Research & Policy

The Say Yes model combines a comprehensive K-12 support system with the powerful incentive of college scholarships to remove the barriers to post-secondary access and success for urban youth.

Last year, nearly 1,000 students took advantage of the Say Yes tuition guarantee and more than two-thirds of Syracuse students are benefiting from comprehensive academic supports and enrichment and health and counseling. Say Yes has previously refined and replicated this proven model in Harlem (NY), Philadelphia (PA), Hartford (CT) and Cambridge (MA).

Now the plan is beginning to work in Central New York and draw more families to Syracuse.  Say Yes is providing a blueprint for the educational and economic renewal of older industrial towns across America.

The Model

The Say Yes concept is bridging the well-documented "achievement gap" between urban and suburban children. This “gap” is the academic and social experiences and supports that lead to success in higher education for some, but not for others. The educational difference between what suburban students get and what urban students lack can be shown by their grades, standardized-test scores, dropout rates, college admission, and college-completion rates.

The Say Yes model implements support and enrichment systems that address major types of obstacles for low-income students: academic readiness, social and emotional readiness, health and well-being, legal impediments and financial resources. Using this comprehensive approach, Say Yes reversed the telltale statistical trends between suburban and urban students (e.g., 84% of Hartford Say Yes students earned college acceptance compared with 45% to 60% for graduating classes in other Hartford high schools).

Statistics prove that the earlier the model is applied in a child’s scholastic career, the stronger the results in high school, as well as two- and four-year graduation rates.  At the system level, Say Yes, Syracuse University and their partners have scaled this model to impact every student within the entire Syracuse municipal area, fundamentally addressing inherent structural impediments and transforming the ability of the system to generate graduation outcomes. The program is a cross-government alignment of breakthrough goals, strategies, staffing and funding that produces college access and economic development outcomes at scale.