| Printable Version

Spring/Summer 1999 (v3#3)

"Post-5" Start-Up
By Maisie McAdoo

New York City education statistics are often alarming, a bare-bones reminder of the challenges in the system and its complicated populations. Certain statistics become even more alarming in light of the new performance standards, tougher testing requirements and other ambitious goals the system has set for itself. But the numbers cannot be ignored.

For example, in a year when the Mayor and Chancellor have vowed to end social promotion and cut time to graduation, only half the Class of 1998 graduated in four years. More than a third of that class-35 percent-were still enrolled last September for a fifth year of school. If current patterns hold, only a third of that group will graduate in June, leaving about 14,000 students in the system for a sixth year of high school. Another example: a year before a universal Regents test requirement was set to begin phasing in for all high school students, the proportion of New York City seniors who actually earned Regents diplomas in 1998 was just 26 percent, according to Board of Education figures, and that was using a score of 55 as passing.

New standards, meet reality.

New York City’s high school population is unlike the rest of the state’s, indeed, unlike much of the rest of the country. Twenty-eight percent of the Class of 1998 immigrated to the United States within the past three years. Twenty percent are limited English proficient (LEP). Many students work to help support their families and many have children themselves. The circumstances of these students’ lives make just getting to school very difficult, and the prospect of a Regents degree in four years remote.

The Board of Education knows it’s in trouble with the new Regents requirements, though no one says so publicly. And if CUNY cannot offer remedial courses, what will become of this large cohort of kids, who cannot get a high school diploma and cannot attend college?

Getting A Start on the Problem
A small pilot program began this year to address these numbers. In September, the Board of Education launched the Post-5 Initiative, designed for students who have spent more than five years in high school and want to expedite their diploma. About 725 students enrolled this year, and another 300 are expected next year.

Carmine DeBetta, who supervises the Post-5 Initiative for the Board of Ed, described the program as a new piece in the Board’s continuum of drop-out prevention strategies and a way to explore working with older-age students. Currently, the Board of Education states that students who do not graduate on time are offered the opportunity to attend summer school, evening high school and weekend prep programs. (Editor’s Note: EPP has anecdotal evidence that many students are not receiving this extra time.)

What is different about the Post-5 schools is that they are partnered with community-based organizations (CBOs), using a case management model. The idea is to offer students not just evening classes but individualized programming, counseling and support services to reach graduation.

Educators who work with this population say the counseling component will make a difference. Malaika Bermiss, principal of Brooklyn Comprehensive Night High School, has worked with overage students for nearly 20 years, and said these students face many obstacles aside from academic ones. "Fifty percent of our time is spent negotiating those forces that prevent them from coming to school," she said. "If they can surmount those obstacles, they stand as good a chance as any other high school student of getting their diploma."

The Post-5 Initiative sites, formally Young Adult Borough Centers, are located in five existing high schools in four boroughs. Students must be between 18 and 21 years old and must demonstrate some success in high school by having completed 20 credits, or close to half their coursework. Classes are small, from 5 to 15 students apiece, and tailored to the needs of the students who take them. That means some classes are self-paced, some offer independent study, and some may cover just half of a course that the student missed.

The students who entered the program this year seem to be staying on track. Most do not want a G.E.D. diploma. In fact, many take Regents preparation classes, though Regents are not yet required for graduation.

A Post-5 School in Action
At Christopher Columbus High School in the Pelham Bay section of the north Bronx, 140 students come Monday-Thursday, from 4:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. They get a sandwich dinner, a special Metrocard and an intake interview with the principal and the CBO director to develop what amounts to an individual educational plan. The night school offers all types of required high school classes, from Earth Science to Art to Sequential Math to Gym, taught by many of the school’s daytime teachers working at per-session rates in the evening.

