Hope or Hype in Harlem? City Limits Magazine

8/8/2019 Hope or Hype in Harlem? City Limits Magazine

1/47

Hope orHype inHarlem?

Plus:

Whos Afraid of Charter Schools?

Commitment, Connections and Cash Going Local Goes National A Modest Miracle Read. Tink. Do.

Vol. 34, No. 1

March 2010

WWW.CITYLIMITS.ORG

From Oprah to PresidentObama, people think Georey

Canada's Harlem Children's

Zone has ound the way or

America to fght poverty.There's just one question:

Does it work?


2/47

Above: Christine Valentin, a student in Kelly Downing and

Patrice Wards ninth grade English class at Harlem Childrens

Zones Promise Academy I. Photo by Alice Proujansky.

THE LOOK


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www.citylimits.org 1

Vol. 34, No. 1March 2010

CONTENTSIs the Promise Real? 4Te Harlem Childrens Zone becomesa template or national changeBy Helen Zelon / Photographs by Alice Proujansky

The Man of the Hour 5

We will fnd the moneyto do this because we cantaord not to.

The Great Escape 9

I you hit 65 percent othe population, thats thetipping point.

Shaping Success 16

Failure is not permitted,because unding is tied tosuccess, not ailure.Going National 25

We are so desperate or anylittle inkling o success

An Act of Faith 34

So you and I, we mustsucceed in this crusade,this holy deed.

Canadas Provinces 10

An inventory o the Harlem Childrens Zones initiativesBy Maria Muentes

In the Zone 13

Te physical ootprint o the Harlem Childrens Zone

The Charter Challenge 17

Te pros and conicts o a schooling revolutionBy Helen Zelon

Charting a Course 21

A timeline o Harlems charter schoolsBy Samia Shaf

Test Pattern 22

How Harlems miracle really ranks

Taking It Local 26

Anti-poverty programs beyond the ZoneBy Rachel Dodakian

Making Connections 30

Powerul riends, deep pockets and the HCZBy Maria Muentes and Jarrett Murphy

HomeWork 38

ExtraExtra 42

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CHAPTERS

SIDEBARS


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Editor'sNoteIt is hard not to be impressed with Geoffrey Canada.

Charismatic, passionate, eloquent, it is no mystery why he has become amedia star-- robabl the hi hest- rofile erson ever ersonall associated

with the fight against poverty. And there is no reason not to be impressed,

for Canada is not merely playing a role on 60 Minutes or the AmericanExpress commercial or wherever he makes his case. He is the genuinearticle.

Even before he began the Harlem Children's Zone, Canada had dedicated--

others had failed.

Fixing America's schools and ending poverty have been on America's to dolist for generations, and Canada's model offers a hope of doing both. From

Anderson Cooper to Wall Street financiers to President Obama, everyonewants to find something--anything--that will work, and so they have

' .

he media coverage the Zone receives is uniformly glowing. Millionaires andbillionaires have showered it with support. And Obama's signatureantipoverty program, Promise Neighborhoods, is modeled after theChildren's Zone.

But t ere s a pro em w en a m rat on turns nto up cat on. T eimpatience sewn by America's past policy failures has amplified the allure ofthe Children's Zones early successes. As Canada is the first to state, theexperiment he initiated on a few Harlem blocks in 1994 has yet to run its

course. After all, the charter schools that now anchor the multi-service,cradle-to-college Harlem Children's Zone are only a few years old. They'veyet to graduate a high school class. The schools have achieved much, but notwithout significant bumps along the way. The impact of the larger model ofHCZ's social interventions is harder to track. And the exact mix of services--schools, clinics, family resources--that produces success is still not clear.

Yet many of Canada's fans are quick to declare his success absolute. Someisolate one part of the mix, like the charter schools, as the only necessaryelement for re licatin the ro ect elsewhere. Others a little attention tothe unique neighborhood dynamics and financial resources that HCZ hasthrived upon.

The danger is not that HCZ gets an unwarranted reputation for success:Canada deserves all the credit he gets. The risk is that poor attempts to copyCanada's model will fail, reflect poorly on his good work, undermine yet

economic isolation. On the pages that follow, Helen Zelon takes a hard lookat what we and don't know about what Geoffrey Canada has accomplishedin Harlem, and what it might mean for a national agenda.

-Jarrett Murphy


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City Limits / Vol. 34 / No. 1Is the Promise Real?4


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Is thePromiseReal?

