Higher Ed and Community Schools: Wagner College and Port Richmond High School Lead the Way

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.

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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 9^th 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 9^th 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 10^th-12^th 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.”