouts or jobless youth to continue their education and training, and transition to careers and further learning
- a community-based organization, Youth Communication, providing opportunities through journalism for young people to identify and explore issues of interest to their peers while developing critical "soft" and occupational skills necessary for success in school, the workplace and citizenship
Prior to the visits, participating funders identified several issues and components of youth transitions that were of particular interest:
- school-to-careers as it relates to systemic educational reform
- efforts to restructure school culture and climate
- career academies--do they work and how well?
- the use of employer standards by public schools and other publicly-funded systems
- youth development where adolescents are viewed as resources for communities
- efforts to shape services to the needs of diverse populations
- the benefits of work that are not just economic
- long-term vs. short-term labor market attachment
- workforce development and access to high quality employment for young people
- the impacts of urban poverty on youth transitions
- what work preparation strategies work best for disadvantaged youth
- the employer's role in linking school and work
- linking adult role models with careers (especially those in math and science)
Following are highlights of each institution or organization visited.
High School of Economics and Finance
The High School of Economics and Finance is a relatively new (the first class graduated in 1997 [2]) citywide magnet for 700 students located in the heart of Manhattan's Wall Street district in a building that previously housed the New York University Law School. The school is the result of a collaboration between the New York City Board of Education and The Travelers Group [3] and combines career education in financial services with a demanding college preparatory program--all students take Regents-level courses, including at least three years of mathematics, science and a second language. Extensive partnerships with surrounding financial services institutions provide extended resources to the school, e.g., partners organize and teach seminars for students, participate in curriculum development and provide paid internships for students in the summer. A partnership with Baruch College, the premier business college of the City University of New York (CUNY), allows students to take up to four college credits for free.
As with other magnet schools in the city, students must apply. From the applicant pool, staff are permitted to select one-third above grade level, one-third at grade level, and one-third below grade level.
According to Principal Susan De Armas, "Many students come here to expand their horizons--contrary to common thought, New York City kids are very provincial. For some, the theme is less important than the opportunity to attend school in an up-scale neighborhood, in a school that is small, safe and far from their neighborhood."
The curriculum is based on National Academy Foundation [4] industry-related courses and provides introduction to all facets of financial services. School staff have extended the NAF 11th and 12th grade curriculum to encompass a younger and broader range of students, beginning in the 9th grade, and tailored the curriculum closely to the demands and resources of the immediate Wall Street financial services community. Freshmen are introduced to careers in finance through Welcome to Wall Street, and learn study skills and ways of accessing the resources of New York City through Financial Research and Communications. They learn how to start their own businesses through the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) curriculum, replicate stock market trading in the classroom and visit the New York Stock Exchange.
Through the Stanford I. Weill Institute for Lifelong Learning, the mechanism by which the financial community is brought into the school, students take New Horizons, a 16-week seminar that introduces them to business terms and workplace demands. On Wednesdays students participate in seminars, field trips and workshops (many of them are sponsored and taught by the corporate sponsors) at the Weill Institute (as many as 25 options are available) for eight weeks on topics as diverse as SAT preparation, martial arts, "Running a Wall Street Firm," etc. Students also participate in up to four eight-week activities per year.
On Thursdays, seniors are involved in a "virtual enterprise" (Senior Investors) of portfolio management on behalf of the six other NYC public high schools that participate in virtual businesses. A suite of rooms has been equipped to replicate a genuine office environment complete with computers, fax and copy machines. Classes at other high schools comprise different business in this "virtual economy" (e.g., travel services, office supplies, etc.).
Throughout the program, students learn what is expected and what to expect in the work place (e.g., business attire, punctuality) while developing a resume and work experiences. To graduate, all students participate in a sequence of 120 hours of community service, 120 hours of unpaid internship and 250 hours of a paid internships. Along the way, they develop and refine resumes and learn critical SCANS skills. According to de Armas, student work experience benefits both the student and the employer: "Most of the workers on Wall Street are white, don't send their kids to public schools, and have poor expectations of the public schools. We prepare our kids well for Wall Street and Wall Street for a diverse future workforce."
With School-to-Work Opportunities Act and corporate grants, teachers also participate in a two-week summer professional experience where they develop courses, refine the curriculum and/or participate in business internships in the finance industry.
Although staff for the school must be selected from a pool of qualified teachers based on seniority, a school-based option allows for waiving the seniority requirement based on the special curriculum requirements of the school. The school has opted out of the city's STW program funds because of local implementation requirements (e.g., to serve kindergarten through out-of-school youth; and participate in partnerships including unions--the finance industry is not unionized).