The Harlem Childrens Zone becomesa template for national change

BY HELEN ZELON / PHOOGRAPHS BY ALICE PROUJANSKY

Geofrey Canada strides to the lectern in the New York SheratonsGrand Metropolitan Ballroom amid the clatter and clink o ladenplates and silver coee urns, as 1,400 sets o eager eyes and earsansand acolytes, students and advocates, civic leaders, law enorcementocers, school chies, nonproft staers and a handul o unders rep-resenting 106 communities across the United Statesturn their atten-tion away rom their sliced-chicken-and-asparagus entres to the tall,lean man at the ront o the room. Te diners are gathered at a coner-

ence called Changing the Odds. Tey are there because they seek toglean the secrets and wisdom o the Harlem Childrens Zone (HCZ),Canadas all-encompassing neighborhood anti-poverty program.

THE MAN OF THE HOURWe will fnd the money to do this because we cant aord not to.


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Previous spread:

Teaching assistant Rudy

de la Cruz corrects tests for

fourth graders at Harlem

Childrens Zone.

Above:

The $44 million building

that houses the Harlem

Childrens Zones Promise

Academy I is a gleaming

presence on an otherwise

worn-looking block.

Opposite:

Geoffrey Canadas

charter schools have

been hailed as a national

model. Photo: Rebecca

Davis.

We are launching Promise Neighborhoods

to build on Geoffrey Canadas successes inHarlem with a comprehensive approach to

ending poverty, the President has said.


8/47


And they are not alone in listening closely towhat Canada has to say. His grand experiment,which began in 1994 as an intensely local web ocradle-to-college social services and has expandedto include two charter schools and 97 square blockso central Harlem, is about the hottest commodityon todays national urban-policy scene.

Just a ew weeks aer the conerence, Canadawas eatured in a glowing 60 Minutes portraitthesecond time the premier V newsmagazine hascovered the Zone. Oprah Winrey calls Canada anangel rom God. ABCs Good Morning America,PBSs Charlie Rose and CNNs Soledad OBrienhave broadcast Canadas message; National PublicRadios erry Gross and avis Smiley have in-terviewed him; Public Radio Internationals TisAmerican Lie aired a lengthy profle; and articlesabout the Harlem Childrens Zone have appeared inTe Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report,Newsweek and other leading publications. In 2004,

the Harlem Childrens Zones frst charter schoolcaught the attention o author and New York imesmagazine editor Paul ough, whose book-lengthprofle o the Zone, Whatever It akes, was publishedin 2008.

Tink tanks right, le and center have discussedand evaluated Canadas work. President Bill Clin-ton has paid homage; Britains Prince Harry andPrince Seeiso o Lesotho visited last May. A reportlast spring by two Harvard scholars asserting thatCanadas charter schools have eradicated the long-entrenched achievement gap between black and

white students cued an ongoing avalanche o praiserom pundits, cheer-led byimes columnist DavidBrooks celebratory accolade Te Harlem Miracle.

In 2007, Canadas liework was singled out byBarack Obama the candidate, and it has since beenwritten into the Presidents proposed 2010 and 2011budgets as a template or Promise Neighborhoods,a program that aims to reverse generations ourban poverty and racial disparity. We are launch-ing Promise Neighborhoods to build on GeoreyCanadas successes in Harlem with a comprehensive

approach to ending poverty, the President has said.O the cost, which Obama estimates to be a ewbillion a year, the President has vowed, We willfnd the money to do this because we cant aordnot to.

Te Obama administration has already dedicated$10 million or planning grants, to be awardedcompetitively to 20 communities that will develop

Promise Neighborhoods built on the Harlem Chil-drens Zone template. Tats what drew the audience

that waited or Canadas words at the Sheraton thataernoon in November.

Yet as Canada readily admits, his work has justbegun. We wont have our cycle completed until 10years rom now, he told the crowd in November.Its a 20-year cycle. Te Zones Promise Academyschools have posted celebrated gains on New YorkState standardized tests, but the schools are them-selves too new to register a ull complement ostudents or graduate a high school class. Many oHCZs social-service programs predate the schools,but their impact has mostly eluded measurement.

Te White House, prominent academics and themedia have anointed the Harlem Childrens Zonethe weapon o choice or attacking poverty, eventhough little is known about what degree o dier-ence HCZ has actually made, and exactly how itwas achieved.

