Tag Archive | "Education"

Bronx High School of Science faces high teacher turnover rate this year

The New York Times reported on September 16 that 8 of 20 social studies teachers at Bronx High School of Science have decided not to teach at the school again this year. “In my 25 years of teaching experience, I have never witnessed so many people transfer out of one department so quickly,” said Louis DiIulio, on of the social studies teachers who decided to stay at the school. Many teachers blame the administration. The New York Times found in interviews conducted with 7 former or current teachers at Bronx Science that teachers felt berated and disrespected by the administration, and in particular by Principal Valerie Reidy. Ms. Reidy, though, claims that turnover is a natural part of the school environment. “Turnover happens, and our job is to make sure that when turnover happens it’s a positive thing for students,” she said.

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Bronx public school teacher charged with sexual abuse

Tulsie Singh, 35, was arrested yesterday on charges of sexual abuse of a young boy at P.S. 306 in Tremont. Sources told NY1 that past accusations had been made against the teacher. The Department of Education removed Singh from the school more than once but then allowed him to return. He is out on bail.

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Top Stories of the Day

New lawyer set to try Bronx prosecutor, Jennifer Troiano’s DWI Case

Bronx prosecutor, Jennifer Troiano, fired her lawyer in her DWI hearing scheduled to begin later this year. Her now former lawyer, Howard Weiswasser, was preparing to put his own daughter, and close friend of Troiano, on the stand. The Daily News reports that Troiano’s new lawyer, Steven Epstein, is known for winning the acquittal of former Bronx prosecutor Stephen Lopresti, also on a DWI charge.

Surprise appearance at yesterday’s Ferragosto festival

The Bronx hosted its annual Ferragosto festival in Little Italy yesterday. The festival celebrates all things Italian, and yesterday according to The Daily News, that included baseball legend Babe Ruth. His granddaughter paid a surprise visit. “I wish he could be here now,” Linda Ruth Tosetti said of her late grandfather.

Education is the path out of poverty in the Bronx

The South Bronx has a new program for youth. Hunts Point Alliance for Children is poised to begin an early literacy program next month. Maryann Hedaa, Executive Director of the center, talks to the New York Post about their new project.

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Emotional pleas aside, panel votes to close Bronx Academy

When Angel Sosa transferred to Bronx Academy High School in the South Bronx almost a year and a half ago as a sophomore, he only had 10 credits out of the roughly 44 needed to graduate. “I woke up this morning with three acceptance letters to college,” the 18-year-old senior told  the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, which on Thursday night voted to close the school.

In March, the Department of Education proposed the phase out of Bronx Academy because of its poor performance and its inability to turn its failing record around quickly. The school received two F’s and a C in its last three report cards.

Students and teachers presented data to demonstrate the changes the school has implemented in the past eight months under the leadership of new Principal Gary Eisinger. According to a 43-page document distributed to the panel, the school saw a 25 percent increase in the number of students who passed the Regents exams, and attendance is up to 73 percent from 67 percent.

Senior Snanice Kittel, 16, told the panel members that  her teachers genuinely cared about students and were helping them to succeed. “They will call in the morning to make sure you go to class. And they will even visit your house and talk to your parents if you haven’t come,” she said, explaining that these practices were put in place under the new administration.

Their case was not persuasive enough to convince the panel to vote to save the school.

“We are proud of the work Gary has done in the school,” said Deputy Chancellor Marc Sternberg. “Even if there has been improvement, it’s well below what we expect to see,” he said, adding that the numbers presented by the school staff was inaccurate and that its own assessment revealed a different story.

Frederick R. Coscia, a statistician and economics teacher at Bronx Academy, insisted the Department of Education was basing its decision to close the school on two-year-old data. “We deserve our own report this year,” he said.

Monica Major, the Bronx representative to the panel, requested a postponement of the vote to phase out of the school. The motion was denied.

“We asked for a miracle, we got it and now we will not see the end of it,” said Major as the audience yelled at the panel to “look at the data.” She reminded her colleagues on the panel that Bronx Academy High School is a transfer school that takes students who  have already failed in other schools. Opened in 2003, this “transfer school” serves an alternative for overage students who have trouble graduating from a regular high school.

Despite acknowledging the work done by transfer schools and what they represent, the newly appointed Chancellor Dennis Walcott said Bronx Academy “has not done the job.” “We base our decisions on facts and not solely on emotions,” he said, citing the school’s poor performance and its inclusion in the New York State’s “persistent lower achieving” schools list.