LaGuardia Middle College High School [5]
This 21-year-old high school operates under the combined sponsorship of the New York City Board of Education Board and the Board of Higher Education of New York City and is located on the LaGuardia Community College campus. Begun with funding from the Carnegie Corporation and the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, the school was designed to reduce the dropout rate in urban high schools, prepare students more effectively for work or college, and to attract more students to higher education.
According to one of its originators, Janet Liberman:
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As a public alternative high school on a college campus, the program creates a continuum between high school and college. The Middle College structure also features flexible pacing, broad curricular options, service-oriented career education with required internships for all students, and a college environment. The underlying education philosophy is based on the psychosocial truism that fifteen-year-olds (the tenth-grade students) have more in common with twenty-year-olds than with twelve-year-olds and should be allowed to make their own educational choices.
The joint fiscal arrangement between the K-12 and higher education funding sources has guaranteed the support and mutual interaction of the secondary and postsecondary components of the school over time. The college shares all of its facilities with the high school students and each student has a college I.D., access to the college library, cafeteria, science labs, art studio, computer labs and gyms.
The public high school currently serves 500 students who were judged "at risk" by their former school's guidance counselors. Each year some 1,000 students apply for 100 new slots.
According to Principal Cecilia Cunningham, the school considers itself far more "traditional" than LaGuardia's newer International Middle High School (described in the next section) in that is organized by academic disciplines. A small school stressing good interpersonal relationships, LMCHS has 32 "houses" meeting once a week as an advisement or home room. Teachers have only three periods a day serving a maximum of 75 students. Subjects are taught in 70-minute periods organized to maximize student inquiry and analysis. Most courses have assessment projects whereby students can demonstrate applications of their skills and knowledge. There is no "F" grade. If a student fails to perform to the standards of the course, he/she is given a No Credit and must repeat the class. Each staff person is personally responsible for 15 students. There are three full-time guidance counselors (roughly three times the national counselor: student ratio).
Stressing the ethos of a "learning community," the interdisciplinary staff meets weekly and makes major decisions on a consensus governance model. Potential new teachers have to be interviewed by school faculty and "buy into" the culture of LMCHS. Students are encouraged to feel "in control" as much as possible and exercise their skills through leadership development activities, exhibitions, performances, peer counseling, peer mediation, etc. Student-nominated peer leaders (often those most at-risk) attend special weekends designed to develop their leadership skills and bond them further to the school.
A major feature of the school is the requirement of three internships as a condition of graduation. Patterned after the college's cooperative education program, internships provide exposure to a work environment and develop motivation among students. These unpaid, six-hour per week "learning beyond the school" experiences take place in over 400 sites around the city--public and private firms and agencies of all types.
The importance of workbased learning is firmly imbedded in the structure of the school and the curriculum. Academic teachers are given time to organize and monitor workbased learning experiences and integrate these experiences into the classroom.
In addition, some 70 students attend college courses for credit. Over 75 percent of the school's graduates attend college, including prestigious four-year institutions. In addition, admission is guaranteed to the city's open enrollment institutions.
International High School
International High School is also a collaborative project of the New York City Board of Education and LaGuardia Community College. Students who have lived in the U. S. less than two years participate in a high school/college curriculum combining substantive study with intensive teaching and reinforcement of English. The 435 students represent 60 countries and 40 languages. All classes are heterogeneously grouped--a challenge for teaching staff.
Operating from the principle that "Language skills are most effectively learned in a context and emerge most naturally in purposeful, language rich, interdisciplinary study," the curriculum is organized around interdisciplinary thematic study. Students chose from thematically-based courses (e.g., American Reality, Conflict Resolution, 21st Century) taught by team of four to seven full- and part-time teachers, guidance counselors and paraprofessionals who work exclusively with one set of students for an entire 13-week quarter. The structure provides a balance of exposure to subject areas (such as literature, global studies, science, mathematics, and personal and career development) and clearly articulates student learning outcomes in each subject area. Students also have opportunities to study in their native languages, including literature and grammar through comparative linguistics.
According to one International staff person, "It cannot be assumed that all students come with the same background, knowledge, education and life experiences. They also leave high school knowing differing things, but state education policies don't acknowledge this diversity." International is attempting to address this issue by developing performance-based assessments that allow young people to demonstrate what they do know, instead of on-demand state tests." Satisfactory completion of a portfolio illustrating student work is required for graduation.