Tere has been some success, no doubt.Canada possesses enormous integrity; his lielongdedication is unquestioned. But its unclearwhether the Harlem Childrens Zone is anexportable, adaptable commodity that can workrom Cleveland to Compton or a sui generis,

only-inNew York idea. Not every neighborhoodcould claim the deep, dense fnancial and politicalresources that have nurtured the Harlem ChildrensZone. Not everyone has a homegrown GeoCanada to lead the way.

How much does a dynamic, charismatic,visionary leader matter?

Short answer: a great deal.


9/47


10/47


At the Sheraton conerencecosponsoredby the Harlem Childrens Zone and PolicyLink,a Caliornia-based research and advocacynonproft with ties to the Obama administra-tionCanada drapes a lanky arm across thelectern as he speaks, sliding the mic rom itsstand, and moves downstage to confde inthe audience. wo giant screens bracket thestage, placed catercorner in the vast ballroomspace. When his stories build to an emotionalheight, Canada takes a precisely olded milk-white hanky rom his inside suit-coat pocketand dabs at his brow and the corners o hismouth, a gold bracelet gleaming on his wrist.

Polished and passionate, undeniably drivenbut charmingly sel-eacing, Canadas not shy

to put himsel in the punch line o an anec-dote or to use the silence between his wordsto hit hard truths square on: He is a master ohis message, and his presencehis story, his

vision, his dedication and his driveanchorsthe work that has made him a rock star in theuniverse o education reorm.

Although he now lives in a Long Islandsuburb, Canada is a son o the South Bronxwho grew up tough on Union Avenue. Wewere the poorest welare cheats there everwas, Canada wrote in his 1995 memoir-

maniesto, Fist Stick Knie Gun. One oour brothers in a single-parent household,Canada knew he was dierent: He was placedin honors classes in grade school, apart romthe other kids on the block. Yet he hewed tothe honor code o the street, fghting whenchallenged (and sometimes when not). Ten,he got a break: a move to the suburbs to livewith his grandparents. Canada escaped.

Educated at Bowdoin College in Maine,Canada earned a graduate degree in educa-tion at Harvard in 1975. In 1983, aer a stint

teaching at and eventually leading a schoolor troubled youth in Boston, he returnedto New York City and began work at theRheedlen Foundation, a nonproft that aimedto reduce truancy in Harlem.

At Rheedlen, Canada started to orm theideas that would become the HCZ abric.One passion was teaching a weekly tae kwon

do class, where respect, discipline, order andocus were both cultivated and required. Butmore students wanted to take tae kwon dothan could sign up; a long waitlist ormed.Inevitably, some were le out. Over time,this became a moti: Tere weremore children in need thanthere were programs and classesto serve them. Canada grewincreasingly rustrated withRheedlens inability to reach abroad swath o Harlems kids.He came to believe that un-less every child received amplesupport, the cycle o poverty that has longhobbled Harlem would never be broken.

Canada worked with and eventuallyreplaced Rheedlen director Richard Murphy,who joined the Dinkins administrationas commissioner o youth services. Ascommissioner, Murphy championed thecreation o Beacon community centers,which were sited in public schools and meantto provide aer-hours community resourcesand academic and social supports to localyouth. With Murphys authority and Canadasleadership, Rheedlens aer-school and anti-truancy programs evolved to become the

citys frst Beacon centers.At about the same time, Childrens Deense

Fund (CDF) ounder and president MarianWright Edelman convened a new group, theBlack Community Crusade or Children,and invited Canada to be part o it. Tegroup met every year at the rural-ennesseearm oRoots author Alex Haley. Even asCanada ound solace in the gathering o like-minded leaders, his discouragement grew:Te problems they all recognized as criticalthreats to poor, urban youth were only

increasing in the wake o rising gun violence,the ready availability o crack cocaine,growing rates o incarceration and abysmallylow academic achievement in Americaspoorest communities.

Te Childrens Deense Fund (whose boardCanada now chairs) articulated a disturbingcradle-to-prison pipeline, by which urban

Read an exclusive Q&A

with Geoffrey Canada.

www.citylimits.org/HCZ

CITYLIMITS.ORG

Opposite:

Tempestt Tucker, a

student in a ninth-

grade English class.

Schools were a late

addition to the cradle-

to-college pipeline.

THE GREAT ESCAPE

Continued on p.12

I you hit 65 percent o the population, thats the tipping point.


11/47


Charter SchoolsPromise AcademiesAdmission is mainly by lottery,

conducted when students are 3

years old; admission to the school

includes an invitation to enroll in

Harlem Gems, HCZs intensive pre-

kindergarten program. Students

have an extended school day and

year, with classes running until

early August. Promise Academy I,

launched in 2004, will eventually

cover kindergarten through 12th

grade but currently has studentsin grades K through 6, 9 and 10.