“We cannot allow more students to go to a school that is not performing at the standards,” Walcott said.

After four and half hours of testimony and amid chorus of “lies, lies” and “shame on you,” the panel approved the phase-out of Bronx Academy by nine votes to five. Only the five borough representatives opposed the closure. Starting in September, the school will not accept new students and will have until June 2013 to graduate those who are currently enrolled. It will be replaced by Bronx Arena High School, a transfer school that will open its door for the 2011-2012 school year.

English teacher Robert MacVicar expressed his disappointment with the chancellor and the panel for not giving the school a one-year reprieve. “I am saddened by Mr. Walcott’s and Mayor Bloomberg’s failure to take reasonable and compassionate account of our students’ deep and abiding goodness, despite their sometimes soul-trying circumstances at home and on the mean streets of South Bronx,” he said.

Visibly upset, Angel Sosa asked why the panel did not take his testimony and others who spoke into consideration. “I had come with hope,” he said.

As students and supporters of the school left, Principal Eisinger said he appreciated the support he received.

“I put a lot of heart into the school,’’ he said, “and it shows.”

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Bronx Academy High School to DOE: Not us too!

Bronx high school superintendent Elena Papaliberios explained to Bronx Academy parents the proposal submitted by the DOE (Foto credit: Clara Martinez Turco)

By Clara Martinez Turco

Teachers and parents at the Bronx Academy High School in the South Bronx were surprised by a last-minute proposal by the city’s Department of Education to close the school.

“I really wasn’t expecting they would come in and say we might close,” said Linda Butkowski, 52, a teacher of American studies at Bronx Academy and a representative of the United Federation of Teachers representative.

In a document dated March 3, the DOE proposed the phase out of Bronx Academy because of its poor performance and because “the school lacks the capacity to turn around quickly to better support student needs.” The school received two F’s and a C in its last three report cards and had a six-year graduation rate of 49 percent.

A new school administration took over in September and teachers say they thought the DOE would take into consideration the changes made since then.

“The school had an amazing turn around under the leadership of the new principal… Is almost as if it was a new school,” said Butkowski. Changes to this “transfer school,” which was opened in 2003 as an alternative for students who have trouble graduating from a regular high school, include trimester terms and the appointment of a faculty advocate for every student.

Last December, the New York State Department of Education identified the Bronx Academy as a “persistent lower achieving” school and gave it a year to implement a major transformation to turn around. State representatives later visited the school and said they would release in late April a report with their recommendations, said counselor Linda Vinecour.

However, the city’s DOE cited the identification of the school as an under achiever as one reason to close it.  “At the end of the day, Bronx Academy is not doing the job, and we feel it will not turn around and serve better the kids,” said spokesman Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld, explaining that the DOE decisions are independent from the state. Both city and state departments of education were unavailable for further comments.

The proposal to close Bronx Academy comes after the city’s Panel for Education Policy voted to close 22 schools, ten of them in the Bronx.

During an informational meeting held at Bronx Academy on March 8, parents expressed their frustration with the proposal by city’s school officials. “It seems the decision has already been taken,” said one angry parent soon after the Bronx High School superintendent Elena Papaliberios explained the next steps in the school’s phase out pending approval by the Panel.

“I don’t agree with the closure because students need a school like this,” said Rosa Ramirez, 39, who enrolled her 16-year-old son, Jorge, in October after she said he had been bullied several times at his previous high school. Jorge said the school has helped him to stay on track. “A lot of us come here for a second chance to get our diploma,” he said.

Despite the shock caused by the proposal, students and faculty vowed to fight the phase out, Vinecour said.

On April 6, the Bronx Academy community will meet at the school to make the case against the closure. The meeting will be recorded and a copy of the recording shared among the members of the Panel for Education Policy, which will vote on April 28 on whether the phase out should proceed.

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With his new school, a Bronx pediatrician looks for another way to keep kids healthy

There are two Richard Izquierdos that Bronx locals recognize. One man, Richard Izquierdo Arroyo, made headlines last year when he was charged with embezzling more than $100,000 from a non-profit low-income housing organization. The other, Richard Izquierdo, known as the “Doc,” is a man who walks with a cane and often plays with his iPhone. He is a pediatrician who founded two health centers in the borough and is now hoping to heal a new generation with The Dr. Richard Izquierdo Health & Science Charter School that opened this fall.

