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Say Yes to Education's Syracuse chapter was founded in 2007 and has a different approach from the other chapters. Say Yes Syracuse attempts to tackle the entire school district's problems with a vast amount of funding and allies, as Syracuse's school district is one of the worst in the country.

History

Say Yes to Education is an non-profit organization started in 1987 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by a philanthropist named George A. Weiss. Subsequent chapters were started in Hartford Connecticut, Cambridge Massachusetts, and New York City's Harlem neighborhood over the next decade. A chapter was started in Syracuse New York in 2007 and is notable for being the first district-wide implementation of the program.

Overview

Chapter

The program in Syracuse is a collaboration between Say Yes, Syracuse University, and the entire Syracuse City School District, and is designed to alleviate the gap between urban students and suburban and rural students' performance in school. The Syracuse chapter of Say Yes to Education is not a direct affiliate of Say Yes but was inspired by the founders and the mission. It differs in nature from the other chapters in that it aims to improve an entire urban school district by helping more of them graduate and move on to college.

Approach

The initiative is large in scale and includes a large number of programs including tutoring, familial counseling and engagement, mentoring, significantly improved curriculum, after school programs, summer school programs, and much more. In the first few years of its existence, Say Yes Syracuse fully funded its students going to two and four year college programs, but that has since become financially unfeasible. In order to provide a larger amount of support for more students, The Syracuse Higher Education Compact was created. The Compact is an agreement into which several larger institutions have entered in order to provide the Say Yes students to attend college with tuition, fees and books all paid for. However, this scholarship package does not include room and board, and this aid is only provided to students who have been accepted into a participating Compact School through the regular admission process.

Reasoning

Schools in the city of Syracuse suffer from low graduation rates and poor funding. Say Yes to Education is a direct response to poor performance from the majority of the schools in the Syracuse City School District. 18 of the 33 schools in the district are currently restructuring or taking corrective action, and 3 have been deemed persistently low achieving. Only about half the students who enroll as freshman graduate, and of those, although 93% plan to attend college, only 66% end up doing so, with 56% of those students enrolling in community colleges. The scores on standardized tests for the district are also a major problem. In high schools in the Syracuse City School District, only 51% of students scored proficient or advanced on English/Language Arts tests compared to 77% of high school students nationwide, and only 47% scored proficient or advanced on Mathematics Achievement tests.

Programs

There are two main aspects to the Say Yes to Education Syracuse initiative: school improvement and the Syracuse High Education Compact. The school improvement aspect focuses on increasing the low quality of schools in the Syracuse City School District and increasing graduation rates and overall performance and success. As part of this program, every student in a Syracuse City School District School receives diagnostic testing and ongoing monitoring to keep up with their progress and education. This information is given to their teachers who will adjust their studies or workload in line with their progress. Teachers will also create individual student growth plans to share with each student so they can be involved in their own improvement and education in some way.

The school improvement also focuses on the classroom as a whole, creating more inclusive curriculum to deal with handicapped students. Tutoring programs are offered as a group session or one-ones, and a mentoring program is also in effect. Counseling is offered for families and for financial and college application process. The largest aspect of the school improvement program is the after school and summer school programs being run to support those students who still struggle. The Syracuse Higher Education Compact is the second part of the Say Yes Syracuse initiative. 23 different private institutions have agreed to provide free tuition for students from the district applying through the normal application process. These families also need to be below $75,000 a year income to receive the full financial aid package. Families with over $75,000 a year will be offered $5,000 a year in grant money instead. Any student who has lived in Syracuse for three or more years and has completed 10th through 12th grade is eligible for this financial aid.

In addition to this, Say Yes and Syracuse University have raised enough money for one year's expenses and tuition at any SUNY or CUNY school. This is to bridge a gap allowing legislation to pass through which would enable the foundation to pursue long-term support of every participating student and their families.

Controversies

The Say Yes to Education Syracuse Initiative has received criticism on two main points: the fact that it has been applied to an entire school district, drastically increasing the funding required and the necessity of the schools providing full tuitions and the fact that the chapter isn't as closely associated with