ESI Update
Week of January 27
Principals and ESI Team Members,
This past week, schools were busy administering Regents Exams to students, an important benchmark for college and career readiness. As we’ve arrived at this important milestone marked by the midpoint of the academic year, we’ve also reached another important milestone: the midway point of the Expanded Success Initiative. At this important milestone in our critical work of supporting the achievement of our Black and Latino young men, we ask you to engage with your school community to think about where we go from here.
In this issue you will find the following features:
- Opportunities: Using PSAT/NMSQT Data Tools, Latino College Fair, American Promise!
- School Spotlight: Explorations Academy
- Did You Know? Intensive Small-Group Tutoring and Counseling Helps Struggling Students
- Resources: FAFSA: The How-To Guide for High School Students (And the Adults Who Help Them)
- Shout Outs: Schools with Finalized Spring Budgets!
Opportunities
Using PSAT/NMSQT Data Tools and Reports to Improve Learning
This workshop for ELA and Math instructional leaders and practitioners, curriculum coordinators, school counselors and administrators provides educators with hands-on training in the use of reports that are based on annual PSAT/NMSQT results. These reports include the following: Score Report Plus, Summary Reports, Summary of Answers and Skills (SOAS), and AP Potential.
At the end of the workshop, educators will be able to use the PSAT/NMSQT program’s valuable data to shape instructional goals in the classroom, identify curricular and academic strengths and weaknesses, and understand how to interpret data effectively to spot disparities between their schools/students and state, national, and comparable groups.
Where: The College Board National Office, 45 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY 10023
When: February 5, 2014, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
To RSVP, please click here.
Instructional Coaching with edconnective
EdConnective is using new ideas and creative solutions to tackle the educational achievement gap and increase the graduation rate and career readiness of Black and Latino male students. Through the innovative use of video, conferencing, and real-time feedback, EdConnective provides individualized remote instructional coaching and feedback for Math and ELA teachers from high caliber educators that know how to provide effective Culturally Responsive Education (CRE) from their experience teaching and coaching in urban and low-income schools. Feedback can cover but is not limited to classroom management strategies, increasing student engagement, effective routines and procedures, and unit and lesson planning.
ESI has been afforded an opportunity to pilot with four schools to work with this exciting program. For more information about EdConnective, click here. For further questions, contact Paul Forbes at PForbes@schools.nyc.gov.
Latino College Expo
The 24th annual Latino College Expo will take place at the NYU Kimmel Center on March 15, 2014. High school freshmen, sophomores, and juniors are encouraged to participate in this day-long event. Many exciting workshops will be offered to students and parents during the morning Leadership Summit from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Lissette Nieves will be the Keynote Speaker at the Leadership Summit. The Latino College Expo will run from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Where: NYU Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South, New York City, NY 10012
When: 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. (Registration starts at 8:00 a.m.)
Students will need to log on to www.latinocollege-expo.org to register for the morning workshops. Registration for the Expo is not necessary.
Effective Postsecondary Planning Training
ESI schools that have not participated in the Goddard Riverside/Options Institute training are strongly advised to attend the “Effective Postsecondary Planning Training: Affording Access and Success for All Students” workshop. This 60-hour training covers both the basic knowledge counselors need to help young people through the college process and fundamental counseling skills and youth development approaches to working with students. This series of six workshops is open to DOE employees who are college counselors or who serve that function. Goddard is recognized for stand-alone seminars on related topics such as working with immigrant students and leading a financial aid workshop for students and families. All sessions of the “Effective Postsecondary Planning Training” will take place from 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle. A new cohort starts on February 6. Participants must attend all six sessions: February 6, March 6 and 27, April 10, and May 8 and 29. To register, click here.
Where: Church of St. Paul the Apostle, 405 West 59th and 9th Ave, New York, NY
When: 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
For more information, click here. For further questions, please contact Sugeni Perez-Sadler.
Princeton University Summer Journalism Program
The Summer Journalism Program at Princeton University is an all-expenses-paid program for 11th grade high school student journalists from low-income backgrounds that will take place for 10 days next summer on the campus of Princeton University. The program is entering its 13th year; since 2002, approximately 250 students from high schools across the country have participated. The program’s goal is to diversify college and professional newsrooms by encouraging outstanding students from low-income backgrounds to pursue careers in journalism.
Classes at the program are taught by reporters and editors from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Daily Beast, Time, Foreign Policy, The New Republic, Sports Illustrated, CNN and NPR, among other media outlets. Students meet with numerous Princeton professors, as well as Princeton’s president and dean of admissions. They report an investigative story, cover a professional sports event, produce a TV segment, and publish their own newspaper. And they receive guidance on the college admissions process not only during the 10 days of the program, but also during the fall of their senior year of high school.
Students selected for the program will have all their costs, including the cost of travel to and from Princeton, paid for by the program.
Students from ESI schools are encouraged to apply. Although exact dates of the program have not yet been determined, the program normally runs during the first two weeks of August.
The application process will take place in two rounds. The first round of the application should be filled out online here.
Applications must be received by 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, February 21, 2014. Those students selected to advance to the second round of the application process will be notified in March.
To be eligible for the program, students must meet the following qualifications:
– They must currently be juniors in high school.
– They must live in the continental United States.
– They must have at least an unweighted 3.5 grade point average (out of 4.0).
– They must have an interest in journalism.
– The combined income of their custodial parent(s)/guardian(s) plus child support payments, if any, must not exceed $45,000.
Note: This program is for students from low-income backgrounds. If the combined income of the custodial parent(s)/guardian(s) plus child support payments, if any, exceeds $45,000 and a student still wishes to apply, he or she may attach a letter explaining why his or her family qualifies as financially under-resourced.
American Promise
In February, Black History Month, PBS will premiere American Promise on POV on Monday the 3rd at 10 pm ET (check local listings). In addition to this broadcast, the week of February 3 –February 9th has been termed Black Male Achievement Week. Please join us in using this week to lift up the achievements of black boys and the work being done to support our communities.
Getting Ready for College, Careers, and the Common Core with Dr. David Conley
In a lecture at the CUNY Graduate Center, Dr. Conley will explore his “Four Keys to College and Career Readiness,” the big picture behind the Common Core State Standards, and how educators can cultivate deeper learning in their students. Conley’s comprehensive framework for college and career readiness can be used to gauge readiness for both students and schools; his Four Keys model (Key Cognitive Strategies, Key Content Knowledge, Key Learning Skills and Techniques, and Key Transition Knowledge and Skills), based on numerous research studies and work with effective secondary schools, specifies the teachable knowledge, skills, and abilities that students must have to be effective learners.
Conley serves on numerous technical and advisory panels, consults with educational agencies nationally and internationally, and is a frequent speaker at national and regional meetings of education professionals and policy makers. In addition to his positions at the University of Oregon, he is also the founder of the Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) and is the author of several books and numerous articles on the topic of college and career readiness, including the recent Educational Leadership commentary, Rethinking the Notion of ‘Noncognitive.’
Where: CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave at 34th Street, Lower level, Room C203 (Note: Please present a photo id at the security desk to enter the building.)
When: 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m., February 20, 2014
Register: RSVP to lecture@mail.cuny.edu
Reception will follow.