The schools elementary, middle

and high school divisions oper-

ate separately, each with its own

principal. Promise Academy II,

located several blocks away and

operating since 2005, currently

has kindergarten to fourth grade

but will eventually have grades K

through 12.

Saturday Academy

Gives extra support in English

and math to Promise Academy

students.

Early ChildhoodProgramsThe Baby College

An early intervention program

for expectant parents andparents of children up to 3 years

old. The nine-week parenting

workshop emphasizes early-

childhood development and

reading to infants and children,

while discouraging corporal

punishment.

The Three-Year-Old Journey

A Saturday workshop for parentswhose children will enter pre-K

the following year. The program

emphasizes developmental

stages and language skills.

Harlem Gems

Pre-K for 4-year-olds with a 4-to-1

student-teacher ratio. The re-

ported expenditure per student is

$13,500, twice that of Head Start.

Targeting YouthHarlem Peacemakers

In conjunction with AmeriCorps,

this program trains college-age

interns to offer in-classroom sup-

port to young children, supervise

them during the school day,

provide after-school program-

Canadas ProvincesGeoffrey Canadas Harlem Childrens Zone encompasses anarray of programs serving different needs and populations

The Harlem Childrens Zones headquarters anchors the intersection of 125th Street and Madison Avenue.


12/47


ming and coordinate outreach

to parents at seven elementary

schools in Harlem as well as at the

Promise Academy.

A Cut Above

An after-school program for mid-

dle schoolers who do not attend

the Promise Academy CharterSchools. Academic support and

high school and college prep are

provided.

TRUCE (The Renaissance Univer-

sity for Community Education)

An arts education and media

literacy program for youth ages 12

to 19 who live in the Zone. Those in

the program produce a public ac-

cess TV show called The Real Deal.

Learn to Earn

An after-school program for high

school juniors and seniors with a

focus on academic skills, college

prep and job readiness. Students

are paid weekly stipends for good

grades and good attendance at

school and after-school programs.

College Success Office

College admissions support

program for youth who gradu-

ate from high school and areinvolved in one of six other HCZ

programs, such as Learn to Earn

and Beacon. The office offers sup-

port through the college search

and admissions process and

throughout former students col-

lege careers.

Beacon

Centers that offer additional

afternoon, evening and weekend

services to students. Programs

include tutoring, drug counseling,

pregnancy prevention and social

events.

Neighborhood NeedsEmployment and

Technology Center

Provides access to computers,

technology classes and employ-

ment services for community

residents of all ages.

Community PrideThe community-organizing

program of HCZ organizes tenants

and block associations. It has

helped tenant organizations build

capacity by converting city-

owned buildings to tenant co-ops,

according to HCZ reports, as well

as set up community-building

events such as block parties and

film festivals.

Single Stop

Offers financial and legal services

to Zone residents.

Income Tax Consulting

Individualized, one-time counsel-

ing on income tax preparation

has garnered millions in gains,

say Zone officials.

Health andFitness Initiatives

TRUCE Fitness and Nutrition CenterOffers free dance, martial arts,

fitness and nutrition classes as

well as academic support for

students in grades 5 through 8.

It began as an effort to address

obesity in the community.

Asthma Initiative

A collaboration with Harlem

Childrens Zone, Harlem Hospital,

Columbia University and

other community partners, the

initiative surveys families in the

Zone to determine who suffers

from asthma, then works with

individual households to help

them manage the disease.

Healthy Living Initiative

Seeks to address the problem of

obesity in the communityand pro-

mote physically-active lifestyles

and healthy eating habits among

the children of central Harlem.

Harlem Childrens Health Project

A health clinic located inside thePromise Academy I middle school

provides on-the-spot medical

support and dental and mental-

health services to students. The

intent is to address the immedi-

ate health needs of children who

have no health insurance and to

remove possible health-related

barriers to learning.

Preventive ServicesThe Family Development Program

Conducts family assessments and

refers families to mental-health

services.

The Family Support Center

Provides group sessions on par-

enting and anger management,

crisis intervention, referrals and

advocacy.

The Midtown Family Place

Provides preventive services to45 families in Chelsea and Hells

Kitchen; also runs a food pantry

and a literacy program.

Project CLASS (Clean Living

and Staying Sober)

Provides referrals for drug abuse

treatment and monitors sobriety

for families at risk of foster care

placement.

