Harlem Academy in the NYC Education Landscape 2018-19 (1)

Harlem Academy in the Education Landscape 2018-19 Harlem Academy drives equity of opportunity for promising students, guiding them to thrive at the highest academic levels and one day

Harlem Academy in the Education Landscape

2018-19

Harlem Academy drives equity of opportunity for promising students, guiding them

to thrive at the highest academic levels and one day make a mark on the world

Harlem Academy was founded in 2004 with a singular goal: to overturn the status quo for high-potential children in Harlem We sought to create a school where success would be based on ability and drive, not on a zip code, a lottery, or a family’s wealth We intentionally planted our roots in an area with the lowest-performing public schools and set a mark for success alongside the highest-performing private schools in the country

Moving forward, we seek to establish Harlem Academy as an enduring institution and permanent pathway to opportunity for promising, low-income children for generations to come Our Board has purchased a half-acre lot in Harlem that will be the site of our future home This new space will enable us to extend the school’s transformational impact to 240 children in kindergarten through eighth grade, each year graduating 40 students prepared to thrive at the highest academic levels and one day make a mark on the world

Disparities for High-Potential, Low-Income Children

Promising children from economically disadvantaged communities rarely realize their potential

as they are pushed into low-performing schools with limited resources for high achievers

• By first grade, low-income children are only half as likely to be high achievers1 as their more affluent peers

• By fifth grade, only 56% of these students maintain their status as high-achievers in

reading

• By high school, high-achieving, low-income students drop out or do not graduate on time

at twice the rate of higher-income peers (Wyner, Bridgeland, and Diiulio, 2009)

• By college, only 14% of freshmen at the nation’s top 160 colleges (Barron’s) come from

the bottom half of the income distribution (Giancola and Kahlenberg, 2016)

1 Low-income refers to the bottom half of the income distribution; high achiever refers to students performing in the top quartile nationally

Bottom Quartile, 5%

2nd Quartile, 9%

3rd Quartile, 18%

Top Quartile, 69%

Enrollment at Top Colleges By Income

Behind the Disparities: A Critical Gap in the NYC Education

Landscape

Public and Charter Schools: Raising the Floor for Low Performers

Public and charter schools focus on closing the achievement gap for our nation’s

lowest-performing students They admit students without selectivity (generally via lottery) and strive to pull low-achieving students to proficiency Public and charter schools in Harlem, Washington Heights, and the Bronx, however, do not come close to realizing universal proficiency, with the majority of students performing below minimum state standards (NYC DOE, 2018a, 2018b, 2018c).2 Given these significant hurdles, few resources are focused on promising students who already meet these basic thresholds

Selective Programs: Inaccessible to Low-Income Children

Selective options, such as gifted & talented (G&T) programs, independent schools, and

competitive supplementary programs, admit students who already have top scores Low-income children lack the advantages of their wealthier peers and are overwhelmingly unprepared to compete for admission to these schools and programs

In New York City, students must perform above the 90th percentile to access any G&T

programming The best programs are available only to students scoring above the 97th percentile and, in practice, fill up with students in the 99th percentile (NYC DOE, 2018d) In the

low-income neighborhoods we serve, just 0.3% of kindergarteners have the resources or preparation needed to test into the citywide G&T programs The rates in other neighborhoods are 20 times higher (NYC DOE, 2017a, 2017b, 2018e)

2 In local public schools (Harlem, Bronx, and Washington Heights), the percentage of students meeting proficiency standards is 34% in English and 28% in math In local charter schools, it is 57% in English and 59% in math

Similarly, most NYC independent schools are out of reach for low-income families who cannot afford the average annual tuition of $41,551 At these elite schools, even families receiving financial aid pay an average of $13,273 per year (NAIS, 2016)

Other selective programs targeting low-income and minority children, such as A Better Chance, Breakthrough New York, Harlem Educational Activities Fund, Prep for Prep, and Oliver

Scholars, do not begin until middle school By then, most promising, low-income children have already lost too much ground to qualify for these opportunities

Harlem Academy Fills a Gap for Promising, Low-Income

Children

As a private school, Harlem Academy has the flexibility to admit students, hire teachers, and develop curriculum based solely on the high standards we set for realizing our mission

