New Visions is committed to expanding college and career-readiness support for students at our district, charter and transfer high schools. In partnership with SUNY Herkimer College, one of the most successful two year residential colleges in the State University of New York system, New Visions organizes an annual week-long summer pre-college trip to help students who, are traditionally underserved, to become college-bound. 

During the week-long College Explorers program, students receive a tour of Herkimer, discuss college life with current students, attend Admissions and Financial Aid presentations, and navigate a series of college courses. To date, over 213 aspiring college students in the New Visions network have participated in the College Explorers program and there are 50 former New Visions students currently enrolled at Herkimer.

Below you will find a Q&A with Herkimer staff members Rebecca Kohler, Director of Admissions, and Julie DelMedico, Sociology Professor and Academic Coach, who discuss this unique partnership and the opportunity it provides for students, many of whom never thought college was an option.

Q: Tell me about Herkimer College and the partnership with New Visions?

Julie: Herkimer is a rural, upstate community college. It has about 3,500 full-time students. We have a wide-range of programs and majors.  In terms of non-athletic scholarship community colleges, we have been named the number one athletic program in the nation the last two school years in a row. Our retention rates are in the top 100 of community colleges and we’re tied for the number one community college overall in New York State in terms of retention and success. We also offer a number of free services to students to ensure that they have all the resources they need to succeed.

The partnership with New Visions is great. We run a week-long summer College Explorers camp that offers students the opportunity to get to know college life. Students attend classes, participate in different team building activities, and meet a variety of NYC students who did not go to their school. The program mimics what they’re going to find in college. It’s just the opportunity to get away, experience something new and see what the next potential steps are in their academic career.

Q: Why is the College Explorers Program so critical in exposing underrepresented students to campus life?

Rebecca: The students that we feel are under-represented, we are actively recruiting. As Director of Admissions, I have dedicated myself to being in New York City because this is where a large portion of students who may not know what options exist outside of the city.

In terms of exposure, it’s great for students to see that other opportunities are available. Herkimer in general is a great fit for a lot of students because it’s a small community college. The GPA requirement here isn’t so stifling, so for many students it’s a second chance if they didn’t prepare themselves well in high school. The College Explorers program is really terrific because it allows that opportunity to see what else is out there for students.

Julie: The program promotes understanding. One of the things that any student encounters is the fear of the unknown, which is a reason why so many students stay close to the city. Many are first generation and they’ve never been outside of New York City. Coming up to Herkimer for a week allows them a chance to see actually what it’s like and interact with staff and students.

Q: In terms of feedback from College Explorers from students or faculty, what have you heard?

Rebecca: From the surveys from the first College Explorers summer program, the faculty were very impressed with the the caliber of students that came from New Visions. They were not only impressed by the knowledge of the students but also the earnestness and hunger for knowledge. Essentially we’re talking about a few days of mock classes. Professors assigned homework, which all of the students completed. And from the students side, I have heard feedback that the experience was life changing. The students learned about majors they had never heard of and are now considering studying. There are certainly a number of majors that students don’t know until they explore and that’s the whole point of the program.

Q: What advice do you have for juniors and seniors starting out the application process?

Julie: The possibilities are endless. Go for it. There’s no such thing as, “I can’t do that.” At Herkimer, we pride ourselves on giving everyone a fair shot and opportunity.

Rebecca: A student needs to really understand their own personalities, their strengths and weaknesses, and what they like. Because ultimately if they find the right school that matches their personality, and they find the right major that involves everything that they like, they will be much more happy and more successful. Know yourself.

College Explorers' participants show off their Herkimer pride. 

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has announced the appointment of Robert L. Hughes as director of the Foundation’s K-12 strategy, effective June 1, 2016.

Since 2000, Bob has served as president of New Visions, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of education children receive in New York City’s public schools.

During his tenure, Bob led the successful New Century High Schools initiative, which brought together teams of educators in partnership with the United Federation of Teachers, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, the Department of Education, and over 220 community partners to design, incubate and launch nearly 100 small high schools in high-needs neighborhoods of the city. An independent evaluation by policy research firm MDRC has demonstrated the effectiveness of New York City’s small high schools, which have been shown to raise graduation rates by more than nine percentage points compared to comparison schools.

New Visions launched an innovative teacher preparation program with Hunter School of Education called the Urban Teacher Residency. A clinically-rich preparation program for new teachers that combines a year-long residency in a host school, expert mentorship and graduate level coursework at Hunter, this program has graduated more than 250 certified residents since its inception. Results of an independent evaluation demonstrate that graduates of the program not only have stronger retention rates than other early-career teachers, but also have a positive impact on students’ Regents exam test scores and course passage rates.

In 2011, under Bob’s leadership, New Visions launched the first of seven charter high schools, providing a project-based curriculum for students and offering an extended learning day and a focus on writing and college-ready skills. New Visions first two charter schools, Humanities and Advanced Math and Science, graduated their inaugural classes in 2015, and combined had a four-year graduation rate of over 80 percent.

“Working closely with New York City’s principals, teachers and most of all, students, New Visions has made a real difference in New York City schools.  This would not have been possible without the tireless energy, boundless enthusiasm, and dedication of New Visions staff,” said Bob Hughes. “For sixteen years, I have looked to my colleagues in schools and at New Visions with admiration, as they apply their talents and expertise to improving our public schools so that students can break the cycle of poverty and create meaningful lives for themselves in the city and in the world.  New Visions’ best work is still ahead of it. I will always be a champion of this amazing organization.”

Dick Beattie, New Visions’ founder and board chairman, has announced the creation of a board-led executive search committee.

“We could not be more proud of Bob Hughes and what New Visions has accomplished under his incredible leadership,” said Dick Beattie. “Combining his deep understanding of urban education, his creativity and his drive, Bob has acted with courage and insight to design innovative programs that improve outcomes for students. On behalf of everyone at New Visions, we offer him our deep gratitude for his commitment to New Visions and to the students of New York City public schools, and wish him the very best with his new challenge.”

In a statement, Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, said: "I echo the sentiments of Carnegie Corporation trustee Dick Beattie in praising Bob Hughes, who has been a tremendous leader of New Visions. He is innovative, enterprising and an astute administrator and observer of the field of K-12 education. Carnegie Corporation was, along with the Annenberg Foundation, one of the original funders of New Visions, and we are very proud of Bob and the organization he has helped build. We congratulate him and wish him the very best of luck for his continued success."

Have you ever watched with envy as your colleagues organized and properly executed a field trip with their students?  From a distance, it may seem impossible—the necessary paperwork alone may be enough to keep you from trying.  You may have asked yourself,  “Can I trust my students to behave and engage outside of the classroom? And where would I even take them to create a meaningful learning experience?” Don’t let these fears keep you from expanding the horizons of your students and deepening your practice as a teacher. 

The task of selecting and planning a field trip may not be as daunting as you think.  You can find local museum exhibits that align with your content.  You can also prepare students by communicating expectations, create an activity with the museum educators to facilitate learning on site, and plan a debrief activity to help students apply their newfound knowledge. 

Whether you are a math, science, drama, history or any type of teacher, with a little planning, you can make field trips an effective learning experience for your students.

Selecting a Site: Aligning with Curriculum

When you begin to think about selecting a field trip site (here are some suggestions for NYC teachers), it is key to think about curriculum alignment. Here are a few key questions to think about:

• Will the trip stimulate or enrich a unit plan or lesson plan?
• Does it engage my students to think about or examine specific key content?
• Will it be a meaningful day or just a neat excursion out of the building?

If the trip does not align to your content, it will not be a meaningful experience for your students.

Zachary White-Stellato, a Living Environment teacher at New Visions Charter High School for Advanced Math & Science II in the South Bronx,  strongly recommends having a clear goal for the field trip.  In some cases, he won’t introduce much background knowledge because he wants to use the trip to pique student interest for an upcoming unit.  In other cases, he may want to leverage the trip to build on what students have already started learning.

Once you have thoughtfully selected a site and determined the goals for the trip, it’s time to prepare.  To help you maximize your impact, we’ve broken down advice for field trips into three phases—before, during, and after.

Before the Field Trip: Prepare for Learning

Take the time not just to collect permission slips, but to also establish student goals and expectations for learning and behavior.  You may consider using a class T-chart to brainstorm what the day might look like or sound like.

Joseph Costello, an eleventh grade History teacher at Eximius College Preparatory Academy in the South Bronx, suggests you “really need to plan the trip out. If you haven’t been to the location, go beforehand and get a sense of what’s there.  See the exhibits and how long each will take and determine if there are special exhibits that only take place at set times.”

Zachary White-Stellato expands upon this advice and recommends creating a planning document that details “exactly what the students are going to be doing, what you’re going to be doing, and what the facilitators at that establishment are going to be doing at all times.”

Depending on your goals, you may want to share some highlights or activities from your chosen destination’s website, create a partial bulletin board or share an artifact from your destination to start sparking student interest.  One of the richest academic preparations a class can do before a trip is to establish questions to answer or hypotheses to test by examining data on site.  This ‘data’ could be artistic representations, documents, samples, activities or mathematical problems.  For example, here you will find an example of student questions for a trip to the Museum of Anthropology & Archeology.

During: Engage Students Onsite

Even the most loosely structured observation or gathering of evidence can boost student engagement on a field trip.  Be sure to model on site as you would in your classroom, preferably in small groups.  If students will be viewing an exhibit, provide clear and familiar protocols for observation.  You can distribute a customized activity guide or an all-purpose primary source tool such as the observe, reflect, question tools provided by the Library of Congress to help keep your students focused and engaged throughout the trip. 

You can also use an activity developed by museum educators for your chosen site.  You’d be amazed at the amount and quality of student-centered activities already developed by museum educators.  For example, educators at the National Archives have created a variety of document-based activities to introduce students to archival research or they can work with you to pull documents from their vast and diverse collection around a particular theme for a day of learning. 

You can even think about how to structure time on the bus ride if it’s a long trip. For instance Joseph Costello distributes packets with background information for students as they first board the bus. The packet highlights key information students should be aware of and also contains open ended questions for students to think about during the trip.

After: Harness Learning

Before you do a well-deserved little dance congratulating yourself on leaving the building and coming back with all your students safe and sound, don’t neglect the post-trip debrief!  Not only can you harness student learning in this stage, but you can also mine valuable feedback about the whole process.

Start by sharing answers to the questions or hypotheses with your students that you collectively brainstormed before the field trip.  If well-aligned with your curriculum, students should be able to use their trip findings as evidence throughout the unit as they answer essential questions.  For example you may ask your students, “Remember that teeny-tiny apartment where 12 people slept at the Tenement Museum? How about the quarters for enslaved people at Philipsburg Manor?”  With any luck, you’ll have created formidable touchstones for student learning throughout the rest of the academic year.