Truancy Prevention

Provides supportive services for 90

families in Manhattan Valley and

central Harlem. Includes domestic

violence and parenting support

groups.

Maria Muentes


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youth, most oen boys o color, are ar more likely tospend time in prison than to entermuch less graduateromcollege. Canada conceived an alternate pipeline,a cradle-to-college conveyor belt that would insulate

Harlems children rom the ills that long plagued the com-munityone that would, once a child was in the pipeline,guide that child inexorably, inevitably, toward high schoolgraduation and into college.

Canadas connections allowed him to marry his ideastomoney. Te CDFs Edelman got Canada appointedto the board o the Robin Hood Foundation, which wascreated by hedge under Paul udor Jones II to channelcorporate generosity into the citys neediest schools.Trough Robin Hood and via Edelmans networks,Canada met billionaire hedge-und magnate Stanley

Druckenmillera ellow Bowdoin alumand otherfnancial powerhouses. Canada was already riends withcurrent American Express CEO Ken Chenault rom theirundergraduate years at Bowdoin.

Te economic disparities that plagued Harlem whenCanada started work at the Rheedlen Foundation werestark: According to William Julius Wilsons landmark1987 bookTe ruly Disadvantaged, only 38 percent oArican-American men in Harlem were employed in1984, compared with 82 percent a generation earlier,in 1965. Even the economic boom o the 1990s largelybypassed Harlem; about 40,000 residents lived below

the poverty line in both 1989 and 1999. Employmentremained relatively constant, 49 percent in 1989 and 51percent a decade later.

Beyond economics and employment, academicachievement among Harlems children consistently laggedbehind that o kids growing up below, say, 96th Street.And the defcits perpetuated themselves: Parents whoddone poorly in school passed subpar verbal and reading

skills on to their children. As Canada puts it, Te gapstarts at Day Oneand it never gets any closer, unlesschildren have more time to learn.

Te unders soon realized Canada was unusually

dedicated and extraordinarily agile in his ability to moverom the boardroom to the tenement with fnesse. Temore they got to know him, they realized what a uniquelytalented, dedicated person he is, Norman Fruchter,director o the community involvement program at theAnnenberg Institute or School Reorm, says. Teypledged X million i he came up with a plan to transormHarlem. Tat was the origin o the Harlem ChildrensZone. Druckenmiller and others helped Canada write abusiness plan; Rheedlen became the HCZ.

wo succinct concepts defne the Harlem ChildrensZone. Te frst is the pipeline, a metaphor or the matrix

o services and programs designed to usher local childrenrom birth to college. Te second, the tipping point,describes a milestone in the neighborhoods developmentwhere positive change becomes inevitable.

Te cradle-to-college pipeline is actually designed tobegin beore birth: Expectant parents are recruited intoBaby College, a nine-weekend workshop that teachesbasic parenting skills and discipline strategies and aimsto instill the importance o early-childhood enrichmentslike reading aloud to babies and toddlers. Children enterthe pipeline in preschool, via the Tree-Year-Old Journey,Get Ready or Pre-K or, or those whove won the lottery

or slots in the two Promise Academy charter schools, theintensive Harlem Gems pre-kindergarten. Te PromiseAcademies (Academy I was launched in 2004, AcademyII in 2005) themselves are designed as K-12 schools,although neither has all 13 grades in place yet.

HCZ brings in older teens through its RUCE mediaand ftness eorts, its Peacemakers school volunteerprogram, Employment and echnology workshops and

Canada conceived an alternate pipeline, a cradle-

to-college conveyor belt that would insulateHarlems children from the ills that long plagued

the communityone that would, once a child wasin the pipeline, guide that child inexorably, inevitably,

toward high school graduation and into college.

Continued from p.9


14/47


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In the ZoneTe physical footprint ofthe Harlem Childrens Zone

1. Harlem Childrens Zone

Headquarters

35 East 125th Street

2. The Baby College

(not shown)

2037- 39 Seventh Avenue

3. Booker T. Washington Beacon

(not shown)

103 West 107th Street

4. College Success Office

147 St. Nicholas Avenue

5. Community Pride

157 West 122nd Street

6. Countee Cullen Community

Beacon


7. Employment and Technology

Center


8. Family Development Program

689 Lenox Avenue

9. Family Support Center

207-211 Lenox Avenue

10. Harlem Gems


11. Harlem Gems Head Start


12. Harlem Peacemakers South

2031 Fifth Avenue

13. Harlem Peacemakers North

1916 Park Avenue

14. Learn to Earn

1916 Park Avenue

15. Midtown Family Place

(not shown)