By graduation, nearly all students have successfully completed at least one college course and one year after graduation, 80 percent of students have successfully completed their first year of college. Also, all students participate in a mandatory out-of-school internship program for one-third of each school year. Among the purposes of the career oriented internships is to facilitate language acquisition as well as contribute a significant service to the community. Above all, internships help students understand life and work outside the classroom and acclimatize them to American society.
International High School is a member of the Center for Collaborative Education (part of the network of the Coalition of Essential Schools). Led by dynamic administrator, Eric Nadelstern, International is actively involved in the school restructuring model characterized by:
- constructivist, student-centered pedagogy in which teachers coach individuals and small groups working on activities
- teacher collaboration on instructional planning, school-wide governance and professional development (the school places a high premium on the expertise of its teachers to conduct their own collaborative professional development and peer group evaluation)
- time set aside for teacher planning and course design (in the case of International, this also includes time to develop and monitor student workbased learning experiences)
- teachers responsible for fewer students over longer periods of time (Teams have recently decided to assume responsibility for the same group of students for a year. The principal would like to see this responsibility extend for two years.)
Among areas cited for improvement are: (1) to explicitly integrate service and experiences from internships into the classroom; and (2) to expand and rethink guidance services.
Young Adult Learning Academy (YALA)
The Young Adult Learning Academy, housed in the upper floors of a spacious, but old, public school building on East 96th in Manhattan, serves young people ages 16 to 24 who have dropped out of school, or have completed high school but wish to prepare for college and/or the workforce. According to Director Leslie Reid "Many [participants] have been forced out of school, some are homeless. All have made a solid choice to continue their education, and for some, this includes college." More than 50 percent of participants are on some form of public assistance, 40 percent are single parents, and 65 percent are dropouts.
YALA grew out of a 1984 student protest demanding equal educational opportunities for out-of-school youth. It is supported through a collaboration of the New York City Board of Education, which supplies the teachers and the building; the City University of New York (CUNY) and the Mayor's Office of Adult Literacy, which provide operating funds; and the New York City Department of Employment, which supports the Youth Internship Program (YIP) through JTPA funds. The relationship with CUNY represents a natural entree for YALA students to postsecondary Education and for additional academic and social supports once in college.
Before JTPA was cut 70 percent, seven community-based organizations were housed at YALA and provided ancillary services to students. Since the cuts, the resident CBOs either closed or took services back to their home site, representing a sizeable loss to the community of millions of dollars in resources and services. To fill the void, YALA has moved from a strictly education program to a more comprehensive CBO offering a range of programs.
Close monitoring of student attendance, courses, hours and progress are important elements of the program. Student attendance is monitored through computer-generated attendance reports, allowing for immediate follow-up by staff. A portfolio system is used to document student academic and career-related work and progress. According to one staff member, "When you work with dropouts, you must be very clear about goals, requirements and program expectations."
YALA serves 600 students annually in two 16-week cycles of 300 students each. Programs include Striving to Achieve Greater Educational Success (STAGES) which concentrates on preparing students to enter GED-level instruction or for the GED examination. College preparation and internships are available depending on the students' skill levels. Student academic skills levels range from third to twelfth grade.
The program makes extensive use of computers to strengthen and enrich academic learning. There are over 200 computers on site and each student gets computer skills training. STAGES also encompasses a Leadership Program, school-to-work activities and arts education activities (graphic arts, video and photography and an in-house theater production company, Blackberry). An Arts-Related Industry Partnership provides opportunities to learn about and explore careers in the non-performing areas of the arts. To accommodate all students, both daytime and evening classes are available.
English as a Second Language (ESL) courses are also offered for young people ages 18 to 24 who read at least at fourth grade level in their first language. The program concentrates on improved English language fluency and basic reading and writing skills specifically for youth who have not finished high school and whose primary language is not English. It is also enhances knowledge of living and working in the U.S.
The Youth Internship Program (YIP) offers young people ages 16 to 21 (available to dropouts, graduates and GED recipients) opportunities to begin careers working with children and to continue their education. YIP involves six months of training using an integrated curriculum of academic subjects, early childhood development and employment skills combined with a six-week internship in a day care center. In the integrated curriculum, students use manipulatives and "messy materials" in developing measurement, fraction and estimation within the context of child development activities. They explore children's literature and identify appropriate selections as part of language arts and social studies classes. Each student creates a child care manual to be used on the job based on their early childhood curriculum, observations, readings, discussions and hands-on experiences.