Still on the fence about taking your students on a trip? Take a chance by finding a site that aligns with your curriculum, plan out the various phases, and you might be pleasantly surprised by the results!

What additional tips do you have to help ensure your field trips are a success? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section or join the conversation on Twitter using #FieldTripTips!

About the Authors:

Aruna Patel serves as an instructional specialist responsible for developing and implementing New Visions' U.S. History curriculum in a number of New Visions schools.  Working with partners such as Gilder Lehrman and The City University of New York’s Collaborative programs, she also facilitates monthly professional development sessions for U.S. History teachers that blend literacy skills practice with history instruction.  Prior to working at New Visions, Aruna taught in both neighborhood and magnet schools in Philadelphia for eight years.  She holds a B.A. in cognitive science and economics from the University of Rochester and an M.S. in secondary social studies education from the University of Pennsylvania.

Lee Schere is the Associate Director of College Readiness & Success Initiatives for The City University of New York’s Collaborative Programs unit, where he has served in a variety of capacities since 2006.  Located in CUNY’s Office of Academic Affairs, Collaborative Programs work with the NYC Department of Education to prepare NYC public high school students for success in college.  At CUNY, in addition to his other administrative responsibilities, Lee currently directs the Debating US History curriculum project, working with over 20 NYC high schools to implement an 11th grade U.S. History curriculum he developed to support students’ academic and disciplinary literacy.  Previous to his tenure at CUNY, Lee was a social studies teacher for eight years at EBC Bushwick High School for Public Service in Brooklyn where he taught civic engagement classes and directed service-learning activities school-wide.  Lee holds a Bachelor’s Degree in American Studies from Georgetown University and an MA in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society from the University of Minnesota.

A quiet revolution has been underway for the last few years in the teaching of social studies in New York State. It will soon impact every school, but most directly high schools, where the pathway to graduation for most students includes two social studies exams. This shift is driven by related developments: a revised NYS Social Studies Framework, which sets forth new and rigorous expectations for teachers and students at all grade levels, and the recently released NYS Social Studies Toolkit, which provides resources to help teachers implement the Framework. Further, in 2018, the Regents will implement  a new Global History and Geography Regents Exam that will more robustly assess students’ understanding of the Framework. Shortly thereafter, a new U.S. History exam will follow. 

To help support all of these developments, New Visions is updating our Global History and U.S. History curriculum, which is freely available online, to match the changing landscape. We’re also looking to highlight the critical items that teachers and administrators need to know to better help support their students. As part of this commitment, we recently sat down with Greg Ahlquist, a New York State social studies teacher who has been part of the State Social Studies leadership team driving these changes, to get his thoughts and recommendations. 

Q: You have been heavily involved in the changes in the NYS Social Studies Framework and assessment over the last few years. Can you give our readers a sense of your past and current roles in these efforts?

Greg: I see a big part of my role as a bridge to the field. Since 2012, I’ve worked with the State Content Advisory Panel and Social Studies leadership team to draft ideas for the Framework. I’ve also helped in the development of resources for the Toolkit. This past year, I’ve been on the team focused on building the new Global History exam.

Q:  What suggestions do you have to help teachers with unpacking the content in the Framework?

Greg: The foundational piece is the Framework, which identifies the content, skills, and Social Studies Practices that students need in Social Studies. It’s critically important that districts and teachers take the time to unpack what the content is and the what the Social Studies Practices mean instructionally.

For grades K-9, the Framework is different from previous social studies scope and sequence documents, especially regarding what must be covered. There are about ten key ideas at every grade level and those key ideas are supported by Conceptual Understandings, which are then supported by Content Specifications.

Districts will have to make some content decisions. For example, if particular Content Specifications help teachers and students to master specific Conceptual Understandings, then teachers should absolutely use them. But maybe only one or two Content Specifications are relevant in your local context. For grades 10 and 11, however, the content standards should be followed more closely to ensure students possess the skills and knowledge necessary for the applicable Regents Exams.
 

Q: How has the Toolkit helped you personally in your own teaching and do you have examples of items that you found particularly invaluable for your students?

Greg:  The NYS Social Studies Toolkit  (also available at c3teachers.org) that was released in the Summer of 2015 provides teachers with resources and guidance for implementing the Framework through “inquiries.” An inquiry is larger than a lesson plan but smaller than a unit. The Toolkit includes a set of six inquiries for each course from kindergarten to twelfth grade. Each of the inquiries is based on the Conceptual Understandings and Content Specifications in the Framework.

The Toolkit is simply a set of resources that the Department has provided. The Toolkit is a helpful resource because it puts sources and a curricular frame in the hands of teachers, but it ultimately refers back to and draws its focus from the Framework. We have set the goal in my district’s middle schools and high schools to try and implement one inquiry from the Toolkit this year. Implementing the inquiry does not mean necessarily following everything line-by-line. Implementation of that one inquiry has looked very different depending on the teacher and students.

With the Toolkit, it’s impossible to build a one-size-fits all solution, so there are deliberate gaps. One of things that has been most exciting for me is to see how those gaps have been filled by the expertise of local teachers.

One of my favorite ways of using the Toolkit is to just use the sources from supporting questions and then develop my own questions for my students based on their specific needs. For example, one of my colleagues and I shared a source with students from the Toolkit inquiry on the Industrial Revolution, but developed custom questions, asking them to “Make three to five observations on this source,” as well as “What can we learn from this timeframe just based on the source?”

There is such a variety of ways to utilize and adapt these resources, either through the questions or modifying the questions, or in the example I just gave, stripping it down and reusing some of the sources in an instructional context that makes sense for particular students. It’s the flexibility, it’s the adaptability, and it’s the principles from the Toolkit that have been most helpful and have supported great teaching. The resource is a means to support the great teaching that is already happening in New York classrooms.
 

Q: What other suggestions do you have for teachers in using the inquiries?

Greg: It’s important foundationally that we understand that an inquiry is larger than a lesson plan and will likely take more than one day, but is smaller than a unit. There are just six inquiries at each grade level. It doesn’t come close to covering and addressing all of the key ideas that will naturally be part of an entire school year. I think it’s really important to understand not only what it is, but also what it isn’t. These inquiries are built upon the premise that the best people to use and adapt them are the local teachers that work with students directly.

I’ll tell one story to illustrate this point. I was working with two teachers from different schools in the same school district who were piloting a particular inquiry in their classrooms. After piloting it, one teacher informed me that he really loved it as it resonated with his students, while the other teacher had very mixed results in her classroom. Here are two teachers teaching the same grade in the same district that had vastly different experiences with the same resource. Teachers and leaders will have to make decisions at the district level, but also in the classroom to make it work for your kids. That’s just the nature of teaching. It’s really important to understand that the Toolkit is not comprehensive and certainly not scripted; they are open-source resources designed to be adapted.

Q: Global Studies teachers right now feel trapped between two goals; they must prepare their students for the current exam while shifting their instruction towards the new Framework and new exam.  What suggestions do you have to help teachers prepare students for the current exam while continuing to gear up for the 2018 exam release?

Greg: This is such a critical question, one that ninth, tenth and eleventh grade teachers are seriously wrestling with. My first piece of advice really does not lie with content because we need to keep teaching the same content, but to focus and think instructionally about the Practices, those key skills that are outlined in the Framework. The shift that I’m trying to make, and that I’m encouraging other teachers to make, is to make the skill work, such as making comparisons and identifying causation, more explicit with students. In planning upcoming units, it’s critical that teachers ask themselves the question, “What are the Social Studies Practices that are the most important in this unit?” If we can make strategic choices in what we teach, we can be more more explicit with students about skills, and shift our instruction in the right way.

The second piece of advice is to continue to leverage maps, primary sources, secondary sources, graphs, and charts. We can use sources to spark curiosity and to create arguments but we can also use them to build knowledge. I am trying to reinvent my instructional and assessment practice around sources so that students can be the interpreters of the evidence.

Q: What advice do you have for administrators and instructional coaches in how they support teachers with the implementation of the Framework and upcoming exam changes?

Greg:  As a general principle, administrators, such as superintendents who oversee the K-12 process, should prioritize the instruction of social studies at the elementary level. I think it’s our responsibility to think systemically, to think vertically, so that we’re thinking holistically about our entire K-12 system. Administrators should examine what is or isn’t happening at the elementary level and then advocate for the necessary changes to ensure students have the core skills and knowledge necessary once they enter middle and high school. Administrators should also not overlook the great things that are happening in elementary classrooms and the conversation about elementary Social Studies instruction has to be done in such a way that is strategic and provides reasonable, manageable micro-steps for elementary teachers who have courageously navigated a sea of change in their instructional practice recently.

Administrators also have to be willing to encourage teachers to take risks and make mistakes. It’s that kind of security that an administrator can provide that can set the right context, especially if it's something new for a group of teachers. We’re all going to learn and grow, so let’s do it in a supportive, collaborative, and positive context.

Q: The new Framework and Regents Exam emphasize the importance of using historical thinking skills. This might be a big mindset shift for both teachers and students as to what it means to study history. How would you recommend supporting both teachers and students in shifting their mindset?

Greg:  Anytime that we have anything that we might view as a shift in our district, we want to do at least two things. First, we want to honor the great work that is being done. We want to find and locate in our local context the kind of work we’d like to see and then we want to shine a bright spotlight on it. We often want to jump to an immediate solution and do something new, but in reality there may be in our local context people who are doing amazing things. We just need to showcase and empower those folks to become leaders.

Second, let’s put teachers in the position of learners. One of the best ways to teach it is to anticipate what students will experience. Have teachers who are wrestling with these shifts do whatever we want students to do. Then ask the question as a debriefing process, “What are the implications here? How do you unpack it? What did you do to complete that task?” We need to think strategically about what we need to do as teachers to support students as learners. Let’s have teachers enter as learners, and then we can take manageable, reasonable steps in a local context, setting collaborative goals that we’re all going to try and then come back and debrief how it went.

Q: What additional supports exist in the Framework or Toolkit for special education or English as New Language (ENL) students? How do you adapt materials based on specific student needs?

Greg: In my use of the Toolkit, I have realized that I need to make adaptations and changes for all different types of learners. There are suggestions for ENL classrooms and special education teachers in the instructional commentary of the Toolkit. The confidence I have is that teachers know how to adapt the resources. The adaptation I make for one class may need a very different set of adaptations in another class. It’s that principle that makes universal adaptations almost impossible in this kind of a Statewide resource.