457 West 51st Street

16. Promise Academy I Upper

Elementary, Middle School

& High School

35 East 125th Street

17. Promise Academy I

Lower Elementary


18. Promise Academy II

2005 Madison Avenue

19. Truancy Prevention

(Project CLASS)


20. TRUCE Media Project


21. TRUCE Fitness and

Nutrition Center


4

5

10

16

11

9

6

7

8

18

12

17

19

21

20

13

14

The Harlem Childrens Zone covers 97 square blocks, from 116th Street to 143rd

Street and from Madison Avenue to Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

1


15/47


the College Success program, which oers high school se-niors at six area schools workshops on college admissionand fnancial aid and helps students secure internshipsand community service placements.

Adults who live within the Zones boundaries gainaccess to community-building resources; more thantwo dozen city-owned properties have become tenant-owned co-ops through HCZ-led organizing, and HCZ-supplied tax guidance has secured millions in tax creditsand rebates or local residents, the organization says.Community-wide HCZ initiatives harness local hospitaland social-service resources to fght asthma and obesity;provide medical, dental and mental-health services orPromise Academy students; and aim to keep strugglingamilies intactwith their children out o oster care.Tey are all part o the Zones score o programs, whichemploy a sta o 1,500 and involve about 8,000 localyouth at a per capita cost o $5,000 a year.

According to Canadas tipping point theory, once

Harlem reaches a 65 percent level o successacademic,economic, social and healthuture success and academ-ic achievement will be the natural outcome. At that point,what Canada characterizes as a positive contaminationwill take place: Everyone will begin to beneft rom HCZ,whether he or she is part o the schools, the aer-schooland youth employment programs, the community devel-opment eorts and the myriad other projects that existin the Zoneor not. Tat tipping point, and the osmosis

o benefts rom theew to the many, hasbeen part o Canadas

thinking or nearly 30years. It is, however,not a fxed target.Teres no knownscience to support 65[percent], says Anne

Kubisch, director o the Aspen Institutes Roundtable onCommunity Change, who has studied HCZ and otherplace-based initiatives. Its not like theres scientifc evi-dence that i you hit 65 percent o the population, thatsthe tipping point. But thats their theory.

Canada began putting the theory into practice in 1994

with community centers and a blocked-o weekday playstreet that revived a drug-steeped, bullet-scarred blocko West 144th Street. oday, that same block houses theCountee Cullen Community Center, a teen center, and anursery school, all under HCZ auspices. Since 1994, theZone has grown rom 24 to 97 square blocks o centralHarlem, in a rough rectangle rom 116th Street up to143rd Street, bounded by Frederick Douglass Boulevard

and Madison Avenue. In 2000, the area was home toaround 70,000 people.

Physical expansion was supported by exponentialfnancial growth: Te annual budget has grown rom $6million in 1994 to $74 million in 2008. In fscal 2007,HCZ paid $7.2 million in salaries and wages. Canadaearned $494,000. George Khadoun, the chie operatingocer, earned $217,600; development director MindyMiller was paid $266,000, or slightly more than bothPromise Academy principals combined. Consultantsbilled or more than $1.4 million. Te chess tutor received$66,000 to $75,000 a year; $105,000 went to Wyzantutoring, a national tutor-placement service; and theorganization spent $175,000 on travel. Te Zones in-kindsupport or the Promise Academy I (which leases itsspace, unlike Promise Academy II, which is located in apublic school building) slashes the schools rental costsrom an estimated $35 per square oot in 2003 to $2.70per square oot.

HCZs physical presence is easy to see. ake the inter-

section o Madison and 125th. On one corner, an emptyshell o a building languishes. On another, theres a row oshopssome vacant, others ulltopped by the derelictMason and rowel ballroom. But directly across thestreet, dominating the block and the local skyline with sixspanking new stories o steel, glass and brick, sits the Har-lem Childrens Zone headquarters, a $44 million structurethat exudes both permanence and wealth.

HCZ reports that its programs serve more than 17,000local residents. Its schools enroll about 1,200 studentsa raction o the number o children in the neighborhood

but still substantial or an aspect o the HCZ that, atthe outset, was an aerthought. While the PromiseAcademies and the early-childhood programs thateed them now command the greatest public attention,the Harlem Childrens Zone didnt originally envisionrunning its own schools.

