Publications and Research
Document Type
Report
Publication Date
2020
Abstract
And Still They Rise is the first systematic analysis of alternative transfer schools in New York City – alternative educational spaces that keep their doors open to a range of students who seek an education despite past academic struggles. The report blends a qualitative and quantitative review of 842 students’ responses to a participatory survey that asked about goals, desires, obstacles, and what they found at transfer schools. In this report we present the stories and the statistics across schools, elevating silenced stories that lay behind the misnomer “at risk." We review data that shows how deeply students appreciate their transfer school experiences, characterizing them as relationally rich, caring, intellectually rigorous, and mutually accountable learning communities that help them address and overcome obstacles. The report shows how these schools operate in the face of paradoxical threats created by one-size-fits-all, punitive accountability frameworks. We ask readers to appreciate students’ desires and persistence in the face of adversity, and to understand the academic and socio-emotional commitments of educators and counselors in these essential institutions. We argue that these schools must be held accountable, of course, but with expanded accountability frameworks and a palette of outcomes that recognize their distinct niche and their powerful contributions in the educational landscape of New York City.
Comments
And Still They Rise is part of the Public Science Project (www.publicscienceproject.org) at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.