Let me illustrate this point with an example. When I team-taught one inquiry with three different eighth grade teachers in my district, every time we taught the inquiry, each team adapted the sources differently. In one case, we used an extended reading from Andrew Carnegie on wealth and when we sat down to plan the lesson, we thought kids would struggle with the passage so we shortened it to two paragraphs. What we realized after we were done teaching is that there were some kids who really struggled with those two paragraphs and needed one-on-one support. I worked with some students sentence-by-sentence who needed that structure and support. There were other groups of students who didn’t need that type of support and flew through those paragraphs and were ready for more. In the future, we would probably keep the full text intact with the idea that we would point kids to the two paragraphs that are most essential, but if they have more time, then they should read the additional paragraphs.

Q: What excites you most about these changes in the exam and the broader NYS social studies community?

Greg: My greatest confidence and excitement stem from the possibility that the great teaching that is already happening in social studies classrooms can be enhanced, celebrated, and built upon. I’m excited when I hear teachers say, “I get to work with more sources and I have an opportunity to dig deeper and focus on specific skills.”

One of my challenges in reflecting on my own teaching practice is that I love history, but in the past, too often my teaching had devolved into this kind of continuous narrative of information. I had not left enough space for kids to own the information and be the interpreters of that information. I think one of the great shifts and opportunities that’s provided by all this work is the opportunity to hit the pause button and to reflect on what we’ve done in the past and potentially do some things differently. For me that will translate to empowering students so they become the interpreters. They become the ones that are making the conclusions and the observations. They become the ones that get to press the boundaries of what they know. So this new Framework, these new resources, and this new exam, seem to be an opportunity for us to retool and rethink what we have done in social studies.

To receive updates about the New Visions Global History and U.S. History curriculum projects, please join our mailing lists.

More About Greg Ahlquist 

Speaking to a room of her peers, Assistant Principal Janique Cambridge captured their attention when she explained her innovative approach for holding students accountable for their behavior.

“I had them make a promise to me and if they broke it, they would choose the consequences,” she told them.

Ms. Cambridge, sharing an intervention she had developed for her struggling students at Advanced Math and Science III Charter High School in Brooklyn, was among 13 teachers, administrators and counselors who presented at the 2nd Annual New Visions Charter High Schools Professional Learning Showcase that took place earlier this year.

The February Professional Learning Showcase brought together assistant principals, counselors and teaching artists from across the New Visions Charter High Schools network to present interventions they had developed to address problems of practice at their respective schools.

David Rothauser, Instructional Specialist for Social Emotional Learning, explained that “our aim was to bring people together, to make our learning public, and to share promising practices. We designed the showcase to enable our colleagues to push one another to see their work from different angles, and to be celebrated for their brilliance. We wanted to create a space for sharing and feedback that models the elevation of individuality and student voice that we promote in our schools.”

The showcase is a culminating experience for the first of two learning cycles in the Counseling Network and Assistant Principal convenings. These two professional learning groups, designed to support APs and counselors in their roles, meet two to three times per semester to support one another in their work, develop a sense of teamwork, and share practices towards accomplishing respective schoolwide goals. The three-month-long learning cycles take participants through a structured problem-solving process, which includes a presentation of what they learned to a public audience at the end of each cycle.

By repeating the cycle again in the spring, participants have the experience of a learning routine, which shifts the cognitive load over time from learning the routine itself to focusing on the learning task.

At the beginning of the first learning cycle, Ms. Cambridge sought to address the challenges of a subset of students in her cohort who were experiencing difficulty passing classes and earning credits towards graduation. With a school goal of 90% course passage at the forefront of her mind, Cambridge identified her target group and worked with her peers in her AP Convening cohort to implement what she called, “Keeping the Promise,” an academic performance and behavioral intervention that would engage students deeply in their own success.

During the AP convenings, Ms. Cambridge’s peers helped her to think through a way to encourage other school staff members to begin these conversations with students and concrete ways to track the progress of the students as they either begin to improve or revert to old, self-defeating behaviors.

“The AP convenings have been extremely helpful for me,” said Ms. Cambridge. “As APs, we don’t get time to talk to one another because we are all so busy, so having the opportunity to get an objective point of view on a problem you’re trying to solve is invaluable. You realize that schools have the same issues whether they are in the Bronx, Brooklyn or Queens and that someone has probably already encountered a problem that you are encountering now. “

At the showcase, Janique shared with her audience that, at that point, seven of the 32 students had already begun to dramatically improve, with at least four students passing previously-failed Regents exams and one student maintaining almost perfect attendance after a consistent habit of missing school once or twice per week.  

Other presenters, like school counselor Christine Mejia from Humanities II, shared interventions on topics ranging from peer leadership to Regents preparation. Christine, a second-year veteran of the Counseling Network, presented her curriculum and leadership of the school’s Student Life Seminar (advisory) Program, a project that was born through her participation in the Counselors Network the previous year.

“I did not expect for my proposal and presentation to become the structure for our Student Life Seminar this year, but I was pleased that it had,” she said. “The Counselors Network and Professional Learning Showcase allowed me the space to research and think critically about what I thought our freshmen scholars needed, and then put it into action.This second time around, I was much more relaxed because the showcases allow us to show a little piece of what we have been working on all year, while receiving critical feedback from colleagues.”

“It’s important for us to model this powerful feature of routines at the network level because it gives the adults an experience parallel to that of their students when we ask them to engage in challenge-based learning, ” said Kathy Rodriguez, program officer of student support.

Students at New Visions charter high schools identify real world problems and, at the end of every trimester, make presentations to their peers and community members about proposed solutions to those problems. The counselors and APs presenting at the showcases experience a similar learning process and provide audience members from varied perspectives a deeper understanding of the daily experience at the schools.

“These presentations really demonstrate the thoughtfulness of the schools’ efforts and the belief that blending the counselors’ social emotional learning work into the day-to-day school experience makes a difference,” said Mimi Corcoran, New Visions’ vice president of talent development.

After February’s showcase, counselors and APs and counselors synthesized the feedback they received and incorporated it into the next iteration of their projects, some of which will become their presentations at a second showcase later this year.

The next Professional Learning Showcase will take place on May 18 at 5:30 p.m. To register for the May 18 Showcase, click here.  If you have questions about the showcase, please contact David Rothauser at drothauser@newvisions.org or Marina Galazidis at mgalazidis@newvisions.org.

In late March, more than two dozen New Visions staff members joined over a thousand other attendees in San Francisco for the “2016 Carnegie Summit on Improvement in Education” to learn about how improvement science can be applied to their own work.

Improvement Science, which Anthony S. Bryk, President of the Carnegie Foundation, outlines in his book, “Learning to Improve: How America’s Schools Can Get Better at Getting Better,” involves making small, iterative changes with repeated evaluation to refine an area of work over time.  Bryk argues, “you can teach people about the ideas and introduce them to the tools, but you only learn it by doing it.”

According to Bryk, using improving science is really about asking, “What’s the problem?  What change are you going to introduce and why?  And then in some form or another you constantly test your change theory against data.”  (Check out this overview for more detailed information on improvement science and the guiding principles.)

Although this was just the third annual Summit, Bryk sees a natural evolution to the conference.  In the beginning, “people wanted to come and learn about improvement science in general, but by the third Summit they want to know how do we leverage improvement science better” in their own work.  The Summit featured workshops and sessions where various organizations shared how they are applying improvement science to a particular problem they face.

New Visions is dedicated to continuous improvement and our staff are living proof.  Below you will find key takeaways from New Visions staff as they work to apply lessons from the Summit to their own work:

Scaling is smart subtraction.  Improvement at large can only happen when the capacity to change the day-to-day exists.  Instead of adding responsibility, we should make the burden on our actors lighter.  Hayagreeva “Huggy” Rao cited the “100,000 Lives Campaign,” an initiative led by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.  Part of the campaign focused on implementing research-based practices such as moving hospital beds to a 45 degree angle in order to accelerate recovery from pneumonia.  Instead of adding this practice to the list of a thousand things nurses juggle daily, the campaign urged hospitals to do one simple thing: paint a 45 degree line on the wall next to the hospital bed.  This is smart subtraction of the cognitive load at it’s best. Angel Zheng Policy Analyst

Structure need not be binding, Innovation need not be Chaos.  Innovation does not mean “do whatever you want.”  In the session, “Growing a Culture of Innovation,” semi-structured practices were set to facilitate innovation with some minimum requirements of focus and evidence.  This “room to run” was intentionally designed to balance a reasonable level of structure (e.g. defining a specific goal) with enough room for adaptation and customization (e.g. how do we get there?). Terence Kennedy Service and Support Manager

MIT Professor of Media, Arts and Sciences Alex `Sandy’ Pentland encouraged attendees to get out there, meet new people, and ask them about their work.  He argued that it was in these conversations, perhaps even more than in the planned sessions, that we would learn and grow.  As I spoke to practitioners from New York, San Francisco and Malaysia, I found more colleagues who were willing to share both their successes and their struggles...These educators were not merely using failure to improve their own outcomes, they were publicly revealing their outcomes so that all of our students might improve as a result. Jeremy Greenfield Deputy Director of MicroCertifications

I was most interested in the use of routines, also known as standard work processes.  How does an improvement team decide on which routine(s) should be the focus of their work?  How is non-standard work standardized?  Who decides what becomes standard work that should be routinized?  Within my own work in curriculum at New Visions, improvement science will help us to extend a shared sense of “standard work.”  Teachers often use the word “routines” to name tools that manage student behavior; we need to extend that word to name tools that organize student thinking and learning.  This will require teachers to confront the idea that correct answers should be valued above the process.  In its place, we should think about learning that is situated in routines that make the learning visible and arises from mistakes, from the correction of mistakes and the understanding of where the mistake came from. Russell West Deputy Director of Instruction

The most powerful moment of the Summit for me came in the last hour when I sat rapt, moved, and humbled by Bryan Stevenson, Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative.  The “Power of Proximity,” he reminded the audience, matters a great deal.  He urged us to get closer to the problem—to get in the muck of the problem—no matter how uncomfortable that may be, because proximity allows for deeper understanding and with deeper understanding comes sounder decisions.  I would argue that proximity enabled some of the finest work showcased in the Summit, just as it enables an excellent teacher to meet the various social emotional and academic needs of her students.  So while we puzzle out scaling up, we must also always connect to the young people, educators, and families that we serve.  How else could we possibly hope to break the cycle of poverty? Marina Galazidis Instructional Specialist, ELA

Learn more about the Carnegie Summit, including information about the 2017 Conference, by visiting the Carnegie Foundation’s website.

Mark Dunetz has been appointed president of New Visions for Public Schools, a nonprofit leader in improving the quality of public schools in New York City. His appointment was announced by Richard Beattie, Founder and Chairman of the Board of the 26-year old organization.