With that resume, Izquierdo–the doctor–doesn’t worry that Bronx residents will confuse him with the other Izquierdo.

Richard Izquierdo was nicknamed Doc because he’s been a pediatrician in the Bronx since 1962, with now-famous patients like U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona, Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr., and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Trained at the University of Madrid Medical School and the University of Lausanne Medical School in Switzerland, Izquierdo founded a Hunts Point-based bilingual public health center, Urban Health Plan (UHP), now run by his daughter, Paloma Hernandez, and his private clinic, Multi Medic Physician Services, run by his son, Richard. He has chaired the local Community Board and has won many recognition awards from Bronx organizations.

He recently turned 81 and still goes to friends’ homes to perform minor procedures like applying butterfly closures or giving injections, but what he’s most excited about is his new job as chairman of the Dr. Richard Izquierdo Health & Science Charter School in Morrisania. “I live from dream to dream, mountaintop to mountaintop,” said Izquierdo. “I’m a salesman. I sell dreams and then make them come true.”

After the Board of Education denied two requests to open the school because the health and science theme had to be more integrated into the curriculum, Izquierdo teamed up with John Xavier, who wanted to start his own health care school. Xavier gave up that plan and is now the principal of the school, which received a start-up grant from the Walton Family Foundation.

“The school wouldn’t be what it is without him,” said Xavier. “It’s a long, complicated name for a school but every word in that name is essential to what we’re doing. The more I know Izquierdo, the more important it is to me that this school becomes his legacy.”

The 100 sixth grade students (according to Izquierdo, there were a few more enrolled at the beginning that ended up not showing up or moved out) are each given an iPad (which they keep at the school), chess and fencing classes, and instruction on capoeira, the Brazilian no-contact martial art. Starting in January, the students will have to build a science project of vertical plants to study how photosynthesis works, which Izquierdo hopes will help educate them to care about their environment. In keeping with the medical theme, students must wear scrubs (“I don’t do things in a small way,” said Izquierdo). Their science classes run for 90 minutes as opposed to the typical 45 so the students can have an accelerated science instruction that will more readily prepare them to pursue further education or find employment. They will be certified as Emergency Medical Technicians by the time they graduate and, if the school is successful in its mission, their chances of landing a job will be higher than most in the Bronx, which has a daunting 12.5 percent unemployment rate, the highest in the New York metropolitan area.

Not long after school started, Izquierdo chatted with 11-year old Shailoh Cervantes, a student who addressed the school at orientation and who hopes to become a doctor one day. Izquierdo reminded Cervantes of what he said during orientation:

“There are three important things: One, that we were going to give you an education so that you could make a living,” said Izquierdo. ”The second was to be proud of who you are, of your name; and the last one was to make this place a better world to live in and to help other people. Do you remember that?”

“Yeah, I remember that,” said Cervantes. “I think that what you said should help us throughout our lives so that we can have a better life. My dream is to become a famous doctor, that people would remember my name for helping a lot of other people.”

The school received a grant from the Charter School Center, a non-profit organization that helps start charter schools, to hire an award-winning documentary filmmaker, Antonio Ferrera, to record the students as they develop throughout the year. The administration’s hope is that the school can then look back and observe their work objectively and learn from their mistakes. “Nobody’s paying attention to the South Bronx but Izquierdo is making sure there’s a new generation of children that are paying attention to it,” said Ferrera.

Izquierdo wants to develop programs in first aid and health literacy, and try out different curricula to see if an increase in exercise classes will result in higher performance and weight loss. He wants to battle the Bronx’s obesity problem (47 percent of kids are overweight) starting with these students.

“We let the students know what’s expected of them and what they can expect from us,” said Izquierdo. “I call it the CPR of relationships: Consistent, Predictable and Reliable. Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation. CPR.”

Izquierdo has a strip of white mustache cut in a way that appears to pay homage to his Puerto Rican heritage–a perfectly straight and trimmed line. Though his family is Puerto Rican, Izquierdo was raised in New York City. At 14, he used to sneak into the city’s hottest night clubs because he already had a little bit of this mustache–just enough that he would get away with it–and so he got to know many Latin legends like Noro Morales and Machito. His phrases are interspersed with Spanish sayings like, “Dios los cría y ellos se juntan” (“God creates them and they unite”) and he loves typical Puerto Rican dishes such as rice and beans and plantains. He claims that his salsa moves are still so good that a couple of months before the Urban Health Plan’s annual Christmas party, “The young ladies would say, ‘I want to be on your card.’ ”

“He’s not just always been a medical doctor,” said Jessie Harris, a Bronx Community Board member and book distributor who has known him for 25 years. “He’s also a community doctor. He’s been one man I’ve known whose had goals and reached them–medically, socially and academically.”