Employment skills classes and workshops integrate overall employment skills (punctuality, attendance, resume, cover letter, seeking/obtaining/keeping/advancing in a job) with child care content. The program requires students to reflect on their philosophy of early childhood and be prepared to write and speak about it during mock interviews with day care center directors. Full-time internships in day care centers throughout New York City are alternated with one week of classroom training. In addition to the hands-on experiences students receive at the job site, they research career ladder requirements and opportunities and network with day care center staff.
Among the benefits to the organization of the loss of JTPA funds has been the expanded freedom to design and implement YALA programs in keeping with the needs of clients. According to one staff person, 16 weeks is often an unrealistic time period to master the knowledge required for the GED. Students are now offered a second 16-week cycle or a third, if necessary, so that 40 percent of entrants leave the program with the GED.
"Wish" List of Improvements and Services
When asked what changes they would like to see in the program if funds were available, staff provided the following "wish list."
- more computers
- an on-site child care center
- the capacity to serve half the number of youth currently served for twice as long
- better linkages to postsecondary institutions and strengthening of the college-bound program
- improvements in the internship program and greater employer involvement
Although there is some latitude to negotiate over the hiring of staff, YALA administrators desire greater latitude in staff selection. Current selections are made from the available pool of New York City teachers with seniority being the primary factor over background, interest, discipline area and history in working with young people. Another area of policy concern affecting programming is the rigid nature of JTPA that practitioners feel is not in sync with the needs of developing young people.
Vocational Foundation, Inc. (VFI)
VFI serves 1,000 young people a year. The average age is between 17 and 19, but the range of participants is 17 - 24. [6] The focus is on moving out-of-school inner-city youth into jobs, retaining them in those jobs and supporting their career advancement through counseling and support. According to VFI literature.
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Although it is a difficult task to prepare out-of-school inner city youth for employment and place them in jobs, it is a far greater challenge to help them retain those jobs for a sustained period of time and earn promotions and salary increases. Economically disadvantaged youth have a great deal of difficulty keeping jobs. In fact, in 1995, the NYC Department of Employment reported that 44 percent of youth job trainees lost their jobs within the first 30 days.
The program consists of four to five months of intensive classroom training five days per week. A typical day includes three hours of technical/occupational instruction, three hours of academic skills training to help high school dropouts gain the high school equivalency diploma (GED), and one hour on employability skills. During that time, a professional dress code is enforced. Eighty-nine percent of participants complete training; however, for VFI, the chief indicator is job placement in full-time jobs paying between $6.00 and $14.00 per hour. Five job developers work to sell the program and get placements for participants. A private sector advisory committee helps to continuously assess students' skills, provide for internship opportunities, and support placement activities.
According to VFI staff, the overall focus is on transition from the streets to employment, on-the-job retention and advancement. "We're asking youth, including those who have had employment training, to make a culture change to survive and advance on the job." To make this change, VFI provides a range of services and approaches, including youth development strategies that encompass recreational and entertainment activities; health education and services, including pregnancy, AIDS and substance abuse-prevention workshops; contacts with and referrals to other human services; and ongoing counseling and support once on the job.
The follow-up strategy is the center of VFI's "Moving Up" philosophy which combines job training and placement with up to two years of weekly follow-up job retention coaching and career advancement. In addition to weekly contacts by telephone or in person (sometimes over lunch), strategies include: evening social, cultural, educational and personal development activities; use of beepers to ensure that young people have 24-hour access to advisors for help in resolving personal emergencies and employment-related problems; working with young people to make additional job placements if job loss occurs or obtaining job upgrades for those who have been on the job several months and are ready to advance. As of the end of 1996, the "Moving Up" approach had resulted in a 71 percent job placement rate (45 percent comparison statistic among NYC youth job training providers); 65 percent of youth in employment for 6 months (24 percent comparison statistic); 36 percent of youth had earned the GED (vs. 16 percent); 9 percent births among women since enrolled (vs. 23 percent comparison); and 5 percent involvement in criminal justice system (African-American men) (vs. 32 percent comparison).
Other VFI offerings include:
- City Men, serving 100 young African-American and Latino males. Because minority young men are often underserved in training programs--particularly programs focusing on office occupations--VFI has a specially designed training program in computer technology for young men. It also provides management training for the hotel/hospitality industry, and workshops on communications skills, multi-cultural understanding and sensitivity, social skills, ethnic pride, and conflict resolution and negotiation.