Most students enter Harlem Academy with scores at the 70th-85th percentile nationally – too high to receive attention at public or charter schools and too low to gain admission to the city’s competitive programs During their time at Harlem Academy, students experience tremendous growth, preparing them to compete at the nation's top secondary schools and ultimately to

succeed in any endeavor they pursue

Changing the Trajectory

By eighth grade Nationally, a promising, low-income student starting first grade at the 72nd percentile (a similar profile to our students) will lose 13 points by eighth grade, dropping to the

59th percentile (U.S Department of Education 2009).3 Harlem Academy is reversing this

downward trajectory Our students enter at the 74th percentile and gain an average of 16 points

by eighth grade

This growth to the 90th percentile opens a door to selective secondary schools, top colleges, and the opportunities that follow 93% of our graduates have entered selective programs, most with scholarships to independent schools, including Andover, Chapin, Horace Mann, Lawrenceville, Nightingale, Peddie, Riverdale, Spence, and Trinity Almost all of the students from Harlem Academy’s first three graduating classes are enrolled at four-year colleges, including Brown, Lehigh, NYU, Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute, and University of Rochester

By high school Our students are emerging as leaders in their communities Last year, 100% of

graduates were involved in extracurricular activities at their schools and 60% volunteered or interned at Harlem Academy Meanwhile, students continue to thrive academically; the average Harlem Academy graduate maintains a 3.4 GPA in secondary school

By college Harlem Academy has closed the college-access gap between its students and

high-achieving, wealthier students nationwide, with 88% of graduates entering four-year colleges, compared to 83% of their higher-income peers (U.S Department of Education 2014).4 Our first three classes of graduates have enrolled in strong colleges, including Brown, Lehigh, New York University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and University of Rochester

A Model Education: Sharing Best Practices

Harlem Academy is a laboratory for innovative, replicable curricula designed to meet the needs

of promising, low-income children beyond its walls We develop core academic skills in reading, writing, and critical thinking, prioritizing depth over breadth and the development of successful habits for learning and contribution In many cases, we have written our own curricula and

textbooks to ensure our students develop the skills they need to succeed at the highest level Harlem Academy shares successful strategies for supporting this important but neglected

population by publishing in national journals, partnering with the Klingenstein Center at

Columbia University, speaking at conferences, and hosting teachers and school leaders to study our programs

References

Giancola, J., & Kahlenberg, R D (2016) True merit: Ensuring our brightest students have access to

our best colleges and universities Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Retrieved from

http://www.jkcf.org/assets/1/7/JKCF_True_Merit_Report.pdf

National Association of Independent Schools (2016) Data and analysis for school leadership [Data

file]

New York City Department of Education (2017a) Summary of 2017 Testers by Grade, District, and

Eligibility [Data file]

New York City Department of Education (2017b) Gifted and Talented Testers Scoring in the 99 th

Percentile – 2017 Compared to 2016 [Data file]

New York City Department of Education (2018a) NYC Results on the New York State 2013-2018

English Language Arts (ELA) Test (Grades 3-8) School Summary [Data file] Retrieved from

https://infohub.nyced.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/citywide-ela-results-2013-18-(public).xlsx

New York City Department of Education (2018b) NYC Results on the New York State 2013-2018

Mathematics Test (Grades 3-8) School Summary [Data file] Retrieved from

https://infohub.nyced.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/citywide-ela-results-2013-18-(public).xlsx

New York City Department of Education (2018c) NYC Results on the 2013-2018 New York State

Math and ELA Test (Grades 3-8) Charter School Summary [Data file] Retrieved from

https://infohub.nyced.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/charter-school-results-2013-2018-(public).xlsx

New York City Department of Education (2018d) 2018 Gifted & talented program handbook New

York City Department of Education [Data file] Retrieved from

http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/50ED2416-343A-4EBF-82DC-F64EFB4BBD09/0/2018NYCGTDirectory2013ENGLISH.pdf

New York City Department of Education (2018e) 2013-2018 Demographic Snapshot – District

[Data file] Retrieved from https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Education/2013-2018-Demographic-Snapshot-District/m2z7-dx25

U.S Department of Education (2009) Early Childhood Longitudinal Study [United States]:

Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999, Kindergarten-Eighth Grade Full Sample Retrieved from

https://nces.ed.gov/ecls/kindergarten.asp

U.S Department of Education (2014) Education Longitudinal Study (ELS:2002), High School

Sophomores Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/els2002

Wyner, J S., Bridgeland, J M., & DiIulio, J J., Jr (2009) Achievement trap: How America is failing

millions of high-achieving students from lower-income families Retrieved from

http://www.jkcf.org/assets/files/0000/0084/ Achievement_Trap.pdf