Dr. Dunetz, who since 2013 has served as Vice President of School Support at New Visions, has spent nearly two decades working in New York City public schools. He began his career as a high school English secondary language (ESL) and social studies teacher working in both small and large high schools. After leaving the classroom, Dr. Dunetz taught ESL and bilingual teacher candidates, helped implement New Visions’ first residency program for aspiring school administrators and worked in program evaluation. His doctoral research examined an initiative to increase personalization and performance in a comprehensive high school through the creation of small learning communities. In 2008, he became the founding principal of Academy for Careers in Television and Film, New York City’s first career and technical education school connecting public school students with the full range of careers in the city’s growing film and television industry.

Mr. Beattie, Senior Chairman of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, LLP, said “Mark Dunetz brings unparalleled experience as an educator and school leader, a deep understanding of the components of effective schools and a compelling vision for the use of technology to extend the capacity of teachers and administrators. Under his careful management of New Visions’ district schools, New Visions has seen steadily increasing graduation and college-readiness rates, while continuing to serve a share of high-needs students that is proportionate to the district as whole. His strong leadership skills will enable New Visions to continue to drive improvements in public education citywide.”

New Visions for Public Schools is an innovation lab within New York City’s public school system, working with both the public and private sectors to realize lasting gains in student achievement. Serving nearly 46,000 students, New Visions currently supports 70 district schools and operates seven charter high schools across the city. Its evidence-based teacher preparation program with Hunter College, the Urban Teacher Residency, has graduated more than 250 teachers and is a national model for clinically-based teacher preparation.

While working as a principal, Dr. Dunetz and his colleagues demonstrated how meaningful career preparation and rigorous academics can complement one another in an inclusive and well rounded school community. With a 98 percent four-year graduation rate in 2015, the Academy for Careers in Television and Film has consistently been one of the city’s highest performing non-selective schools. For the past three years, Dr. Dunetz has worked with his colleagues at New Visions to translate the lessons he learned as a teacher and school leader into supports that strengthen the work of educators with students, families, communities and colleagues. Among these supports are data and management tools used by more than 200 district and charter schools, high school curriculum integrated into thousands of classrooms across New York State and free Google Add Ons which allow more than 100,000 educators around the world to work more efficiently and effectively.

Dr. Dunetz received a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of California, Santa Cruz, a master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from New York University, and a doctoral degree in urban education policy from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is married to a high school English teacher and college advisor and is a New York City public school parent. Dr. Dunetz’ appointment is effective immediately. He succeeds Robert L. Hughes, who stepped down from New Visions earlier this spring to become K-12 Director at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

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Does Mark know that Wilson’s Fourteen Points was written at the end of World War I?  Does Stephanie know the ingredients of a polynomial?  Content.  It’s often the first item on educators’ minds as they design lessons and activities to prepare students to sit for the Regents examinations.  For Stephanie and Mark, however, content is likely the second or even third consideration they’ll make as they take a Regents exam.  Before a student recalls what content was learned in class, he or she must first read the exam, take stock of the directions and know what each assessment item demands.

Recently, New Visions’ Instructional Specialists and researchers analyzed the June 2014 Integrated Algebra I, Comprehensive English Language Arts, Living Environment, U.S. History, Global History and Geography Regents exams to shine a light on their construction so that we may better understand specifically what a test-taker encounters and must make meaning of. We hope that teachers, especially those who teach Regents courses, consider these findings, which are highlighted below, as they engage their students in Regents test prep in the coming days.

What does a test-taker read?  What are the text parts?  The major finding was startling: the exams don’t ask a whole lot of questions.  Despite the fact the exams direct students to “answer the following questions,” only 40% of the 272 item stems that were examined were written as questions.  Nearly just as many item stems were written as partial sentences, fragments or incomplete sentences that students must complete by selecting a response from a list of options.

This finding is significant.  Assessment research warns against using a partial sentence construction because it requires students to identify what the “question” would have been if it were a question, as well select the best “answer,” thereby increasing the cognitive demand and decreasing the item’s validity.  As Cynthia Brame from the Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University explains, “a question stem is preferable because it allows the student to focus on answering the question rather than holding the partial sentence in working memory and sequentially completing it with each alternative.”

Consequently, educators should not be surprised if a student raises her hand and says, “I’m not sure what this question is asking!”  This assessment design, when paired with directions that synonymously refer to items as “questions,” is misleading, especially for those writers who struggle with the boundaries of a sentence.  Clearly, those struggling writers will be further challenged by fragmented, partial sentence constructions.  The preliminary analysis of the Global History and Geography exam found that students perform less well on selected response items written with partial sentence item stem constructions as compared to other item stem constructions that contain a statement or question.  For these reasons, the New Visions research team recommends teachers devote time to build students’ capacity to navigate sentence boundaries and fragmented item stem constructions.  For help in this area, teachers may want to leverage Judith Hochman's Teaching Basic Writing Skills’ activities on sentence boundaries.

In addition to the partial sentence constructions, the New Visions’ research team discovered that students must successfully navigate several distinct types of parts within the items.  In the Living Environment Regents exam, for example, 48% of item stems have four or five text parts, whereas 6% of Global History item stems have four or five parts (see graph below).  A single item stem can contain two statements, a table, another statement and then a graph, each of which are critical to understanding the item’s "ask," but may be overwhelming when first encountered.  As Common Core exams transition to more stimulus-based multiple choice items, our research team recommends educators spend time with students on identifying, recognizing and navigating different parts.

Finally, the research team assigned each Regents exam item stem according to the five expository text structures.  The team decoded each exam item based on the dominant expository pattern expressed.  By and large, item stems are written predominantly as description text (42%) and cause and effect text (34%).

Graphic organizers can be tremendously helpful for identifying text features and recognizing what additional information is needed to “complete the story” of an assessment item.  This technique is one teachers may leverage to empower students to be structurally-aware readers and test-takers.

For example, the following item stem from the June 2014 U.S. History Regents Exam may be deconstructed into the cause-effect graphic organizer, which could help readers identify what piece of information is necessary to complete the item’s “story.”

In conclusion, the Regents exam is comprised of highly complex pieces of text, however, its complexities are not always a result of meeting rigorous content standards.  Below you will find a summary of the key recommendations from the New Visions research team:

• If readers recognize the different types of text structures, they will be better able to comprehend the text.
• If test-takers know what question the item poses and know what to do to respond, test takers will be equipped to answer, even when they do not know the content.
• If testers remove the barriers created by unnecessarily complex item stems, they will be better able to accurately assess a student’s content knowledge and skills.
• If teachers and students make the shift to reading the exam, they will think differently about each of the items; they will become structurally aware and be text-empowered to know what to do to respond.

Below you will find an overview of the resources highlighted in this blog, as well as links to the New Visions curriculum projects, which include Regent prep materials:

Resources Highlighted

• Reading the Regents: Investigating the Test as Expository Text - This is the full research report that the New Visions team produced. 
• Item Stem Parts - An explanatory guide to text construction used for deconstructing item stem parts.
• Text Structures - A cheat sheet with common signal words for each expository text structure.
• Graphic Organizers for Text Structures - A visual representation of expository text structures educators can use with students.
• Teaching Basic Writing Skills - Activities to help students navigate  sentence boundaries.

New Visions Curriculum Projects

• Earth Science
• Global History
• Living Environment
• Math
• U.S. History

The goal in disseminating this research is to inspire timely action, to empower students and ultimately, to improve student success on the exam.  A sincere thank you for the volunteer efforts of the New Visions research team: Chris King (West Bronx Academy Living Environment teacher), Elizabeth Chatham (NVPS Living Environment Instructional Specialist), Katie Jacobson (Bronx Leadership Academy II Chemistry teacher), Joyce Adgate (NYCDOE Math Instructional Specialist), Marina Galazidis (NVCHS ELA Instructional Specialist), Michelle Lewis (NVCHS Global History Instructional Specialist), Aruna Patel (NVPS U.S. History Instructional Specialist) and Tim Lent (NVPS Global History Instructional Specialist).

Did you know that between 2002 and 2009 hundreds of gigatons of ice melted in Antarctica and Greenland? Students in schools all over NYC are studying this phenomenon more closely than ever before.  Thanks to resources provided by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), New Visions science curriculum projects are leveraging a wide range of real world data from the museum on everything from global warming to local river environments to help science come to life for students.

Currently, New Visions has full Common Core-aligned curricula for high school math subjects, Earth Science, Global History, Living Environment, and U.S. History.

Over the last few years, a partnership with the Gottesman Center for Science Teaching and Learning at the American Museum of Natural History has provided the New Visions science team with support around curriculum materials, professional development and connections to the scientific community.  For instance, since the Summer of 2013, teachers have had the opportunity to learn alongside museum scientists and educators as they developed and refined teaching case materials about the Hudson River Ecology.

This collaboration was so well-received that we have subsequently worked with museum staff to provide professional development experiences for teachers around the GRACE teaching case and the Earthquake Risk in Bangladesh teaching case—all of these materials are now integrated into the New Visions Living Environment and Earth Science curricula.  Our common interests and focus on teacher and student growth have made this an exciting partnership!

Below, you will hear from two of the teacher-leaders who share how the AMNH partnership is enhancing their instruction and benefiting their students.
 

Joe Tartaglia, High School for Innovation in Advertising and Media

Joe Tartaglia (pictured on the right) with other members of the New Visions Science curriculum project.

I teach Living Environment to incoming freshman in Brooklyn, NY.  I initially became involved with the Living Environment curriculum project at the start of the 2014-15 school year because I wanted the opportunity to rethink, and reimagine the manner in which science is taught to high schoolers who may not have had positive experiences in the past. 

As the only teacher from my school participating directly in the project, it was important for me to turnkey alternative approaches to teaching science, such as the 5E instructional model and group learning routines, with other science teachers at my school.  In my second year, I was accepted into the project’s advisory board, and assumed the role of teacher-leader, whose responsibilities involve taking a lead in revising the unit plans, curating additional resources to support teachers that are new to the program, as well as offering up suggestions for subsequent PD sessions. The teacher-leader role has empowered me to express what I was noticing in my classroom, and enabled me to further refine classroom resources and student deliverables.

The collaboration with AMNH provides the opportunity to take science out of the classroom into the real world.  For example, I have used a number of AMNH’s web resources for my ecosystems unit, leveraging the Museum's web-based interactive portal to Hudson River data, so my students can study the impact that invasive zebra mussels have on the local ecosystem.  As a result of this fantastic resource, my students were able to create excellent scientific explanations.

Next school year, I also plan to leverage the AMNH climate change ice core resources to help stimulate a discussion on the extent that humans have impacted climate change, and how to forecast future changes.  These resources will be helpful as I challenge some preconceived notions my students may have concerning climate change.

Finally, in the coming year, I’m hoping to plan a trip for my students to explore the museum’s new microbiome exhibit, “The Secret World Inside You,” which we recently toured during a professional development event, and which will tie in well with a mini-unit on evolution.  As I further refine my teaching craft, I will definitely look to further incorporate the multitude of resources available on the AMNH website, and their great selection of exhibits.
 

