As I rode the Staten
Island Ferry from Manhattan, I wondered what I would learn about how a higher
education institution and a public high school that becomes a community schools
can work together in ways that are transformative for both organizations and
the people they serve.
.
I knew Richard Guarasci the president of Wagner College and Tim
Gannon former principal of Port Richmond High School (PRHS), and now a
New York City Department of Education’s Supervisory Support Principal from
meetings of the Anchor Institutions Task Force. We started in Guarasci’s
office, where Kevin Bott, Director of Wagner’s Center
for Leadership and Community Engagement, joined us. Tim and I
then visited Port Richmond High School and Markham Intermediate School 51. These schools along with PS. 21 and other
local elementary schools are now part of the Port Richmond Partnership and the Wagner
College Educational Pipeline.
Port Richmond is a
lower income neighborhood of largely single-family dwellings, which is 26.7% White, 21% Black, 45.7% Hispanic, and 3.7%
other; a significant portion of the Hispanic population consists of
undocumented Mexicans. The
immediate vicinity of the school has seen the largest increase in section 8
housing in New York City, bringing even more low incomes student to the school
Here’s some of what
learned.
Richard Guarasci brought
a long history of work in civic engagement and democratic learning to Wagner College.
He wanted Wagner to model these principles. The
Wagner
Civic Action Plan 2018 captures the college’s partnership with The Plan illustrates
how far the college has come not only in education, but in building partnerships
to address arts and culture, economic development, immigration and health and
wellness
Guarasci’s
relationship with Tim Gannon, a native of Staten Island, was pivotal to Wagner’s
education work. Guarasci
shared his vision with Gannon and the two men immediately knew that they were
kindred spirts. Guarasci’s vision for partnering Wagner College with the Port
Richmond community was exactly aligned to Gannon’s vision of what his school’s
local community needed.
Gannon knew that his
students had little or no exposure to college. He knew that Wagner, the college
on the hill 2 short miles away, could help. He
accepted Guarasci’s challenge to find a way to overcome the obstacles inherent
in coupling higher education with K-12 bureaucracy.
Port Richmond Partnership Leadership Academy: A College
Readiness and Civic Engagement Program
Gannon and Guarasci
started by organizing The Port Richmond Partnership Leadership Academy (PRPLA) in
2013. PRPLA brings a dozen Port Richmond High students for whom college was a
distant dream, to Wagner each year. Beginning the summer after sophomore year,
they participate in enriching high school and college classes, complete a
community advocacy project and explore college opportunities after each year of
high school and just before they head to college. Wagner funds the program. Nearly 100% of the students are in college or
have graduated.
The civic engagement and
community advocacy aspect of the program has had particular impact. Students began by doing a community
assets map of Port Richmond. They took parents, family and friends around
to show them the assets they identified – art venues, gardens, social services,
immigration and other resources. Students have become involved with indoor and
outdoor murals community gardens, cleanup projects and in the Staten Island Borough
President’s office.
For Gannon, “the civic
piece gave them a sense of independence.” For Kevin Bott, the civic experience “helps
students go from seeing themselves as recipients of service to having an idea
that they can make a difference that they can advocate for themselves and
others. “This kind of agency is just what students need.
Beyond PRPLA, every single
PRHS student now visits Wagner annually; and civic action and community
advocacy is an aspect of the curriculum for large numbers of students at PRHS. Wagner
College students, interacting with high school students regularly have helped
the teenagers build what Gannon calls “college self-esteem”- the belief in
one’s self that they can succeed in college.
K-12 Principals in Port Richmond know one another, so when Nick
Mele, the principal at Markham Intermediate
School 51, heard about PRPLA he wanted a similar opportunity for his students. Now
20 Markham Leadership Academy students
spend two weeks each summer on the Wagner campus pursuing academic enrichment, college
readiness and community advocacy work. These
same 20 students also attend weekly Leadership/Civic Engagement seminars at
their school throughout the school-year.
