Strengthening Federal Strategies for Urban Student Success In High School & Beyond

Say Yes to Education has developed a strategy with national implications for increasing high-school graduation and college success for urban students. Launched and being tested in Syracuse, N.Y., Say Yes To Education offers all 22,000 students in the city a tuition guarantee to more than 100 colleges and the social, academic, health, and financial supports that enable postsecondary access and success. The effort, which grows out of the foundation’s 23-year track record of success with students from some of the nation’s most impoverished communities, will be replicated across other cities in New York and beyond.

Following are strategies policymakers might consider in reauthorizing the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act and supporting other programs affecting urban youth.

• Create new incentives to encourage coordination of health, education, and wellness supports for urban students across municipalities and regions. Federal policy can provide incentives to encourage cross-sector coalitions, and city/county partnerships to tap into and coordinate larger pools of resources to spark student success.

• Launch efforts to dramatically increase high-school graduation and college success that serve whole cities, not just clusters of schools or neighborhoods. School turnaround strategies, launching charter schools, and even Promise Neighborhoods don’t reach enough students and families.

• Develop state and federal Productivity Incentive Grants and a set aside in Title I to fund non-government, expert partners that develop and manage transparent systems to facilitate fundamental change and efficient use of school district and other government public policy dollars to deliver at scale programs that result in college and career readiness. Say Yes to Education (in partnership with Syracuse University serving as the local, “anchor” institution) has recognized that a relatively small amount of money (about $5 million/year) can drive more effective use of an entire school system’s staffing and budget (about $353 million in Syracuse). Part of this cost (about $1.5 million) in Syracuse is being paid for by the county government, which is also covering the costs of mental health clinic services in schools and family counseling supports with local CBOs.

• Develop incentives to support higher education participation in K-16 reform compacts that include tuition guarantees and university-sponsored support for students and local school systems.

• Provide federal matching funds for city-wide and regional efforts that dramatically increase college-going rates among low-income students. Federal matching dollars can help leverage private resources to support lower costs to college for the students most in need.

• Encourage piloting of multiple measures for school performance that include rewarding improvements in college-going rates, increasing percentages of students who do not require remediation in college, who benefit from after-school academic enrichment programs, and availability of student supports for out-of-school learning, counseling, and health and wellness services.

• Ensure greater coherence and coordination in the use of Title I Funding. Funding should provide student supports that are coherent and comprehensive and truly “wrap around” individual young people and their families to address their needs and not be broken up into disconnected silos. By ensuring that local communities are given some flexibility with Title I funding, schools can develop individual learning plans that meet student academic needs and related support services.

• Drive federal funding to communities that use research to identify what is working and not working school-by-school. Say Yes uses a monitoring system to track financial and student performance, along with 13 key benchmarks to ensure the efficacy of its programs—and shares this results-oriented information with its partners.