Izquierdo’s medical legacy lives on: his daughter and son have taken over the management of the health care businesses he started and he hopes the Health & Science Charter School will help young Bronxites follow in his steps. But Izquierdo is already working on his next dream as a “community doctor.” He’s planning to buy what used to be his father’s bodega and convert it into a green grocery store with health education classes and a salad bar offering hearty meals.

It’s all part of his longevity strategy, he said: “I’m bribing God because if I’m busy with projects, he can’t take me away.”

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From Capitol Hill to the Bronx, scrutiny for College Inc.

Signs greet visitors to Monroe College in Fordham. Photo: Elisabeth Anderson

Signs greet visitors to Monroe College in Fordham. Photo: Elisabeth Anderson

Ruth Garcia used to be a college student, which is a tough feat for someone who hasn’t finished high school.  Tired of living on welfare, the 57-year-old South Bronx mother of seven grown children decided her life needed an upgrade.  She enrolled in a program at Monroe College, a for-profit institution in the Fordham section of the borough, that would allow her to pursue her General Educational Development (GED) high school equivalency and an associate’s degree at the same time.

“When I went, I was on cloud nine,” she said.  “I figured I was getting two for the price of one.  Supposedly TAP and Pell would pick up the bill,” she added, referring to the state and federal loans in her financial aid package.  Monroe’s admissions staff indicated that aid would be enough to cover her education.

But as Garcia would quickly learn, only one of her first four courses earned her a college credit.  She was taking mandatory classes in reading, social studies, and math, but none counted towards her degree.  She was spending down her financial aid, without the credits to show for it.  She dropped out after her second semester.

“When you expect that dream to come true and it pops, you get depressed about it,” she said.  “I’m still stuck in the same spot, and I want to move up the ladder.”

Cases like Garcia’s are currently the subject of a national debate that could forever change for-profit schools’ license to operate.  The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) is leading an investigation that focuses on deceptive marketing and recruiting tactics, over-reliance on federal loan funds as a primary revenue source, and program ineffectiveness as measured by the percent of graduates who secure gainful employment.  The entire for-profit college sector is under scrutiny, with large players like University of Phoenix and Kaplan generating the most attention. Monroe College is not the subject of an individual investigation, but several Monroe students have complained about aggressive recruiting and what they call misleading descriptions of how far their aid packages will go in financing their educations.

After an initial investigation of 15 schools, three hearings, and two reports, the Senate committee demanded data from an additional 30 institutions that collectively operate nearly 100 schools, of which Monroe College is not one; this information is currently under review.  The Department of Education has just approved its own set of regulations related to the controversy, which will go into effect in July 2011.  The new rules aim to strengthen federal student aid programs by protecting students from aggressive or misleading recruiting practices, providing higher education consumers with better information about colleges’ program effectiveness, and working to see that only eligible students receive aid.

“The basic regulatory framework within these schools operate creates perverse incentives for excessive profitability,” said Barmak Nassirian, Associate Executive Director of External Relations at the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO), and a critic of for-profit college practices.  AACRAO is a national nonprofit professional association of more than 10,000 higher education admissions and registration professionals.

According to the federal Department of Education, students at for-profit institutions represent 11 percent of all higher education students, but 26 percent of all student loans and 43 percent of all loan defaulters.  The schools carry “obscene bottom lines that they generate based almost entirely on tax dollars,” Nassirian said.  More than a quarter of for-profit colleges receive 80 percent of their revenues from taxpayer-financed federal student aid.  Nassirian said that he doesn’t believe every school is a bad actor, but that the causality can’t be overlooked.  “Human nature tends to look at short-term motives,” he said.  “If the federal regulatory system doesn’t kick in, don’t be surprised if the profit motive takes over.”

Many for-profit colleges target low-income and minority student candidates who qualify for federal loans.  Monroe College offers certificates, associate, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees at its main Bronx campus and two satellites in New Rochelle, in Westchester County, and on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia; the St. Lucia campus is accredited as an American institution offering American degrees, meaning students may apply for federal aid.  Monroe’s Bronx campus, a series of nondescript mid-rise buildings along a commercial stretch of Jerome Avenue, caters to a largely female, minority, lower-income student base.  Nearly three-quarters of undergraduates enrolled in the fall of 2009 were women; 42 percent were black, and half were Hispanic.