Gerald Garfin, the principal of Christopher Columbus, helped design the program, which drew 38 students from his school this year and the rest from other high schools across the Bronx. "It’s a college-level atmosphere, a seminar approach, with smaller classes and friendlier," Garfin said. "We’re dealing with kids who are fairly serious about academics and they like being here. For the first time someone reached out to them. Previously they would be discards, throw-aways in the system. There is a need to service this population."

Christopher Columbus graduated eight students from the program in January and expects another 21 to graduate in June. Garfin said those students who maintained high averages last term were placed on a principal’s honor roll and feted in a surprise party in his office one evening, complete with cake and honor roll certificates.

Case Management and a Support Network
Bronx-based Pathways for Youth is the partnering CBO with Christopher Columbus, and began working with the Post-5 school in February. Its four case managers talk with students individually to discover what support services

they need. Those range from career and college advice to parenting classes, childcare, medical attention and family counseling. Because it is a large, 70-year-old organization in the Bronx, Pathways can supply an interconnecting web of services and programs for students both at the school and in other Bronx locations.

"We are connected to the Summer Youth Employment Program, dance, sports, clinics. We make the students part of the Pathways family," said Carmen Mercado, the Pathways project director at Christopher Columbus. She recently decided to organize a separate prom for seniors in the program.

The CBO partnerships may also give the Initiative a dimension beyond graduation. Case managers from the New York Urban League, the partner CBO with Brooklyn Comprehensive, will ensure that each graduate has a portfolio that includes a typed resume, two letters of recommendation from teachers or employers, and a completed college or trade school application. While on paper this portfolio has always been a graduation requirement for the Brooklyn school, in reality staff have not been able to help each graduate develop it. Urban League social workers will supply extra hands for the portfolio.

In addition, Brooklyn Comprehensive’s Bermiss said she has hopes for an early childhood center at the school, not only to provide childcare for her students but also so that her students’ children will have access to a high-quality early education program.

The CBOs that partner with the Queens and Manhattan schools are also large and well established. Federation Employment and Guidance Services (FEGS), partnered with Newtown High School in Queens, is particularly strong in employment referrals and job counseling. The Door in Manhattan, partnered with Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day School, is a well-known resource for adolescent health and counseling. The Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center, partnered with the School for Cooperative Technical Education in Manhattan, is one of the United Neighborhood Houses offering a broad range of immigration and family services. Its Youth Services director, Howard Knolls, said his counselors will work with the staff as well as students to help the program get underway.

The school principals and CBO directors meet monthly to share ideas and review progress, a piece of the program that participants praise as a step forward for the frequently-insular school system. Lynette Lauretig, education director at The Door, singled out the working group as particularly helpful. "This is one of the few forums started by the Board of Education around this issue," she said. "I don’t know what the end result is going to be but I think this could work. The response of the young people is unbelievable. The CBO’s could make a difference in the graduation rate."

The Future of Post-5
In January, a total of 135 students graduated from Post-5 schools, including 96 from the already-established Brooklyn and Manhattan Comprehensives and 39 from the three new sites. About 250 more graduations will take place in June.

The Post-5 Initiative stands a good chance of succeeding with its students, given the quality of the principals at the schools and the experience level of the CBOs. The Centers provide highly-personalized learning for students, and offer intensive medical, legal, financial and family support.

The key question is whether the program can expand to serve all 14,000 students who currently meet the requirements for it, and the many thousands of others who will need more years to graduate when new Regents requirements kick in. The city budgeted $7 million for the program this year and has allotted $11 million and $13 million respectively in the next two fiscal years. The relatively small budget and the small annual increases of $2 million a year don’t suggest any plans to bring the program up to scale in the near future. But success may breed success, stimulating new working relations between the city’s education bureaucracy and its strong community organizations.

Learnfare: Coming To A School Near You
Post-5 Start-Up
Smaller Classes For NYC In Doubt
Survey Shows City Schools Are "Running On Empty"
Voucher Threat Still Lingers
Printable Version

Subscribe