Wagner also supports a
full-time college readiness counselor at PRHS. Spurred by this investment, Mele
funds a similar position at Markham through a state middle school improvement grant;
and in an act of leadership, he shares some of those dollars to support the
same role at nearby elementary school PS 21. College
readiness is now embedded in PRHS, Markham and PS 21 and other feeder elementary
school constitute the Wagner
College Educational Pipeline.
Combating Chronic Absence
Getting kids to consider college was only one of PRHS’
challenges. Reducing a chronic absence rate of 37% was high on the list as
well. Gannon, working with the Wagner
College Readiness Counselor and other school staff, created a hub that would
provide mentoring support for every chronically absent student in the ninth
grade in 2015.
The now 60 Mentors at PRHS include
personnel from the PRHS lead community schools partner, the New York Center for
Interpersonal Development, Bonner
Fellows from Wagner, social work interns
from other in institutions of higher education and Wagner college students,
doing work study or volunteering.
The focus of the mentoring program
is to establish strong connections between the school and the student, as well
as their families. Every ninth grader has a mentor with personal check-ins as
part of freshmen morning entry each day.
The program is moving in the right direction
with chronic absence now reduced from 37% to 32%. The way in which PRHS
has aligned all these resources toward a high
priority issue for the school offers an important lesson for other education
leaders.
The success of the 9th
grade hub has led to the creation of a similar hub for chronically absent grade
students. Gannon, and now principal Andrew Greenfield, would prefer chronic
absence hubs for each individual grade but space and resources do not allow this
at the present time.
Not surprisingly, with
so many mentors, many school staff, -- teachers, guidance
counselors, assistant principals -- did not know who was working with which students
and what they were doing. Principal Andrew Greenfield convened mentors and
school staff to address the issue. The names of mentors are now listed on each
student’s program card, and a process is in place for ongoing communication.
“We are continuing to work to keep everyone on the same page about how this
critical mentoring program is working and how we can make it better” said
Greenfield.
Teacher Preparation: The
Wagner-PRHS Partnership
When Wagner decided to
start a Master’s program in secondary level teaching in 2016, the partnership
with PRHS offered a natural place to host the teachers. The program operates entirely at PRHS. Wagner
Education students serve as teaching assistants during the school day and take
classes after school for their Masters – a different kind of teacher residency
program. From the beginning Gannon and Guarasci knew this was a win-win
situation. Good for Wagner to prepare students in real classroom settings; even
better for PRHS because graduate
students would assist teachers, and PRHS would have a leg up to recruit strong
graduates to teach at the school. A significant number have.
Becoming a Community School
Becoming a part of the
citywide community
schools initiative in 2015 has further strengthened the PRHS’ work on behalf of its
students, family and community. The initiative provides funding for PRHS to
select a CBO as a lead partner that would hire a Community School Director,
offer mental health and after school services, expand learning for an addition
hour each day, and mobilize other partners who would align their work with that
of school.
The connection with
PRPLA emerged early when Gannon participated in a meeting of other soon to
community school principals. Asset Mapping was an early topic. According to
Gannon, “Other principals had little idea what an asset map was. I said, well I
have one, and our PRPLA
students did it as part of their summer program. And
everyone wanted to see it, so of course I shared it.”
The New York Center for Interpersonal Development (NYCID), which was
already serving PRHS, was chosen as the Lead Partner. Initially a peer
mediation and after school organization, the Center is now a major Staten
Island CBO. It has more
than 20 people in the building. NYCID provides badly needed mental health services, after school programs and other support for students
and their families. Adult education
classes including GED for bilingual parents, and job focused classes in culinary
and medical billing address a particularly significant need on Staten Island,
are beginning to make an impact on supporting families to connect with the
school on a deeper level.
NYCID Community School
Director, Michael Candela, suggests “as a CBO we can get stuff done without
having to navigate what honestly can be a challenging school system
bureaucracy. For example, when there was a need for a food pantry, the principal
agreed, and we just did it.” Greenfield agrees. This rationale for having lead
partners in many community schools is echoed across the country.
