City-Wide Solutions

Bolstered by its success with past and existing Chapters, Say Yes recently embarked on a groundbreaking new initiative that will change the landscape of American education in urban centers. Launched by a coalition of partners under the stewardship of the Say Yes to Education Foundation (Say Yes) and Syracuse University (SU), the Syracuse Citywide Program offers a path to college, career, and productive citizenship for more than 20,000 students in Syracuse, New York.

Syracuse City School District (SCSD) was a natural partner for this initiative. It is a high-need district with strong leadership, as well as an established New York State Contract for Excellence Funding plan. The city of Syracuse has high poverty rates (78% district-wide) and low graduation rates, with less than 50% of entering kindergarten class students graduating from high school 13 years later. When first approached by Say Yes and Syracuse University, SCSD immediately realized the Program’s enormous potential and enthusiastically agreed to participate.

The district, in partnership with Say Yes and Syracuse University, has committed itself to tackling the barriers to success for low-income students by providing SCSD students with the support necessary to achieve brighter futures. By recruiting a diverse coalition of supporters—including both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, the Mayor and the County Executive, members of the business community, local schoolteachers and administrators (along with their unions), the school board, and dozens of local educational and social service institutions—Say Yes and Syracuse University have created a unique publicprivate partnership team with the power to encourage and develop a culture of high academic expectations for all students.

Together, the partners have committed themselves to launching and sustaining a system-wide process that provides the following high-quality assessments and supports for every participating student in Syracuse:

  • Student diagnostic testing and ongoing monitoring to identify strengths and weaknesses, and to effectively manage academic and social/emotional supports
  • A comprehensive and actionable longitudinal evaluation conducted by the American Institutes for Research (AIR), using aligned quantitative and economic approaches
  • Individual student growth plans (constantly monitored)
  • Tutoring (small-group and one-on-one)
  • Evidence-based and validated school-wide academic and social/emotional programming of the caliber that suburban and affluent families value for their own children (e.g., International Baccalaureate, Early College, and multiple educational pathways programs) with aligned high-quality professional development for teachers and administrators (including 10 full days of training for teachers each year)
  • Inclusive settings, curriculum, and support for students with disabilities and English language learners
  • Strong conditions for learning where students and teachers experience support, safety, challenge, and socially responsible behavior
  • After-school/extended day programming
  • Summer camp/enrichment programming
  • Counseling and family engagement (including one social worker for every 200 students in each participating school)
  • Mentoring
  • Work/employment opportunities for middle and high school students
  • College application and selection counseling
  • Universal access to scholarships at all SUNY/CUNY campuses as well as a rich array of private institutions through the Say Yes Higher Education Compact (for more information on the Compact, please see page 33)
  • Legal supports (including housing issues, debtor rights, immigration, criminal, special education and domestic relations matters) and health services by a wide range of participating law firms, hospitals, and non-profit and government service providers

To develop and sustain the Say Yes movement in the city of Syracuse in the short- and long-term, the lead partners in the project (e.g., SCSD, SU, and Say Yes to Education) have developed and launched a robust set of operating structures to facilitate broad-based participation of the community at large in the system-wide implementation of the Say Yes model.

Two main work groups are providing sustained leadership for the program (Say Yes Community Advisory Group and Say Yes Operating Group), as well as affiliated task forces (e.g., Community Mobilization, Health and Wellness, Legal Supports, and Academic and Enrichment Programs), which map to the Say Yes Theory of Action. These structures allow for the development and effective management of dynamic publicprivate partnerships, which will maximize coordination and resource use throughout the city to accomplish the goal of college and career readiness for all students and citizens of Syracuse.

Making History

The Say Yes Syracuse Citywide Program will not only provide a powerful model for urban school district reform, but also a step-by-step roadmap for stimulating urban economic prosperity. The dramatically stronger schools, closer linkages to post-secondary institutions, and stronger workforce resulting from this project will create a powerful tool to undergird growth of existing companies in Syracuse, incubate new ones, and attract companies considering relocation. The Syracuse Citywide Program, the only program of its kind and scale in the nation, will make history, innovatively linking the chain between the public, private, and non-profit sectors to rejuvenate an older industrial city by building a sustainable model for developing its most precious asset—its people—and, ultimately, positioning its economy to compete successfully in the global arena.

Equally as important,the Syracuse initiative provides a model of what is possible when a real understanding of studentand system-level barriers to success is combined with a proactive plan to overcome these challenges. Through the creation of innovative public-private partnerships, this initiative shows that a powerful systemic model offering universally streamlined services can break new ground and help drive long-term change for students that previously did not have access to higher education.

Over time, Say Yes will increase the scale of this model so that it can be applied statewide. Ultimately, with an aligned federal incentive program, Say Yes hopes to expand its services on the national level.