- School-to-Work Transition Initiative: Hospitality Industry, for juniors and seniors from two New York City high Schools.
- The Employment and Education Center for Parents at Public School 43, Bronx, NY, a two-generation program (for parents and their children) providing job placement assistance, basic educational skills instruction computer technology training, English as a Second Language classes, support services, and parenting skills and family learning/development activities.
- Services for Young Families Program helps parents become employed and economically self-sufficient and emphasizes the father's vital role and the need for both parents to be actively involved with their child(ren)
Like YALA, VFI has suffered under recent cutbacks and fluctuations in federal employment training funding. This has forced VFI to diversify its funding sources. Currently, half of its funds are from private sources and the remainder from public sources, such as the New York City Department of Employment, Youth and Community Development Agency, and New York State Department of Training). In addition, the New York City Board of Education provides five teachers for GED classes and one paraprofessional. VFI has the right to identify appropriate teachers and the right of staff refusal. Foundation funding is primarily responsible for follow-up efforts and computer technology.
Youth Communication
Youth Communication (YC) is an innovative, out-of-school and after-school program for young people in New York City. YC serves a diverse youth community by providing them with the opportunity to express their thoughts and ideas through two major monthly publications, New Youth Connections and Foster Care Youth United. Both magazines are written entirely by YC participants, who work directly with adults and their peers during the entire publication process.
The program is designed to tap into the many resources of the community to engage young people in comprehensive youth development activities. Through YC, participants are engaged in actual publishing and workplace activities, including writing, editing, cartooning, marketing and recruiting new staff.
Many YC participants are low academic achievers, and some are even high school dropouts. The young people who prepare Foster Care Youth United, for example, must be a part of the city's foster care system, and many have already lived with multiple, and often inadequate, foster families. Recruitment occurs mainly by word of mouth, although YC does place ads in its publications and visits local schools to find new participants.
To ensure that its participants are willing and able to meet the challenges that YC presents, acceptance to the program is based on a young person's motivation level. Once a young person shows an interest in YC, he/she is asked to prepare three one-page essays: (1) a discussion of the problems facing young people, (2) a summary of an interview they must conduct and (3) an analysis of a television show or book. YC enrolls all young people who complete all three essays, allowing for youth participants to, essentially, select themselves.
Participants work roughly five hours per week during the school semester. Some youth work during the day, with YC serving as a school-approved internship, but for the majority, YC is an extracurricular activity, undertaken without connections to their school or curriculum. Participants work directly with full-time editors, who advise them on the content of the publications and work with them on editing final contributions. YC places no restrictions on what young people can write about in the magazines, but simply requires them to defend the inclusion of any essay or subject.
As a result, both New Youth Connections and Foster Care Youth United serve as a voice of the young people of New York City on issues of concern to them, such as youth violence, education, the foster care system and their place in the community. Both publications are distributed, free of charge, to public high schools across the city, some of which have even begun to replicate the YC program for their own school newspapers (including La Guardia Middle College High School, also visited on this trip).
According to Keith Hefner, founder and publisher at YC, young people benefit by gaining "hard skills," such as writing and communication ability; "soft skills," such as general workplace habits and responsibilities; and adult-youth connections through the mentoring relationships that develop with full-time YC staff and editors.
Conclusions
The field trip offered insights into many of the questions and concerns of participating funders regarding school-to-careers, education reform, school restructuring, youth development, the role of employers and adult role models, and access to high quality employment for young people, particularly disadvantaged youth.
In each of the high schools visited, school-to-career components (work-based learning, integration of academic and occupational skills, links to postsecondary education) are integral to the particular structure, curriculum and climate of the school. Many of these elements are also evident in the programs for out-of-school youth and community youth development programs visited.
At the High School of Economics and Finance, the career focus is the single unifying theme and the local financial services community has been instrumental in start-up and continuation activities. Through this partnership with industry, the resources available through the public school system are greatly extended and students have access to a rich educational environment that taps both public and private expertise. The standards of the financial services community become the basis of classroom curriculum and cognitive apprenticeships experienced through virtual enterprises and stock market simulations.