Michelle Pizer, New Visions Charter High School for
Adanced Math & Science II (AMSII)

I am just completed my first year teaching in the South Bronx where I teach Earth Science to grades 9th-12th.

I’ve only worked for AMSII for a short while, but I have had so many great opportunities to enhance my teaching skills and science resources through informative PDs, collaboration with other teachers, and participation in the New Visions science teacher advisory board.  With the advisory board, I have been actively involved in developing and refining the Earth Science curriculum.  This experience has strengthened my ability to teach as I’m constantly sharing new and insightful ideas with other educators.

My teaching has also been enhanced by the AMNH partnership because I have attended several professional development events at the museum where I learned about valuable cooperative learning techniques and research databases, explored museum exhibitions and acquired new resources. AMNH has been particularly useful for my work developing the Earth Science unit on climate change as I plan next year to incorporate data into that unit from the GRACE satellites that look at the change in freshwater distribution across the world over time.  Next school year, I I also plan to bring my students to the museum to tour exhibitions that highlight the evidence of climate change.  One of these exhibitions is a model of a real ice core from Greenland which illustrates the change in climate, CO2 concentration, and local temperature over many years.

New Visions’ full scope and sequence curriculum combined with AMNH’s data examples and hands-on exhibits are truly transforming my teaching and making my students feel like true scientists in the field. I cannot wait to see what’s next in the partnership!

Many times, financial aid packages offered by colleges and universities do not cover the full cost of attendance.  Too often, those gaps function as deterrents for students.  For the last seven years, New Visions has awarded an exceptional set of high school seniors from New York City with funding to help offset the cost of attending the college of their choice.  This year, we are proud to present 11 outstanding students with New Visions scholarships of up to $20,000.

Nominated by their principals and teachers, this year's scholars are fierce advocates for social justice, enriching their communities and schools and seeking new challenges in and outside of the classroom.

Support for the 2016 scholarships was made possible through the generosity of donors like Ralph Schlosstein and Ambassador Jane Hartley, Roger Altman and Jurate Kazickas, and the Dalio Family Foundation.

Below you will find more information about six our 2016 recipients:

"I would say that when I first started school at Hillcrest, I would say was kind of shy. I didn't really like trying new things, but the person I am now is the complete opposite. I love trying new things. I found a lot of my passions at Hillcrest. I joined my school's 'Girl Up' club and was active in raising awareness about the importance of educating women in other countries.”

“I have one aspiration and that is what has brought me this far—to be a cardio surgeon.  I remember my aspiration and my experience of coming to America and trying to be a success. My advice for others is to find something that inspires you and build on it. You shouldn't try to find shortcuts. Keep working hard.”

"This is a principle that I try to live by. What makes you unique are the things you do that impact others not just yourself. If you're trying to make a mark in the hearts of other people, that's when you are utilizing yourself most appropriately. Don't just be confined within your self interests, try to think about everything else around you and how you can make everything better."

"I’ve learned how to push myself through challenges as well as celebrate my achievements instead of bashing myself for failures. This new methodology uncovered a stockpile of deadly weapons—curiosity and passion—the most powerful things a woman can possess."

“You need to pursue your dream no matter what other people tell you, no matter who is in your way. You have to go forward to pursue your dream because you never know what you’re going to get out of it.”

“My long term goal is to get a Ph.D. because I want to conduct my own independent research in the field of medicine, which I’ve always been interested in. I just honestly like research. I’m one of those weird, select people. I just love discovering knowledge.”

"Volleyball has really pushed me. It taught me that life is about pushing the boundaries, not just reaching your limits but going beyond them. It’s taught me that I always have to move forward, think about the next point and what I can do better in this second."

In July, I had the pleasure of attending the very first-ever edtech camp hosted by the New Visions CloudLab team at the United Nations in New York. The event provided an opportunity for participants to discuss the adoption and mastery of open source technology in STEM education. Danieta Morgan, Community Product Manager for New Visions CloudLab, facilitated the participant-driven discussion, which included a Battle of the Apps segment that allowed participants to vote for their favorite edtech tools. The event also showcased the work of a student and two former teachers who are leveraging open source technologies and inspiring others to go from being “consumers of technology to creators of technology.”

High School Senior, Elle Park, kicked off the first presentation by discussing her current internship at the United Nations with the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion program.  Elle is driven by a personal mission to provide wireless access to women in developing countries, so they have access to STEM-related education materials online. Elle shared that learning to code with open source languages, such as Scratch and Python, has empowered her to “create something out of nothing” and she now has the opportunity to make a real impact in the world with her app, NüMe, which helps connect pregnant women with information, resources and doctors.

Like most of those in attendance, I was amazed by Elle’s accomplishments at such a young age, so much that I was moved to take action. Since the event, I have been exploring opportunities to bring a coding program to my school, the Business of Sports School (BOSS) in Manhattan, so that my students are equipped with the skills necessary to be competitive in the future and affect change in their communities.

The second presenter, educator and developer, Gabriel Sanchez, highlighted how he used Scratch and Pocket code to “create tools that intersect computer science, music education and learning.” The tools he developed, Scripthica and Beetik, are open source and aim to empower students to learn to code through the creation of music. His passion for music education was evident as he demonstrated his tools and the various music compositions developed by his students.

As a fellow educator, I applaud him for developing a curriculum and tools to help prevent the elimination of music education from schools. Additionally, I agree with several attendees who noted that his software could be a “gateway” to getting young people excited about computer science.

The final speaker Jeffrey Moore, a former seventh grade ELA teacher, closed out the night by offering participants an opportunity to reflect. He explained that his story began with a failed lesson examining Tupac’s poem, A Rose That Grew From Concrete. The lack of educational digital content to complete the lesson ultimately led him to create the blog, Everyday Power, which is an online inspiration portal.

I am truly thankful for the opportunity to attend this event and for the open educational resources provided by New Visions and organizations like Google Apps for Education. As a result, my fellow teachers and I have been able to leverage edtech tools to enhance student learning and instruction. RosterSync, a free add-on created by the New Visions Cloudlab team, specifically has helped streamline the school-wide adoption of Google Classroom by eliminating the setup burden for teachers. This add-on has empowered more BOSS teachers to become open to learning how to best use education technology resources in their classrooms. In addition to rosterSync, other favorite Google Apps for Education add-ons of mine are Doctopus, Goobric and Autocrat to distribute personalized resources and provide feedback, SiteMaestro to create student portfolios and the creation of interactive content using DocentEDU, Edpuzzle and Google Sites.

I can’t wait to attend the next New Visions edtech event and see what new add-ons will be rolled out in the future!

Stay tuned for more information about future New Visions CloudLab events. For more information about New Visions CloudLAb, visit www.cloudlab.newvisions.org.

About Gloria Canales:

Gloria is in her 9th year of teaching high school U.S. History and Spanish. She is currently at the Business of Sports School in Manhattan. She serves on the New Visions U.S. History Curriculum Project Teacher Advisory Board and is a Google Certified Educator (Level 2) and has been a Google Apps for Education user since 2009. Gloria began teaching through New York City Teaching Fellow. 

Last month, the New Visions Urban Teacher Residency (UTR) was selected by the National Center for Teacher Residencies (NCTR) to be a demonstration site, serving as a model teacher residency program and acting as a laboratory of learning and improvement.  

NCTR convened dozens of educators from teacher residencies all over the United States, to network and examine a problem of practice presented by UTR.

Over the course of three days, representatives from various residency programs, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Hunter College, the NYC Department of Education and other NCTR partner organizations visited select New Visions schools with one particular question in mind: How does participation in a school triad impact mentor practice as teachers and teacher educators?

School triads are a defining feature of the NYC Department of Education’s Learning Partners Program, a signature initiative of the Chancellor that promotes sharing of best practices and teacher collaboration across schools. In the program, teachers and administrators from one “host” school work with two “partner” schools on a year-long series of inter-visitations, classroom visits, and reflective seminars. In 2015, this program expanded to include New Visions’ Urban Teacher Residency, matching  successful UTR host schools with two less experienced partner schools to develop and integrate promising structures and strategies for resident preparation and mentor development.

By selecting UTR as a demonstration site, NCTR gave its partner residencies the opportunity to deeply explore the inner workings of the triad model. “We wanted to examine how to leverage UTR’s unique Triad model to strengthen mentor practice,” said “Shari Staub, NCTR’s network director. “UTR provided an excellent forum for the network to examine the intersection between purposeful and innovative school-based partnerships and teacher educator effectiveness.  NCTR was thrilled and honored to collaborate with UTR to design a thoughtful and relevant experience for the network.”

NCTR develops, innovates, and scales teacher residency programs to transform teacher preparation and improve outcomes for high-need students. It is the only organization in the nation dedicated to developing, launching, supporting, and accelerating the impact of teacher residency programs.

Participants at last month’s session attended instructional rounds at select New Visions schools to observe the school triads in action; analyze and learn from the teachers’ collaboration; share constructive feedback with the UTR team on how to improve the program; and ultimately take the things they’d learned back to their own residency programs to be implemented. They also talked with school administrators about their systematic approaches to supporting mentors and residents at their respective schools. 

Stephanie Burley, an English education mentor at Cambria Heights Academy of New Literacies, came to the instructional rounds visit with very specific goals in mind. “I really want to see best practices on how to help the mentors with their teaching practice especially with engagement in pacing,” she said.  “My mentee struggles with the time frame of the workshop model, sometimes her students don’t get time to do independent activities, which is crucial, so I’m hoping to learn more about that today.”

Other participants like Tommy McGrail, from Aspire Teacher Residency in Memphis, came eager to explore the problem of practice. “At 

Aspire, we have a lot more collaboration than within a larger district, but the idea of a triad, this small professional learning community, is something that I think we call do better. It’s fascinating to see the different components, the university partners, the schools, the site based coaches and mentors, residents. It’s very interesting.”

After instructional rounds at the schools, participants reconvened with one another in groups to debrief and provide constructive feedback for the New Visions team. After hours of discussions about the triad model and mentor and resident development, participants shared actionable feedback using a “keep, start, modify” protocol.

After instructional rounds at the schools, participants reconvened with one another in groups to debrief and provide constructive feedback for the New Visions team. After hours of discussions about the triad model and mentor and resident development, participants shared actionable feedback using a “keep, start, modify” protocol.

Program officers from both UTR and the Department of Education expressed their profound gratitude for the experience and the deeply constructive feedback on the partnership.“It was an eye opening experience to learn about our residency with so many knowledgeable and thoughtful partners,” said Rachelle Verdier, The deputy director of UTR. “NCTR gave us multiple perspectives on our work at a point in the year when changes are still possible. Not only were we exposed to the larger world of residencies, but our residents, mentors, schools and partners gained a better understanding of the power of the residency model. We are looking forward to our continued involvement with NCTR to strengthen our systems, processes and partnerships.”

