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Promise Academy Assistants and Extensive After-School Programming HARLEM CHildren’s Zone ® A Look Inside Harlem Children’s Spring 2011 A REPORT FROM THE ZONE meSSAge from The PreSIdenT All of our work at the Harlem Children’s Zone has as its starting point and core a commitment to the educational success, well- being, and healthy development of the children of Central Harlem. The overarching goal of that work is extremely ambitious: to break the cycle of generational poverty in our community. A host of recent studies demonstrates that the best way to increase economic mobility in the U.S. is through education, specifically a college education. By earning a college degree, a child born into a family that is among the lowest fifth of income earners has a 62 percent chance of joining the middle class or better as an adult and a 19 percent chance of joining the highest one-fifth of earners. Children from families in the lowest fifth of earners triple their chances of earning $85,000 or more per year once they obtain a college degree. Today, only 14 percent of adults 25 years and older in our community are college graduates, half the city rate of 27 percent and the national rate of 26 percent. We have long supported the Department of Education schools in Central Harlem with both in-class Promise Academy assistants and extensive after-school programming. But we realized that in order to accomplish our larger goals, At the back of the science lab in Promise Acad- “From what the owl killed and ate. I think we needed not just to support students in the existing a vole.” educational system, but to help reform the educational emy II are several large glass tanks containing “How did he kill it?” environment in our community. “With his beak and claws.” So in 2004, we launched our charter school fish, tortoises, hermit crabs, mealworm beetles, “You could kill it with your breath.” program to cultivate and model academic excellence. “How did this stuff get out of the owl?” The easy part was deciding what to call it—Promise and a variety of growing plants. Science teacher A long pause, a sudden realization, and the Academy. Because from the first, we made this promise students back away from the pellets. to parents: we will do whatever it takes to make sure Tyler Sanders stands at the front of the class, “Oooow, nasty.” that your child enters and succeeds in college. Sanders, who has been listening attentive- In just a few short years, we have achieved addressing the twenty-two fourth-graders seat- ly, gives the students a brief description of the remarkable results. Our children are thriving and owl’s digestive processes, explaining how the college-bound. Their test scores are so strong that ed in working groups of four or five in the cen- bird regurgitates the parts of small animals—in Harvard economist Dr. Roland Fryer, who evaluated this case voles—that it is unable to digest. The our schools’ performance, looked at the numbers ter of the room. students, their curiosity overcoming their re- and concluded that we have closed the black-white pugnance, begin to take apart the pellets. They achievement gap. “Scholars,” says Sanders, “this morning extract the tiny bones, then match and paste We are proud of these numbers and of the larger we continue our work as scientists—working to- them one by one onto the bones outlined in the achievements they represent. But we are even more gether, learning through observation and experi- diagram in front of them. proud of the way we achieved them—through the mentation.” With that, Sanders and his teaching As one students completes the process, he dedication, commitment, passion, and just plain hard assistant begin to distribute to each group of smiles broadly and says, “Now I see how the work of our educators, parents, and students. It is their students an owl pellet and a diagram of a vole’s bones all fit together in the skeleton. If I become stories that we tell in this issue of A Look Inside. I hope skeletal structure. The students huddle closely a doctor, I’ll need to know that.” you enjoy them, and perhaps even find them inspiring, together within their groups, carefully probing Sanders rests his hand on the student’s as I do. the conglomerate material with tweezers, asking shoulder. “Not if—when you become a doctor. GEOFFREY CANADA and answering questions among themselves. You said that’s your goal, right? And I know you’re President/CEO “Where did these little bones and fur going to work hard to achieve it. And you know ev- come from?” eryone here is going to help make sure you do.” year. Today, PAI comprises three schools: elementary, K-3; upper elementary/middle, 4-7; and high school, 10- 11. PAII comprises two schools: elementary, K-2; and up- per elementary/middle, 3-6. The schools together now serve about 1,400 students. By 2017, both Promise Acad- emy Charter Schools will operate at full scale, serving a total of about 2,300 children in grades K-12. The educational environment in which the schools opened was not promising. Central Harlem’s Commu- nity School District 5 has long been one of the poorest- performing districts in the city. In 2010, its students ranked lowest of all the school districts in Manhattan in meeting standards on the state mathematics and Eng- lish Language Arts exams; eight percent of youths aged 16-19 in the community did not graduate high school and were not in school. For many years before opening its own schools, Setting Ambitious Goals HCZ had been operating after-school programs for stu- It is the express mission of the Harlem Children’s Zone® dents in traditional public schools in Central Harlem. Promise Academy, with its two K-12 charter schools, to The programs emphasize academics and include cultur- provide students with high-grade, standards-based aca- al, social, and athletic activities. They help to improve the demic programs and to give them the skills they need lives and enhance the academic performance of thou- to be accepted by and succeed in college. But that am- sands of neighborhood youngsters. But HCZ also had a bitious goal is, in a sense, just a starting point for the larger goal: to reform the educational environment in the schools’ staff. community—a goal that couldn’t be met in the limited “We are working to create lifelong learners,” says setting of after-school programs. So while continuing Kathleen Fernald, principal of Promise Academy II upper its after-school support programs for traditional public- elementary/middle school. “That’s one reason why we school students, HCZ established Promise Academy I address our students as scholars. Of course we’re mak- and II, charter schools designed to promote and model ing sure that our students excel academically. We are very educational excellence. proud of their achievements on the state exams. But we’re not about just teaching to the tests. We’re reaching be- yond state standards, beyond test scores, to significantly Closing the Achievement Gap affect the lives of our children so that they can be success- Promise Academy schools cultivate high academic ful, caring, contributing members of their community. We achievement through a demanding curriculum, extensive want them to set and achieve the highest personal goals wraparound services, and the use of data-driven teach- for themselves, to become their personal best. ing methods. Schools operate on an extended school day “How do we do that? Everyone in the Promise and school year. Classes start at 8:00 a.m. and end at Academy schools, from the maintenance workers to the 4:00 p.m., about 20 percent longer than almost all public teaching assistants to the teachers and admin- schools in the area. When the school day ends, students istrators, is wholeheartedly committed to the participate in after-school programming from 4:00 p.m. Promise Academy holistic education of our students—in devel- to 6:00 p.m., including tutoring and enrichment courses At A Glance oping the intellectual, cultural, social, physical as well as sports and recreation activities. There are 210 capacity of every child in our care, in building days in the academic year, including a 20-25 day manda- • 30 percent longer school day their character. To fulfill that commitment, we tory summer program, so Promise students are in school • School year runs September through are constantly evolving—building on strate- 30 percent longer than children in traditional public gies that work, discarding ideas that are less schools. In addition, there is Saturday Academy for stu- August successful. We do just what we expect our stu- dents to get additional help, and there is programming • 84 percent of students qualify for free dents to do—we come here every day ready to available for the students even during vacations so the or reduced lunch work hard, to learn, to improve on what we did children have a safe, enriching place to play. The school the day before.” receives $12,443 per student—the amount allocated to • 96 percent black or The Harlem Children’s Zone each charter school annually by the New York State De- Latino student population launched Promise Academy Charter partment of Education—and Harlem Children’s Zone Schools in September 2004, open- adds $3,482 per student in additional funding for the • 1,400 children as of ing Promise Academy I with kinder- extended school time. 2010-2011 school year garten in the elementary school and In the short period of time since the Promise Acade- • Free medical, dental, and grade 6 in the middle school.
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