Instead, back in 1994, the weight was squarely on socialservices; schools were out o the picture. We had com-mitted ourselves to notgoing into that business in theearly 90s, says longtime treasurer Mitch Kurz. We didntwant to have to deal with the old [Board o Education]bureaucracy. Schools meant risk: I the program quality

suered, Kurz says, the brand would be attached to some-thing mediocre, and that would hurt the brand and hurtour ability to make money to support the programs.

Working with the local schools in the 1990s meantwrangling with local school boards, which were variouslyindebted to, or controlled by, local politicians. GeoCanada was very soured on the inability o the publicschool system to educate Harlem children, or children

A video report on the HCZ

from Jay DeDapper. Check

out www.citylimits.org/HCZ

CITYLIMITS.ORG


16/47


o color, period, says Annenbergs Fruchter.Tere were two villains: the UF [UnitedFederation o eachers], which Geo heldresponsible or what teachers didnt do andor being embedded in local politics, andthe local politicians, who controlled schoolboards, as had long been the case in HarlemsDistrict 5.

During its frst decade, the HCZ pipelinegrew more robust, but the results Canadaand his team sought, in terms o academicachievement and progress out o poverty, didnot materialize. We realized this hole in ourservice provision, particularly in District 5,and the hole was in the schools, says Kurz.oo ew children were succeedingCanadaelt there had to be a way to scale up the eortand save all the kids, instead o a handul.

Canadas rustration with the citys publicschools continued undimmed. By January

2002, when Bloomberg began his frstterm, Canada had worked with fve schoolschancellors. But in the summer o 2002, orthe frst time since the Boss weed era, themayor secured control o the citys schools.With Bloombergs blessing, new schoolschancellor Joel Klein cultivated vigorousprivate support or public schools rom

corporations and nonprofts.Te charter school movement changed

the landscape, says Kurz, a multimillionairewho, aer a career in advertising, now servesas HCZ treasurer and works with the BronxCenter or Science and Mathematics, a smallhigh school where he teaches math andserves as a college adviser. Te mayor and

the chancellor were both pro-change, and [anHCZ] board with pre-existing relationships,particularly with the mayor, enabled us to getin ront o the chancellor. (See Charting aCourse,p. 21)

Klein met with Canada early in his tenureas chancellor and suggested that Canadabypass the traditional open-enrollmentpublic schools and open his own charterschool, which would become central to theHarlem Childrens Zone pipeline o cradle-to-college programs. Canada and his team

wrote a proposal, recruited teachers andadministrators, and organized an admissionslottery that meant door-knocking acrossthe Zones 24 blocks. In 2004, the PromiseAcademy elementary and middle schoolsopened their doors.

Above:

Kelly Downing leads

a ninth-grade Englishclass at Promise

Academy I, a school

launched in 2004 and

now at the heart of the

HCZ model.


17/47


Students in the Harlem Childrens Zone achieve theresults they do, Canada says, because they invest more:Tey invest more actual time in the classroom, witha ar longer school day and a school year that beginsin September and ends in early August. All PromiseAcademy students are in school about 60 percent longerthan average public school students. Struggling studentscan spend twice as many hours in school as the averagekidin class and in tutoring or in small-group beore-and aer-school instruction. HCZs corporate and schoolleaders say they hold each child to high standards andexpect teachers to do whatever it takes to achievesuccess. And the charters invest more money per childper yearnearly $19,000 in 2008than the $14,525 thecity spends on children who attend general-educationprograms in traditional open-enrollment public schools.

Te fnancial investment starts well beore the frstormal day o kindergarten. Te Harlem Childrens Zonespends almost as much per child in its Harlem Gemspreschool, $13,500, as the city spends on a typical olderstudent. Gems tykes are careully cultivated and groomedor school; theyre in the Promise Academy pipelinealready, because Harlem Childrens Zone planners holdkindergarten lotteries when a cohort o students is 2 or3 years oldeectively holding seats until they are oldenough to attend kindergarten. In addition, HCZ spends$5,000 per child each year or aer-school and extra-curricular programs or students who dont attend the

Promise Academies but live within the Harlem ChildrensZone. Some o the money goes to direct payment omiddle school children, or good grades and participationin HCZ programs.

Te school day begins at Promise Academy I and II at8 a.m., even or the youngest students. At Harlem Gems,the lottery admission pre-K program that eeds into thePromise Academies, the day stretches rom 8 a.m. to 4p.m. Aer-school programs, which include 4- and 5-year-olds, run until 6 or 7 p.m. Teres Saturday school everyweekend, and some teachers and students meet as early as7 a.m. or intensive test preparation.