Monroe officials defend their institution’s record and say it’s wrong to target for-profit schools.  “Clearly there are problems in all sectors of higher education,” said Dr. Donald Simon, the school’s assistant vice president of governmental affairs. “Selecting one sector and excluding the others is counterproductive.” He added that according to state education department data, Monroe College has the third-highest number of minority baccalaureate grads in New York State, in any sector.

Indeed, state data from 2006, the most recent available, supports the notion that minority students get their associate’s degrees in two years at a much higher rate at for-profit schools than elsewhere.  More than 27 percent  of black students graduated in that timeframe, compared to 11.5 percent at independent schools, 3.7 percent at State University of New York (SUNY) schools, and 1.3 percent at City University of New York (CUNY) schools.  The picture is similar for Hispanics, with 28.7 percent of for-profit students getting associate’s degrees in two years, compared to 17.7 percent at independent schools, 5.3 percent at SUNY schools and 1.2 percent at CUNY schools.

“New York State’s proprietary degree-granting colleges have the highest associate degree graduation rate of any of the four sectors,” Simon added.  Preliminary data for 2009 from the New York State Office of Higher Education shows proprietary or for-profit schools coming in second place to independent colleges, although the data has not yet been fully edited.  Thirty percent of full-time first-time students, of any ethnicity, at for-profit schools earned an associate’s degree within two years, compared to 42 percent at independent schools. Both for-profit and independent schools did much better than SUNY and CUNY schools, which showed two-year associate’s degree graduation rates of 11.4 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively.

Like other for-profit schools, Monroe College isn’t shy about recruiting prospective students.  Marlyn Morillo, a 28-year-old South Bronx resident originally from the Dominican Republic, fit the profile of a typical Monroe College student when she was heavily recruited by the school.  She applied and was accepted to a joint GED and associate’s degree program in 2008.  “By Fordham Road, they were giving out cards and magazines with what courses you could do,” she said.  Morillo said that six representatives from Monroe College had a table set up outside the Fordham Road subway stop the day she applied.

Morillo said she was captivated by the promise of being able to pursue her GED and associate’s degree at the same time, and by the thought of how proud her 11, eight-, and four-year-old children would be to see her in school.

She was getting assistance from a social service agency called FACTS when she was accepted to Monroe College.  The group urged her not to enroll, explaining potential pitfalls in earning credits and financing her education.  FACTS is where Morillo met Carol Williams, who now runs the College Prep Program at Grace Outreach, a South Bronx non-profit organization helping women earn their GEDs and prepare for college.

Williams said for-profit colleges frequently use the two-for-one GED and associate’s degree package as a marketing device.  What they don’t tell prospective students, however, is the impracticality of such an approach.  Most students who don’t yet have their GEDs are unqualified to take college-level courses, and even those who are can be subject to school restrictions about how many of the classes they take will earn them college credits before they get their GEDs.  This means students can be taking and draining their aid packages on college classes that are non-credited.  “I tell my students to do it the right way,” she said.  “Get your GED, then apply to college.”

Morillo, now enrolled in Williams’ college prep course and applying to Bronx Community College, said she still spots Monroe recruiters frequently at the same location, during rush hour, and that she’s been approached again.  “I still see them and I say, ‘Oh no no, no thank you,’” she said.  On one occasion two months ago, she told recruiters she attended Lehman College, so that they’d let her go.  “And they tried to convince me, ‘You should have gone to Monroe.’  I said, ‘Don’t convince me.’ ”  Morillo, who wants to be a social worker, said she feels like she’s averted a big mistake by not enrolling in Monroe and choosing to get her GED before re-applying to college.  “You don’t know how much,” she said.  If she had chosen her original path, “Probably right now, I’d be crying.”

Monroe College Way, near the school's main buildings. Photo: Elisabeth Anderson

Monroe College Way, near the school's main buildings. Photo: Elisabeth Anderson

The New York Post reported in July that Monroe College spends about $3 million a year on marketing and pulls in $90 million in tuition, mostly from taxpayer-backed federal loans and state and federal grants given to 99 percent of its students.  Representatives from Monroe would neither confirm nor deny these figures, and said its financial information is  private.