“This convening presented an opportunity for us here in New York City to look at how we collaborate and to hear from outsiders how we can get better and make a program that is strong even stronger,” said Phil Weinberg, Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning at the New York City Department of Education. “We want there to be authentic teacher residencies and we want schools to talk to each other about good practices learned from each other. It is really exciting to be able to expand this dialogue, nationally.”

The New Visions team will work together over the next few months to implement many of the suggestions provided by the NCTR participants.

Seven years ago, I knew I wanted a career that would make an impact in the lives of others.  As a graduate student in Cellular and Molecular Biology, I was dividing my time between research and teaching, and found myself drawn to teaching more than lab work.  A friend told me about an organization called New Visions and the rest is history.  Today, as both a teacher and teacher-leader, I impact the lives of my students and empower teachers with the knowledge and skills that I have acquired over the years. 

My first experience with New Visions was in the New Visions - Hunter College Urban Teaching Residency (UTR), an 18-month teaching certification program.  Thanks to UTR, I received expert instruction from Hunter College faculty and earned my master’s degree, while training to teach in a real classroom environment with support from a veteran mentor teacher.  

After graduating, I began to take advantage of the various professional development opportunities New Visions offered to me as a UTR graduate.  One of the most impactful opportunities they’ve shared has been the New Visions Living Environment Curriculum, which provides Common Core educational resources, designed by teachers, for high school living environment and biology courses.  I implement different aspects of the curriculum in my classroom each day, and over the past two-and-a-half years, I have seen improvements in my students’ engagement, understanding, and excitement.

During my first couple of years teaching, I struggled to keep my students engaged as we jumped from topic to topic, sometimes without clear connections between them.  This curriculum helped to solve that problem.  Each unit begins with an exciting question that engages them.  The students follow the question all the way through the unit which culminates in a final task around what they’ve learned.  The opening question from one of my favorite units, “Nutrition, Energy & Biochemical Processes,” asks students: “Would crickets make a good addition to school lunch?” That question always gets their attention!

Another part of the curriculum that has tremendously impacted my teaching is group learning routines.  These structured discussions help facilitate students’ learning from listening to one another.  I have to admit, I was reluctant to utilize group learning routines at first because I worried about letting go of some control in the classroom.  I was afraid that it would take a lot of time to prepare and complete each routine and that we’d lose time transitioning between activities.  However, as soon as I adopted them, my students really started responding to the routines and they actually proved quite effective from a timing perspective.  Because of the routines, my students are more confident in sharing their perspectives and have a better handle on vocabulary comprehension.

Last year, I was invited to join the board of teachers who help develop the New Visions Living Environment curriculum.  In my exciting new role on the Teacher Advisory Board, I help shape the curriculum, disseminate the curriculum beyond New York City, and work with my team of fellow teachers to identify relevant conferences that we can attend.  Because of these efforts, I’ve been able to attend and present at conferences on both the local and national level over the past year and have received valuable feedback that has helped further refine the curriculum.  Each time I present to a new group of teachers, I come across some new insight into why a particular routine works or a new way to scaffold an activity for a particular group of students.  New Visions is dedicated to continuous improvement and the Living Environment Curriculum is no exception.

The opportunity to share and grow with other teachers has been one of the greatest parts of being a part of the New Visions community.  This past summer, I became an instructor in the New Visions MicroCert program, which provides professional development opportunities for current educators.  I taught a course on homeostasis and it was my first time teaching a multi-day course to other teachers.  I enjoyed it so much that I’m planning to teach it again this spring! 

Seven years ago, I had no idea where my path would take me.  Today, I am grateful to not only be able to impact the lives of my students, but also the lives of educators, just like me.  My goal, as I continue my involvement with New Visions, is to keep developing professionally, further refine the Living Environment curriculum and help develop new resources that will not only help my students, but students around the country.

The New Visions Living Environment Curriculum pilot project is made possible through the generous support of the Noyce Foundation, Toyota USA Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
 

About Andrea Robinson:

Andrea is a graduate of the New Visions-Hunter College Urban Teaching Residency, and currently teaches Living Environment and Earth Science at All City Leadership Secondary School in Brooklyn.  She is in her third year of working with the New Visions Living Environment Curriculum, and has presented portions of the curriculum to teachers at local and national conferences.  Andrea is also a Math for America Master Science Teacher.

Would you buy a new phone without first doing research and looking to find the best deal? Probably not. So why would you make the most important decision of your life so far—which college to attend—without finding answers to critical questions? Have you thought about the four-year graduation rate? What is the typical student debt load? These are questions to consider.

The New Visions community engagement and college readiness (CECR) team is helping students prepare for college through a multi-pronged approach. CECR provides monthly professional development opportunities for guidance counselors, college culture-building activities for grades 9-12, a series of college fairs for students in grades 11 and 12, and a week-long pre-college boot camp at SUNY Herkimer. In addition, CECR develops partnerships with colleges that provide college-credit courses and campus visits for New York City high school students and hosts forums that connect high-achieving students with representatives from selective colleges so they can have honest and direct conversations.

These “High Achiever Forums,” which so far have been hosted by Dartmouth College and Macaulay Honors College, allow parents and students who are exceeding college readiness benchmarks to ask questions without fear, and to learn directly from an admissions/financial aid representative about the school and the college application process more generally.

Even though the “High Achievers” series has just launched, the impact has already been felt. After several of her students attended the Macaulay Honors College event, Rene DaSilva, a guidance counselor at New Visions Charter High School for Humanities III, noted that her “scholars learned how important it is to advocate for oneself, do comprehensive research, and ask lots of questions” to find the right fit.

These events give parents and students direct insight into the mind of a college administrator. Success requires students to not only to get into college, but the right college. That starts with doing research and asking the right questions.
 

Macaulay Honors College High Achievers Forum

Earlier this fall, Alimmay (Ali) Kamara, associate director of admissions at Macaulay Honors College, came to speak to over 50 students and parents from New Visions schools. Ali hoped that students would “come away from the event empowered, motivated, and more knowledgeable" than before about the college process.

Macaulay is the honors college of The City University of New York (CUNY), allowing students to design their own major or select from over 475 options within the CUNY network. The school wants its students to be successful both inside and outside the classroom. For this reason, all students receive a full merit scholarship, free transportation, a MacBook, faculty mentoring, and career/internship placement support.

Ali was kind enough to share what he’s learned from working in the field for over fifteen years. His suggestions are excellent starting points for any college applicant:
 

Tips on the General College Application Process

1. Do the research. Look at the mission statement of a school. "By knowing what the college is looking for, you can help prepare yourself." Look at admission stats, as well. Understand average test scores and grades to see if the school is one you should realistically apply to. Even if you have a stellar average, you may get rejected because you do not know the type of student a school is looking for. 
    
2. Focus on quality over quantity.  Don't apply to more than 10 schools, even if your school provides fee waivers. Some students apply to 30+ schools, spreading themselves too thin.
    
3. Find someone who is at the school where you want to go. Ask for an honest opinion of the school and its programs. Find and tap into a vast network of people who are willing to help.
    
4. Visit the schools you’d like to attend before you enroll. A college representative can't give you all of the information you will experience on a tour. Only by visiting can you get the true experience. If you can’t afford a visit, reach out to see if financial aid for school visits is offered for prospective students. Many schools have "Fly In Programs" for students with merit-based needs.
    
5. Your essays are critical and help humanize your application. This is where you speak directly to the college recommenders. Your essay should be "original, organic, and have a bit of a wow factor. You want to take some risks, but you also want to be very careful about what you say. This is not the time to make jokes. Stay away from cliche phrases, like ‘I'm the best in my class.'" This is your chance to speak directly to the members of the committee and tell them why they should select you. "It's okay to brag a little," because you want to stand out from other applicants.
    
6. Meet with and ask the right questions of college representatives. Don't just look to meet college representatives at college fairs. Email them to set up meetings with them directly. Come prepared with questions about financial aid, admissions, majors, and support provided after graduation. "The graduation rate is important, but you should also ask questions like, ‘How much will come out of my pocket?’ and ‘What is your employment rate after six months of graduation?’ If you're not inquisitive, college reps will sell you anything. Afterall, it's their job to sell the college.”
    
7. Be strategic and plan ahead with your recommendations. You want to find teachers and individuals who know you well. Provide them with a “brag sheet” on all your accomplishments, both in and out of school, as they may only know your work in a particular course. Give your recommenders plenty of notice before the deadline and provide stamped, addressed envelopes for them to mail in.
    
8. Come prepared for the interview. Research doesn’t stop once you apply. If you’re fortunate to receive an interview, come prepared with questions and in-depth knowledge of the school. You should also let your personality shine through. This may be simple advice, but it’s often forgotten —smile and stay positive. Speak articulately and confidently. You have to be able to convey your message. "If you're not going to sell you, who is going to sell you?"
    

Tips on Securing Financial Aid

1. Every student should apply for FAFSA. FAFSA stands for “Free Application for Federal Student Aid.” The application is open to all students seeking funding from the government to pay for college.
    
2. Do comprehensive research on financial aid. "Schools are a business and some will cost you anywhere between $48,000-$68,000 per year, depending on where you go.” Even with a merit scholarship, there are still some things that you need to pay for, such as books and food. You need to know and forecast what costs to expect.
    
3. Read the fine print to make sure you qualify before applying. Many people do not get scholarships that they apply for because they do not closely read the criteria to see if they qualify. Focus your attention only scholarships you are eligible for.
    
4. Talk to your parents. Some companies provide tuition reimbursement, including aid for family members in some cases. This money is often not advertised; only through asking questions can your parents find out whether this benefit is available to them at their workplace. Your parents should start by asking their Human Resources departments whether the company provides tuition reimbursement for family members. Some companies may consider starting such programs because enough individuals ask for them.
    
5. Talk to your fellow community members. Ask if your local church, civic organizations, rental company, or any other local company/organization offers any scholarships. "Turn over every stone you can find. You'd be amazed by what you will find."
    
6. Find the decision makers and meet with them. Once you’re in college, seek out college administrators. If you're in school and doing well during your first semester, set up an appointment to meet with your Dean of Enrollment. Ask if he/she can recommend any scholarships for you or recommend someone else at the school to speak with regarding scholarships. Meeting with your dean in person makes you stand out, as he/she may be involved in the scholarship process. It also puts a face to your application. When you leave, send an email, expressing your thanks for the meeting.

These are just a few high level tips that young people sometimes forget as they apply to college. What additional tips do you suggest? Join the conversation on Twitter using #CollegeTips now.