At the Middle College High Schools, internships available in a range of businesses and non-profit agencies provide exposure to a variety of work environments, ensuring that students understand the demands and expectations of the work place, find useful applications for the knowledge and skills learned in school, and serve their communities as resources. Students receive credits for work experience and graduate with a resume, a number of confidence-inspiring on-the-job experiences and a diploma. Youth Communication uses newspaper production and journalism as the context for exploring issues relevant to youth and the grindstone on which critical skills are honed. In each instance, the benefits of work experiences extend beyond economics and are critical pieces of the learning and youth development experience.
The centrality of work (and work-related behaviors) as motivation for improving basic, social, employability and occupational skills is especially evident in programs targeting out-of-school youth. Classroom activities of YALA's Youth Internship Program are structurally linked to the day care center placements so participants can maximize the learning experiences at both sites (e.g., participants alternate one week in the classroom with one week at the internship site; materials developed by participants in the classroom are directly applied at the work site, etc.). At VFI, the workplace ethic permeates the site--VFI is located in an office building, participants dress for the workplace and even punch a clock! Although participants receive classroom training in preparation for jobs, the thrust of the "Moving Up" strategy is that you use the job that you have to upgrade your skills and career prospects in a continuous spiral of improvement. VFI's workforce development strategy is to continuously supply the supports needed to help the individual improve and progress on the job.
Youth development activities are also critical components of these programs. YALA, while helping dropouts to complete their GED and prepare for the workplace, provides a range of enrichments not always associated with alternative programs such as art, drama and computer literacy. It also takes a very strict view of participation and requires that participants buy into the rules and responsibilities of participation. VFI incorporates social and recreational events into its programming. It has targeted specific populations of young people (e.g., minority males, parents) and supplied specific activities to motivate and encourage their success in education and training.
Finally, a range of partnerships were found to support these schools and programs. The relationship of industry, local businesses and community based organizations to schools was discussed above. However, partnerships across public agencies, such as the New York City Board of Education, the Board of Higher Education, two- and four-year colleges, and other agencies are responsible for the success and functioning of these institutions. Private foundation support also continues to be important to programs where public policy has not invested in specific interventions, such as longer-term training or on-the-job follow up activities.
Contact Information
Eric Nadelstern
Principal
International High School
31-10 Thomson Avenue, Room 50
Long Island City, NY 11101
Phone: 718-482-5455
Fax: 718-392-6904
Cecilia Cunningham
Principal
La Guardia Middle College High School
45-35 Van Dam Street
Long Island City, NY 11101
Phone: 718-349-4000
Keith Hefner
Publisher
Youth Communication
144 W. 27th Street, Suite 8-R
New York, NY 10001
Phone: 212-242-3270
Leslie Reid
YALA Director
Catherine Grechkosey
YIP Director
Young Adult Learning Academy
320 E. 96th Street
New York, NY 10128
Phone: 212-348-0286
Fax: 212-348-2848
Susan de Armis
Principal
High School of Economics and Finance
100 Trinity Place
New York, NY 10006
Phone: 212-346-0708
Rebecca Taylor
Executive Director
Vocational Foundation, Inc.
902 Broadway
New York, NY 10010
Phone: 212-777-0700
Fax: 212-673-8975
[1] In early 1997, the American Youth Policy Forum, Jobs for the Future and Carol Stoel of the American Association of Higher Education began a collaborative initiative to further understanding of secondary school reform and its role in creating postsecondary options for young people. The first of a series of field visits was specifically designed for education foundation officers and held April 3-4, 1997 in Boston. In keeping with the interests of grant makers at the May 15-16 session organized by Peter Kleinbard, DeWitt Wallace-Readers Digest Fund, Janet Kroll, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and Donna Lartigue, The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the focus of field visits was expanded to encompass transitions involving out-of-school youth.
[2] Students will attend colleges as diverse as CUNY/SUNY, Sarah Lawrence, McGill, AFS Sweden student exchange, Pennsylvania State and Bennington.
[3] The school received an initial $500,000 grant from Sanford I. Weill, President of The Travelers Group for start-up activities.
[4] NAF is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization governed by a national board of directors comprised of educators, business executives and civic officials. NAF provides industry-specific, school-to-work curricula to local Academies, helps training high school teachers to teach Academy courses, develops collaborations with local and national business partners and provides ongoing assistance to individual Academies.
[5] MCHS is one of 25 middle college high schools nationally.
[6] Youth served are 54 percent African American, 41 percent Hispanic; 55 percent male, 45 percent female; 83 percent high school dropouts; 60 percent welfare families; 40 percent single parents; 9 percent foster care or homeless.