Colleges around the country have faced criticism for admissions-related practices, such as pumping up applicant numbers to enhance selectivity.  A problem that appears to be unique to certain for-profit schools is the use of recruiter commissions.  “When the basis for an admission officer’s pay is based on commission, the incentive to mislead students is so prominent,” said David Hawkins, director of public policy for the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), a politically-active membership group of 11,000 professionals who help students make choices about pursuing postsecondary education; the group is critical of current for-profit college practices and does not currently include individuals from for-profits among its membership ranks.  Even some administrators at for-profit schools say the rules need to be changed, and that the federal government should have cracked down on aggressive recruiting a long time ago.

According to Hawkins, who testified during the second Senate HELP Committee hearing on for-profit colleges on Aug. 4, the friendly regulatory environment of the past decade allowed the for-profit college industry to boom.  With many of the schools’ parent companies publicly traded, he said the schools needed to show consistent increases in enrollment as a marker of growth to investors.  Former President George W. Bush signed legislation creating 12 loopholes commonly known as “safe harbors,” which kept the enrollment-based commissions legal.

The Department of Education’s forthcoming regulations would undo those loopholes, a step in the right direction, according to Hawkins.  On Oct. 28, the Obama administration released a broad set of rules to strengthen federal student aid programs at for-profit, nonprofit and public institutions by protecting students from aggressive or misleading recruiting practices, providing consumers with better information about the effectiveness of career college and training programs, and working to see that only eligible students or programs receive aid.  These regulations are expected to be implemented in July 2011.

“We certainly welcome the for-profits as a player in the U.S.,” Hawkins said.  “We have some hope that the successful for-profit colleges will adhere to the standards and by that token, earn a return.”

National Center for Education Statistics data show that with many students starting and draining their aid packages on remedial classes – New York State allows associate’s degree candidates only six semesters of TAP aid – just 60 percent of students who started at Monroe full-time in the fall of 2008 returned in the fall of 2009.  Part-timers fared worse, with only 53 percent returning.  Just half of full-time, first-time students graduated within 150 percent of “normal time” to complete their program; two years is normal time for an associate’s degree, four years for a bachelor’s.  While better than the 44 percent graduation rate for a bachelor’s degree within six years at CUNY schools, it is less than the nearly 70 percent of bachelor’s graduates in the same timeframe at independent schools and 61.2 percent at SUNY schools, according to 2008 data from the New York State Office of Higher Education.

The differences between these various forms of higher education are often mysterious to minority and low-income students. Scherline Feliciano wishes she’d been savvy to potentially misleading marketing.  The 24-year-old, who lives with her mother in the Southwest Bronx, has at least $2,500 in debt to show for her one-month-and-one-week stint at Monroe College.

Students work with a tutor at Grace Outreach in Mott Haven. Photo: Elisabeth Anderson

Students work with a tutor at Grace Outreach in Mott Haven. Photo: Elisabeth Anderson

Enrolled in a joint GED and associate’s degree program, Feliciano said she felt unprepared.  “I didn’t feel like I was ready,” she said.  “If I can’t understand the teachers, what’s the purpose of going to that school?”  She added that the college-level courses she was enrolled in were not credited.  “That’s just like a big waste of time,” she said.  “I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.”  Feliciano is now studying for her GED, and then hopes to major in psychology at Lehman College, part of the CUNY system.

Of the 2,800 students who either graduated or dropped out of Monroe since 2007, 23.1 percent have defaulted on their government-backed loans, according to for-profit college loan repayment data released by the Department of Education in August; those still enrolled are not included in the analysis.  The rate is nearly seven times the 3.6 percent at private Fordham University and nearly four times the six percent rate at Lehman College.  “If fewer than one-third of your graduates can pay back their loans,” Nassirian said, speaking of for-profit colleges overall, “you are a bad apple.”

Simon, Monroe’s government affairs chief, says the numbers may be misleading.  “The current debate over for-profit education is problematic because it does not consider institutional outcomes such as graduation and placement, but deals with a limited selection of numbers, specifically student repayment of loan principal,” he said.  “Ironically, federal regulations permit students to defer repayment of loan principal yet those who appropriately use such opportunities are being considered a negative statistic against the college.”  Administrators at for-profit schools also agree that the federal and state financial aid rules can be complex and difficult for students to understand.  That’s how many get in to trouble without realizing it.

National legislation that might help is still many months away, according to a Senate HELP Committee official.  Chairman Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) plans to hold at least one more hearing and review the results of the latest round of materials requested from an additional 60 for-profit colleges first, she said.

