GRADUATE NYC Graduate NYC (GNYC) is a citywide initiative dedicated to increasing the rate of college completion among students throughout New York City GNYC is the product of a partnership between the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE), The City University of New York (CUNY), and City Hall GNYC’s goal is to increase the number of New Yorkers earning college degrees by: Improving the rates of college readiness among New York City high school students Improving college persistence and completion rates at CUNY colleges

New York City in Context CUNY and the NYC DOE—the two largest education systems of their kind in the country—are deeply connected by the students they serve Each year, the NYC DOE educates 1.1 million students Nearly 60% of NYC DOE graduates who go to college attend a CUNY college 78% of first-time freshmen at CUNY are graduates of NYC DOE schools CUNY serves approximately 270,000 degree-seeking students across 24 schools and colleges

GNYC’s Key Areas of Work College Completion Innovation Fund – The CCIF invests in promising, scalable practices in order to increase college completion for young people in New York City Academic Readiness and Curriculum Alignment – Executed in partnership with NYC DOE high schools and CUNY campuses, these efforts unite educators serving similar student populations on either side of the high school/college divide Convening and Surveying the College Success Community in New York City – GNYC disseminates research and provides opportunities for professional development, sharing evidence-based best practices, and supporting strong collaborations between community-based organizations (CBOS) and our public educational institutions

Overview and Rationale of Academic Alignment Work Bridges the student transition from NYC DOE public high schools to CUNY colleges by building a shared understanding of teaching practices at high school and college levels Urgency is driven by the tremendous number of students entering college in need of remediation High school teachers must prepare their students for exams and ensure that they are “college ready,” but do not necessarily know what this means or how to achieve it College professors receive students who are ostensibly “college ready”, but may not be in actuality, and then make assumptions about why this is the case College professors are not familiar with high school curricula or the assessments that influence them At CUNY’s two-year colleges, 74% of freshmen were placed in remedial math in fall 2015, 23% in reading, and 33% in writing

How It Works By identifying common areas where students get “stuck”, faculty can begin to explore their own practice AND move toward greater alignment Cohorts of 8-10 participants focus on aligning specific courses: Composition I with high school ELA; College Algebra with high school Algebra High school-college pairs work together across the year to share bottlenecks and strategies, and produce their own curricular changes in tandem Meet monthly for two hours over the course of the academic year Pairs present curricular changes and the process they took to get there with their school community in June

Decoding the Disciplines: Cycle of Revision

Why Use Decoding the Disciplines as a Foundation? Starts instructors at the point in their teaching that allows for the greatest amount of transformation Asks instructors at both the high school and college levels to be reflective and think about their teaching and curricula from the student’s point of view Requires meta-awareness of the difference between being an “expert” and a “novice” Offers community of support to instructors as they analyze where and why students struggle with the material Creates a roadmap for unclogging the bottleneck and revising it in both curricula, necessitating collaborative revision and alignment

Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead All teachers need space, time, and a process to delve into why students struggle All teachers need to thoroughly consider what makes learning in their respective discipline unique Bottlenecks at the high school level are often more minor versions of the very same bottlenecks at the college level This process is broadly applicable between school levels, between courses, and within courses

Resources Expert Facilitator: Claire Riccardi, Claire.riccardi@cuny.edu Https://citl.indiana.edu/teaching-resources/course-design/decoding- disciplines/ http://decodingthedisciplines.org/ https://www.amazon.com/Decoding-Disciplines-Students-Disciplinary- Directions/dp/0787977896 https://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Student-Learning-Bottlenecks- Discipline/dp/1620366657 Melissa Herman, GNYC Program Officer, Melissa.herman@cuny.edu