Now a member of the
school leadership team, the Community School Director leads a biweekly meeting
of all partners in the school, creating a venue for partners and school staff
to get on the same page. Among the issues being addressed: which students are
we not reaching in our after-school programs? How can we better meet the needs of the 30% of
students with IEPs? What do our parents need from us?
The issues of
communication with school staff on the mentoring program and reaching all
students will be familiar to community school leaders. Having the community
school director on the school leadership team and convening partners should help
address these issues and others on a continuing basis.
Moving Forward: Encouraging Results
Multiple measures
indicate that PRHS is moving forward.
The graduation rate was 71.6% in 2018, over 70% for the first time in
several years after a low of 55%. Credit accumulation for 9th
graders who attain 10+ credits in their first year increased from 75% in 2014
to 86.4% in 2017. Daily attendance rates
for ninth graders also increased significantly from 80% in 2014 to 89.7 in
2017. School leaders credit these
significant increases to strong mentoring and other support services.
While access to mental health
services at the PRHS School Clinic is addressing student needs, the number of
students being referred for mental health services continues to grow each year,
just one of many ongoing challenges that PRHS still faces. Moreover, students enter PRHS far below Staten
Island averages academically, and the increase in Section 8 housing suggests
the school will have even more disadvantaged students. The graduation rate of English
Language Learners is still too low at about 60% and that also requires a more
comprehensive plan which is in development.
There is clearly a good way to go improve
results for the young people at PRHS. Additional services are needed for 10th-12th
grade students who continue to face major obstacles and the engagement of
students in the academic program must deepen. PRHS, Wagner and other partners
are developing a plan to grapple with these challenges.
City Hall Interest
The new deputy mayor
Deputy
Mayor Phil Thompson is exploring ways to deepen the Wagner Educational Pipeline,
and to expand efforts to link higher education institutions with public schools
across the city. Wouldn’t it be amazing if all the elementary and middle
schools that are envisioned as part of the Wagner pipeline could be funded as
community schools? And even better, what
if public and private higher education institutions would tie their resources
more strategically to the work of their nearby public schools? Then what are
often called University-Assisted
Community Schools would thrive across the city.
Leadership Transitions
Research
suggests that strategies like the Wagner Educational Pipeline can falter during
leadership transitions…a common issue in the partnerships. Guarasci and Gannon are deeply aware of this challenge
having already experienced one pitfall.
That
pitfall occurred at PRHS when the principal following Gannon was not fully
cooperative with the Wagner partnership; that person lasted but a year and the
new principal a long-time assistant principal at PRHS and mentee of Gannon’s,
Andrew Greenfield, has put the relationships back on track. Gannon is still present as a supporting
principal with the NYC Department of Education.
Adding
to the transition challenge, Guarasci is stepping down as Wagner’s President at
the end of this academic year. During his tenure civic engagement has become
part of the life blood of Wagner, and the Wagner Center for Leadership and
Community Engagement, embodies that thrust. I expect the board will hire a
president who will continue that thrust. Guarasci intends to encourage other
higher education institutions to pursue such partnerships as he moves on from
his post.
Advancing Higher Education and
Community Schools Partnerships
So
how do we make these kinds of partnerships happen more common and in a
sustainable way? Richard Guarasci suggests “start by always saying yes.” Guarasci
has done that with every request Gannon has presented to him. He was not sure at the moment of exactly how he
would make good in response to Gannon’s request for Wagner to open up college
opportunities for PRHS students, but he found a way. Gannon added “He ALWAYS
finds a way to say YES!”
Gannon
went further, “Our work with Wagner is so closely aligned to the Community
School model and the impact can be so incredible when the College President is
in sync with the K-12 principals. The
benefits to the college community as well as the Port Richmond community
continue to inform and astound us. The faculty of both schools are now
partnering on their own and the partnership is expanding and deepening. This is
just the start!”
Speaking
to his higher education peers, Guarasci concludes a recent article, Anchoring
Democracy: The Civic Imperative for Higher Education: “Through
strategic community partnerships, our work to advance civic engagement and
equity can become common practice in fulfilling higher education’s historic
role as an anchor within a just democracy.”