Another big question is the Department of Education’s controversial gainful employment regulation, which would require for-profits to show the value of the education they provide via statistics showing graduation and job placement rates for school programs.  This will be an item to watch, as the department reacts to nearly 90,000 comments received on its proposals.

Two days of public hearings were held on Nov. 4 and 5, and the department has also been hosting more than 30 meetings this fall with individuals and organizations who submitted comments on the proposed regulation; one of these meetings, on Oct. 18, was with representatives from Monroe College.  According to an official in the Department of Education press office, Monroe leadership and staff did express concern with the gainful employment rule at the meeting, but stated that they felt it was possible to make changes that would bring their programs into good standing under the proposed rule.  Monroe’s Simon would not comment specifically on the meeting, but stressed how important it is that the department rules be “realistic and reasonable.”

A Monroe graduate named Trina Thompson generated national attention last year, when she threatened to sue the school for $75,000 worth of tuition reimbursement and personal stress because, she alleged, the school’s career services department didn’t do enough to help her land a job after graduation.  According to Gary Axelbank, Monroe’s director of public relations, “It’s a non-issue.  It was not even a lawsuit.”  Thompson filed a complaint but never a lawsuit.  Axelbank, who added that Monroe’s mission is to provide education focused on job training, said that Monroe hired more career counselors when the economy worsened.  Thompson could not be reached for comment.

There are many cases of hope in the Bronx.  Betsy Vega’s comes with a warning. Vega is on track to get her GED, studying hard at Grace Outreach.  The 22-year-old had aged out of New York City’s foster care system and was working minimum wage jobs when she decided to enroll at a for-profit college in Queens.  She spent two years earning 15 credits, but no GED.  She still owes the school between $3,000 and $4,000.  Vega hopes others won’t make her mistakes.  “Focus on one thing at a time,” she said.  “Especially with all these sharks in the water.  You get nothing.  They only sell you dreams.”

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Turning up the tech at a Kingsbridge school

William Tsang, MOUSE Squad Coordinator at In-Tech Academy, works with students. Photo: courtesy Susan Schwartz.

William Tsang, MOUSE Squad Coordinator at In-Tech Academy, works with students. Photo: courtesy Susan Schwartz.

At In-Tech Academy in Kingsbridge, the school IT staff is hard at work most weekday afternoons, managing tech support requests like setting up networks, connecting computers to the Internet, and computer troubleshooting.  Staff members like Nick and Jonathan also standby to help teachers with laptop carts, SMART Boards, and videoconferencing.

Nothing too out of the ordinary here, except that Nick’s in the 7th grade, and Jonathan’s in the 11th.

These In-Tech students are part of their school’s MOUSE Squad, a program that trains and supports students in managing leading-edge technical support help desks in their schools, improving the ability to use technology to enhance learning, while also providing a hands-on learning experience for students.

“I have a big interest in technology,” said Nick, now in his second year on the squad.  “It makes me feel important because people rely on my expertise.”

“When I am fixing computers, I feel good,” Jonathan added.  “It’s like the feeling you get when you make a shot in basketball.”

MOUSE is a youth development organization that provides the funds to help underserved students to provide tech support and leadership in their schools.  Since 1997, New York City-based MOUSE has grown to serve 260 schools across four states.  The organization has shown solid results across key indicators of student success, like academic performance and attendance, and helps save schools an average of $19,000 a year on technology support costs.

In-Tech Academy was one of the first schools to get a MOUSE Squad, in 2001.  Today, it is one of 100 New York City schools that will benefit from a landmark $1.1 million grant awarded to the program as part of the NYC Connected Learning Initiative, from the U.S. Department of Commerce Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.

NYC Connected Learning aims to increase the use of broadband technology and enhance educational outcomes for public school students in communities across the city with the highest need.  As part of this program, more than 18,000 middle school students and their families are receiving desktop computers, educational software, training and broadband access at home.

The school’s principal, Yvette Allen listed the many benefits she sees from the federal technology grant.  “NYCL fulfills our vision for providing computers in the classroom,” she said, along with “technology at home, teachers integrating technology in the curriculum with parents involved in the use of technology and student learning.”

It’s this comprehensive approach to technology education – teaching through hands on experience and school and reinforcing lessons learned via access at home – that Allen and her colleagues hope will propel In-Tech’s students to digitally-savvy, successful futures.

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