Results Overview

Say Yes to Education has implemented and refined an integrated academic, social-emotional, health, and graduation initiative with dramatic results for urban youth for almost 23 years. Building on a track record of success in Cambridge (MA), Harlem (NY), Hartford (CT) and Philadelphia (PA), Say Yes has codified and is now taking to scale its comprehensive approach that enables urban youth to overcome the key barriers to postsecondary access and achieve success in high school, college, and life.

The focal point for Say Yes to Education is positioning and supporting students to realize college and career success. Say Yes organizes the entire community to adopt a postsecondary completion goal and work together towards that goal, rather than accepting incremental test score growth alone. Say Yes students have experienced dramatically higher high school and college graduation rates, as well as substantial improvement in test scores compared to their (non-treatment) counterparts

  • More than 75 percent of all participating students graduated from high school.  Additionally, over 50 percent of all participating students achieved a postsecondary degree.
  • In Cambridge where the program began with students in 3rd grade, the results are even more impressive: almost 90 percent completing high school, over 64 percent of the cohort completing a postsecondary degree program, and fully half of these students receiving a four-year bachelors (BA or BS) degree.
  • In Hartford, statewide gains on mathematics, reading and writing exams were bested by Say Yes 6th graders in every category.
  • In New York City, Say Yes 4th graders surpassed city and district averages on state math and language arts exams.
  • The Philadelphia chapter’s Say Yes 9th graders, who began with the program in kindergarten, all finished their freshman year in a district where nearly one-fifth of 9th graders dropped out.

One measure of the success of Say Yes students is their commitment to higher education.  Since the early 1990s (when the first class of students became eligible for college attendance), Say Yes students have attended over 140 different higher education institutions across the nation, including Brown, Colgate, Cornell, Fordham University, Morgan State, NYU, SUNY Albany, and University of Pennsylvania.

In Syracuse, home to our newest efforts, more than 4,000 students are participating in after school tutoring programs and nearly 1,000 are in college thanks to Say Yes tuition guarantees.