New Visions celebrates Ian Levy, counselor at New Visions Charter High School for Advanced Math and Science II, on being named NY State School Counselor of the Year!

Mr. Levy, who is a doctoral student in health education at Columbia University, Teachers College, was recognized by the New York State School Counselor Association (NYSSCA) for his hip hop therapy counseling program at AMS II.

The program, which Mr. Levy started in 2013, provides an outlet for students to express themselves through writing and recording rap songs and spoken word.

Last year, the program was featured in an article in the New York Times and Mr. Levy along with 19 of his students were invited to rap live on Sway Calloway’s SiriusXM radio show.

Check out the TC News blog to learn more about Mr. Levy’s prestigious award.

Photo Credit: Sam Hodgson

When I went to graduate school to become a teacher, I didn’t enroll because I wanted to be a leader. I enrolled in the course of study to learn how to teach social studies. I wanted to learn how to pass along all the important lessons of history to a new generation. As any good student would, I learned all the pedagogical theories, tried different strategies for engagement, read up on classroom management strategies, and developed interesting lessons. When I was a full-time teacher, if someone had asked me what made me a teacher, I would have probably rattled off some lines about my pedagogical stance, my content knowledge, and my classroom management techniques. I wouldn’t have thought beyond the surface, and stuck to the visible things that jump out at us when we think we are seeing a good teacher teach. 

Whether I knew it or not, my ability to be a strong teacher was very much tied to my ability to be a leader. As I spent more and more years in the classroom, what I was really honing were my leadership skills. It wasn’t just because there were six different groups of 35 kids that I had to wrangle with every day or because I was the only adult in the room for six hours a day. It was because, as it turns out, leadership is the very essence of teaching. Without my ability to lead, I wouldn’t have lasted in the classroom for more than a few weeks.

Last month, teachers, school leaders, and other education stakeholders from 17 different states convened in Chicago for a weekend coordinated by the U.S. Department of Education, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). The teacher leadership summit, aptly named Teach to Lead, focused on exploring leadership roles outside of the four walls of the classroom. The theme of the summit, “Inclusion, Equity, and Opportunity,” meant that that all attendees were united in the goal of making the world a more fair place for kids of all kinds to thrive. The summit itself was less of a conference and more of an idea incubator. The event provided an opportunity to engage with speakers and experts around why inclusion, equity, and opportunity are important. We were given tools, human capital and support, and a space to plan and scale ideas into living, breathing, pliable projects for us to bring back to our hometowns.

Projects ranged from greater mental health services for students, to getting more students of color and young women into STEM programs, to our project for New Visions for Public Schools: Rewriting History - Expanding the Story of the United States.

Before we left for the summit in Chicago, a few colleagues asked me what our project was all about. I tried to formulate a sound bite, but I struggled. It was an idea that my teacher leaders, who participate in the New Visions U.S. History Curriculum, had brought to me, but I was honestly unsure how it would work. The idea was too big. We wanted to make curriculum resources for U.S. History teachers that addressed the stories of marginalized groups. However, we didn’t know which marginalized groups to pick, how to structure the curricular resources, how to disseminate the materials, or even how to train teachers to integrate these materials into their courses. 

While we were in Chicago, something magical happened. The three teacher leaders who joined me came alive in a space where they weren’t worrying about grading, making the bus home in time to pick up their kids, or calling parents. We sat down and molded our idea into a pliable working plan. 

When we left Chicago, we had articulated the problem, had a shared understanding of our goal, and were able to verbalize what success and student impact would look like if we were successful. At our first meeting after the summit, we sat down and started from a place of strength.

Rewriting History: Expanding the Story of the United States will provide model curricular resources for U.S. History teachers to learn how to include the history of marginalized groups within the traditional scope and sequence of a history course. Our teacher leaders are going to pick events from eras of U.S. history and rewrite a lesson from the perspective of a marginalized group; for example, the Constitution, from the perspective of an African American or Native American in 1776, the Civil War from the perspective of a woman, the Progressive Era and Industrialization from the perspective of an Asian or Latino immigrant, and the Cold War & Civil Rights era from the perspective of LGBTQ Americans.* After training teachers in how the teacher leaders created these lessons, teachers who attend a professional development workshop hosted by these same teacher leaders will be tasked with creating their own lesson on a historical event from the perspective of a marginalized group. 

At the end of the summit, I was reflecting on my experience.  Before I had gone there, I wasn’t sure if all teachers were leaders. While I was at the summit, I realized leadership was intertwined with teaching.  And that teachers were incredibly powerful leaders and that they simply had to decide to use their power.

Gloria Canales, one of the New Visions teacher leaders at the summit, walked away realizing her power as she remarked that all it takes is "one voice to ripple out to transform the world." Andrea Wilson, another teacher leader, “came away with a renewed sense of purpose and new perspectives on teaching and social justice.”

Our team's challenge now will be to develop these inclusive resources and then motivate other teachers to create spaces that promote a culturally inclusive curriculum in which these resources can be leveraged. Please stay tuned for more information regarding the development of these resources and how you can integrate them into your U.S. History curriculum.

About the Author:
Aruna Arjunan serves as an instructional specialist responsible for developing and implementing New Visions U.S. History Curriculum in New York City schools. Prior to working at New Visions, she taught  in both neighborhood and magnet schools in Philadelphia for eight years. She holds a B.A. in cognitive science and economic history from the University of Rochester and an M.S. in secondary social studies education from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Photo:
Pictured Left to Right: Andrea Wilson (The Young Women's Leadership School in East Harlem), Jatera Simmons (Bronx Latin), and Gloria Canales (Business of Sports School)

*Note: These historical eras were selected because they are the five most tested eras on the New York State regents exam.

For teachers, Google Search can be a great resource; however, using it comes with its own set of challenges. For example, a search for “Living Environment Curriculum” yields over five million results.

Where do you start? Which sites have the best materials? And where can you find guidance on adapting materials for your specific classroom needs?

The answers to these questions are often unclear, even for a veteran teacher. If you find a great lesson online, you may still struggle to locate quality materials in the future that tie into the previous lesson and the overall unit.

Andrea Robinson, a Living Environment and Earth Science teacher at All City Leadership Secondary School in Brooklyn, faced these same problems before she discovered New Visions curricular resources. “During my first couple of years teaching, I struggled to keep my students engaged as we jumped from topic to topic, sometimes without clear connections between them. The New Visions curriculum helped to solve that problem. Each unit begins with an exciting question that engages them. The students follow the question all the way through the unit which culminates in a final task around what they’ve learned.”

New Visions curriculum resources were designed for teachers like Andrea in mind. Organized around a full scope and sequence of units, our materials bring together instructional guidance, rich content and assessments that have been developed by and for teachers.

And now, thanks to funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we’re proud to announce the launch of our new curriculum website that makes it easier for teachers to find, share and leverage these classroom materials. 

Our new website, developed with the help of Blenderbox, includes a wide range of curricular resources for high school math (Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry), science (Living Environment and Earth Science), and social studies (Global History & Geography and U.S. History), as well as literacy strategies to help middle school teachers.

Since 2010, New Visions has been a leader in developing the capacity of schools and teachers to align instruction to Common Core State Standards. Our team of instructional coaches, made up of master teachers who collaborate with New York City classroom teachers, has designed and continues to refine our curricula to meet the needs of real classroom teachers.

We’re thrilled that these materials are finding an audience. To date, our original curriculum microsites have received over 145,000 visitors this school year, a more than 200% increase from the previous year. The launch of our new website is the latest phase in the evolution of our curriculum development, as we hope to further expand the reach of our teaching resources and make them even more user-friendly.

Daniel Voloch, vice president of curriculum and instruction at New Visions, sees the new site as more than just an aesthetic upgrade. “In addition to having a much more robust search feature, the new website makes it easier to comment on resources, and share resources via social media and Google Classroom.”

David Wees, a formative assessment specialist at New Visions, finds that the new site design makes it easier for anyone to use. "Teachers who are not currently users of our curriculum are better able to understand the components of our math curriculum and how they fit together."

What are some of the key features of our online resources?

• Full scope-and-sequence instructional materials, with content aligned to New York State Core Standards and appropriate for courses terminating with New York State Regents Examinations;
• Instructional guidance around the use of activities, such as group learning routines;
• Pacing calendar to guide your daily classroom decisions;
• Formative and summative assessment tools that offer students and teachers feedback on their progress;
• Materials for supporting students learning English as a new language and students with disabilities;
• Materials are formatted in Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets, so that teachers have the flexibility to copy our resources and modify them to suit their classroom needs.

Kiran Purohit, director of curriculum and instruction, appreciates that the new website “features more flexible access to resources. We know that it is helpful not only to see unit resources in science, but resources tied to a familiar set of routines. The resources on our site are now better able to tie in components of the 5E model, group learning routines, and unit-based performance tasks.”

Here’s what teachers are saying:

• “The new site helps with seeing what needs to be planned in the unit.”
• “The way I benefit from New Visions material is from the objectives, standards, unit plan, activities, and pacing.”
• “The ‘Getting Started Guide’ helps orient you through the website.”
• “The site is different from other teaching websites that just spit out lesson plans. It helps us engage in the content.

In addition to the new features, the website redesign process has provided an opportunity for New Visions to reimagine and restructure the content to better support teachers of all backgrounds and experience levels. Timothy Lent, a social studies instructional specialist, appreciates that the process has “required us to think through commonalities between the different curricula and how we present them to the public.”

Thanks to this process, Daniel Voloch notes, “all of the subject level microsites have a similar structure and format, so that school-based instructional leaders can more easily support departments who are using our resources.”

Sophie Knowles, a middle school instructional specialist, is already seeing a positive impact on the teachers she supports. “Teachers and administration can efficiently find and extract what they're looking for. Our middle school content was originally designed as a digital literacy handbook, but as a website we have reimagined the content for a much wider audience.”

What’s next in the evolution of our curricular resources?

At New Visions, a focus on continuous improvement is a foundation of our work. Although the new site just launched, we will be continuing to poll teachers and evaluate website comments, as we plan and roll out further enhancements. 

In addition, New Visions also has ELA curricular resources available; however, those materials will be adapted and added to the new website in the Fall of 2017. In the meantime, please feel free to use the original ELA site and stay tuned for more information regarding the launch of ELA under the same design and website platform as our other curriculum projects.

Get involved!

We’re excited about our new site and encourage you to check it out and start using our resources! If you don’t know where to start, check out the ‘Getting Started’ pages on the different subject level microsites.

If you have comments, questions, or want to see if you’re eligible to join professional development opportunities surrounding our curriculum, please email Russell West at rwest@newvisions.org, add a comment through our website, or tweet at @NewvisionsNYC.

Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School played host to some important visitors this past Friday, as JPMorgan Chase Foundation announced a new, $6 million investment in the South Bronx to expand young people's access to economic opportunity.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon joined Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. on a tour of the school, led by Principal Evan Schwartz.

The JPMorgan Chase Foundation initiative, New Skills for Youth, will connect career and technical education programs and schools in the South Bronx to key employers in New York City. The investment will help drive change and is designed to increase dramatically the number of young people graduating from South Bronx high schools with opportunities to secure well-paying, high-demand jobs. This commitment is part of the Foundation’s $75 million global New Skills for Youth initiative.

“New Visions has a long history of helping to improve public schools in the South Bronx,” said Richard Beattie, Founder and Chairman of New Visions. “With this generous grant from the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, New Visions will assist schools in the South Bronx in developing strong partnerships with businesses that give students exposure to 21st-century careers and opportunities to develop their skills. When the civic, corporate and philanthropic sectors come together to invest in public schools, our students benefit tremendously.”

The grant will help students like Naomi Ortiz, who, as an elementary school student, attended a school directly across the street from Alfred E. Smith.

“There were always lots of students outside working on cars, but they were all boys,” she said. “Then, one day, I saw a girl working on a car and I thought to myself, ‘Wow, she’s doing a man’s job. I can do that, too.’”

Today, Naomi is a 12th grader at Smith, with years of experience in the auto industry under her belt. Outside of internships and her part-time job at Vehicare, a provider of maintenance care to trucking fleets, she is the school’s auto shop service writer, managing the work that goes on in the shop, ordering parts and interfacing with customers. Because of Smith, Naomi’s aspirations to start her own auto body repair shop one day seem within reach.

Smith, the Bronx’s only automotive CTE program, faced closure in 2010, but, as a result of a tremendous outpouring of community support, the school remained open to serve students.

With community support, Smith began to undergo major transformations. In 2013, the school’s auto body shop underwent a multimillion dollar revitalization and was reopened with state-of-the-art, industry-standard equipment. The reopening of the shop marked a pivotal point in the school’s journey.

Since then, Principal Evan Schwartz has worked diligently with his staff and with the help of New Visions to re-engage students and re-establish a reputation for Smith in the community.

“We’ve been working to show the public that our focus is not just on CTE, but also on a solid foundation in academics,” said Schwartz. “This is about student engagement.”

Schwartz began implementing important changes at the school around instruction, scheduling, personnel and operations. He recruited both veteran and novice teachers who embraced student engagement efforts and brought in a full-time college and career counselor, focused exclusively on working with 12th grade students. Additionally, the school has three guidance counselors who provide highly personalized attention to its 430 students.

Students benefit from access to Google Chromebooks in the classroom, newly designed block schedules that make CTE classes and academic classes more similar in length and in degree of "hands-on" learning, and an advisory period that has become a central part of the school’s culture.  

Schwartz and staff also make use of New Visions’ data tools to assess each student’s progress to graduation, by focusing on credit accumulation and proficiency on Regents exams.

All of the school’s hard work is paying off. Smith’s graduation rate has steadily increased since 2013, up from 50 percent to an expected 2017 rate of 75 percent. Today, there are roughly 1,200 applicants for 150 9th grade seats. Last year, roughly 60 percent of graduates went on to two- and four-year colleges, while nearly one in three graduates went directly into full-time employment.

Kenny Flores, also a senior at Smith, has found tremendous value in his experience interning and now working with the FDNY, where he does preventive maintenance for ambulatory vehicles.

“Because of Smith,  I have options,” says Flores. “Smith is helping me stand on my own two feet and begin my own life. I’m not just earning a diploma, I’m getting a CTE endorsement too. I’ll have a foot in the door to college or a career and I know that everything I’m learning at Smith is going to reflect in my career.“

New Visions, through funding from JPMorgan Chase Foundation, will lead the design, build and implementation of a software application for managing the assignment and tracking of South Bronx students participating in career skill-building activities through sector partners, helping to scale the success of programs like Smith’s at schools across the South Bronx. Industry partners include Per Scholas, Consortium for Worker Education and the New York Alliance for Careers in Healthcare.

The initiative is set to begin this year and will open more doors for students just like Naomi and Kenny.

Principal Schwartz knows, with full confidence, the power of investing in young people and training them for careers. “Early exposure can and will translate to student success in the future,” he says.

Kenny plans to attend SUNY Delhi next fall, where he will double major in automotive technology and physical education, with hopes of becoming an automotive teacher someday.

Naomi will continue on to Universal Technical Institute to specialize in auto body and diesel technology, to deepen her knowledge and bring her one step closer to her dream of “sparking change as a female in a male-dominated industry.”

“What does it mean to get a financial aid verification letter?” “What’s a placement exam?”

These are just a couple of the questions that graduating seniors may ask themselves in the months between college acceptance and the first day of class.  Between submitting immunization records, verifying financial aid documentation, attending orientation, paying tuition and registering for classes, students have to navigate a number of complicated processes as they prepare for the start of college.  A misstep can result in a student starting classes already behind.  According to research conducted by Ben Castleman and Lindsay Page, “one in five—and in some communities nearly one in two—low-income high school graduates who have college plans in place at graduation fail to actually matriculate in the year after high school—a phenomenon known as summer melt.”

To support the transition to college, New Visions would like to highlight key resources and programs available for students, their families and college counselors.

Matriculation Guides

In order to combat "summer melt," New Visions has partnered with a number of community-based organizations and school support organizations (Bottom Line, College Bound Initiative, College Now, Goddard Riverside Community Center - Options, Graduate NYC!, iMentor, Linct to Success,  New Settlement Apartments and the Urban Assembly) to develop a series of matriculation guides with specific tips for enrolling in more than 60 colleges throughout New York State.  Each guide serves as a checklist, providing students with links to school specific information on what’s needed to enroll successfully.  A complete listing of the guides can be found at NYCCollegeLine.org, including all of the CUNY  and SUNY guides.

Additional Support

Besides the above projects, the New Visions’ Community Engagement and College Readiness team support also includes providing monthly professional development opportunities for counselors, college culture building activities for grades 9-12, a series of college fairs for 11th and 12th grade students, Direct Admissions Events for two and four-year colleges, a week long pre-college boot camp at SUNY Herkimer and developing partnerships with colleges that provide college-credit courses and campus visits for New York City high school students.  As a result of these initiatives, the dedicated work of the New Visions’ team and its partners, students have fewer questions and are better prepared to start college on day one!

For more information, please visit our Road to College page.  To learn how you can partner with our Community Engagement and College Readiness team, please email E. Lydell Carter (lcarter@newvisions.org) or Kory McBride (kmcbride@newvisions.org).
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This year’s New Visions scholarship winners come from all walks of life, but they have a few things in common: tenacity, commitment, a passion for STEM and indomitable drive for changing the world through social justice and advocacy.

Although women fill close to half of all jobs in the U.S. economy, they hold less than 25 percent of STEM jobs. Five of our scholarship winners are looking to change that statistic.

As a youngster, Emily Lin’s trips to Home Depot with her dad as a shy little girl taught her that even when people underestimated her, she could “figure things out.” Her passion for knowledge has piqued her interest in deep sea and space exploration. This fall, she’s studying engineering at Georgia Tech University.

Shumaila Bibi spent her early years in Pakistan daydreaming of the quality education she would receive in America. Leaving her mom and sister behind, Shumaila migrated to New York in 2014 with her dad, two brothers and grandfather. Taking college courses for credit, interning at Montefiore and maintaining the highest average in her class at Bronx Academy for Health Careers prepared her for a career in medicine. The valedictorian of her class, Shumaila is continuing to motivate herself as a freshman at Fordham University.

Often times, the dreams of going to college for talented high school seniors are thwarted by the exorbitant cost of college tuition. The New Visions scholarship, now in its ninth year, awards well-deserving students $20,000 scholarships to help offset the cost of attending the college of their choice.

Through a generous leadership gift from New Visions board member Ralph Schlosstein and his wife, Jane Hartley, New Visions has awarded scholarships to 80 New York City high school seniors who have gone on to attend colleges across the nation including Princeton, Yale and Dartmouth and have launched careers in finance and medicine.

Artfully describing her experience of poverty in an essay, Lauren Germosen had no grasp of the magnitude of the circumstances that she and her mom faced living in a homeless shelter. In her childlike naivete, she said, “I was the freest I’d ever been."

Today, eight years later, she celebrates a new freedom, one that comes from studying psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, with hopes of becoming a psychiatrist some day.  “Completing my degree is paramount,” she says.

Lauren, along with many other New Visions Scholarship recipients, have learned to negotiate personal hardship and turn it into academic success.

Jord’n Earle found an outlet in the performing arts, as a young man coping with the absence of his father. “Ever since I was fourteen years old, I religiously watched Glee,” he said. “I would memorize my favorite songs.” Today, with his passion for the arts and his leadership experiences during his four years at New Visions Charter High School for Advanced Math and Science III, Jord’n is pursuing a degree in business at Howard University. He hopes to one day run an organization for low-income youth to help them excel both in the arts and in school.

With plans to also pursue a degree in economics, Tasmida Mollah, a Hillcrest High School attends Fordham University. There, she hopes to study abroad and deepen her passion for providing children in her home country of Bangladesh with access to quality education.

Youma Traore and Donnyv Pierre have no qualms about their devout focus and dedication to their education.

“Education is my plan A, B, C and D,”says Youma. Recently named the 2017 Valedictorian at Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics, she now attends Brown University, with plans to study political science.

Donnyv isn’t certain of a career path after he graduates from Hunter College in four years, but instilling the importance of education in young people is his priority.  He plans to inspire them with his dad’s advice: “Education is what no one can take from you.”

Motivated by social justice advocacy and women’s rights, Gabrielle Francis and Fatoumata Barry have plans to shatter the glass ceiling that exists for women in other countries. Gabby, who attends The New School and plans to pursue global studies, has interned with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and wants to create a platform as a queer woman of color, to be a voice for the voiceless women, people of color and LGBT community all over the world.  

Fatoumata, affectionately called Fatou by her friends at Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change, knows the physical and emotional pain of being voiceless. As a female child born into a traditional Guinean household, Fatou had no say in her culture’s ritual of female genital mutilation. Today, she is a passionate advocate for global women’s rights. She is studying medicine at Spelman College, with the goal of  one day providing adequate medical health care to women all over the world.

As the students look forward to what college will bring, they reflect on the lessons that life has taught them thus far.

Both Joarlyn Vasquez and Rosa Gil attend Brandeis University and New York University where they study neuroscience.

When Rosa enrolled at Knowledge and Power Preparatory International Academy High School (KAPPA), she didn’t speak any English.

Today, she is the Valedictorian of her class, proving her mantra, just as the other 11 scholarship recipients have: “You can do anything when you try. Just try.”