Every single child has to make it, says Shana Brodnax,senior manager o early-childhood programs at the HCZ.Its an entirely no-excuses-accepted policy that takes an al-most incomprehensible amount o resources and support.

Failure is not permitted, vowed Canada, speaking to apublic gathering in Springfeld, Mass., in November. Noexcuses. Failure is not permitted, because unding is tiedto success, not ailure.

In the world o education, success has many defni-

tions. But the HCZ schools are simply too new to be ableto measure success in the vocabulary o graduation orcollege enrollmentno students have yet graduated romthe Promise Academys high school, so theres no gradua-tion rate to discuss. Regents scores rom 2009 are encour-aging but preliminary, as only one cohort o students hastaken the exams. Nearly 500 young adults who partici-pated in nonschool HCZ programs are now in college,but not much is known about that group.

Instead, at the Promise Academies, success has an ex-plicit benchmark: We are judged by the New York Statetests, says HCZ spokesperson Marty Lipp. We literallylive or die by that test.

Like all other public school students, those at the Prom-ise Academies take statewide assessments every year. TePromise Academy schools have recently posted strong

results in math: In 2009, 87 percent o Promise Academyeighth-graders scored at or above grade level, comparedwith 61 percent overall in District 5. On the state mathtest, 91 percent o Asian students and 86 percent o whitestudents citywide scored at or above grade level, as dida mere 62 percent o black students in the citys schools.Since the Promise Academy is 91 percent black, its highscores suggest a ar narrower racial achievement gap thanmight otherwise be expected.

On the 2009 English-language arts (ELA) test, 57 per-cent o Promise Academy eighth-graders met or exceededgrade-level standards, compared with 46 percent in

District 5 at large and 50 percent o black students in NewYork City. While HCZ students' scores exceed city aver-ages or black students, a substantial and signifcant racegap persists: Citywide, 76 percent o both white and Asianeighth-graders scored at or above grade level. (PromiseAcademy eighth-graders bested their District 5 counter-parts in 2007 and 2008 on math and English, as well.)

In April 2009, Harvard economists Roland Fryer andWill Dobbie released a study asserting that the HarlemChildrens Zone is enormously eective at increasing theachievement o the poorest minority children, basedon their analysis o 2007 state test score data. In middle

school, they documented gains that reverse the black-white achievement gap in mathematics. Grade schoolresults are even stronger, Fryer and Dobbie say, and closethe racial achievement gap in both subjects [math andEnglish-language arts].

est scores are the single most powerul measure in thecitys annual progress reports about each school. Yet boththe citys Department o Education and New York State

SHAPING SUCCESSFailure is not permitted, because unding is tied to success, not ailure.


18/47


Regents chancellor Merryl ischrecognize that the Level 3 scorewidely translated as at grade levelor profcient, which is where mostHCZ students scoreddoes notactually predict academic success.In act, students who score Level3 in eighth grade have only a 52percent chance o graduating romhigh school in our years, accord-ing to isch and analysts at the cityDepartment o Education.

Fryer and Dobbie based theirconclusions on gains made by a sin-gle class on a single test in a singleyear. In other years, and or othergrades, state-exam scores at thePromise Academy have not alwaysbeen impressive. Te fh-gradersscored lower than the district aver-

age on the 2009 math test. Only athird o the schools eighth-graderswere at grade level on the 2008English test.

On nonstate exams, the resultsare even more mixed. On the Iowaest o Basic Skills (IBS), theeighth-graders average score was41, well below the HCZ-set targeto 50 and a score that correlatesto an achievement ranking on the33rd percentile nationally. (IBS

scores since 2007 have risen but stilldo not meet HCZ-set goals.) Onthe erraNova English assessment,HCZs goal was or 65 percentthetipping pointo students to score80 percent or above, a goal thatthe school has not yet been able toachieve. A similar target was set ormath; again, the organizations test-ing goals were unmet, despite three-month delays in testing that shouldhave translated into extra gains.

Te act is, any test one looks at,whatever result is shown, is o limiteduse in judging whether the Prom-ise Academy model works or not.Each Promise Academy test cohortcomprised ewer than 100 studentsa airly small pool rom which toconclude that the project is brilliantor a bust. (See est Pattern, p.22)

Te CharterChallengeTe pros and

conficts o aschooling revolution

The charter school movement has

been gathering steady steam since

the late 1990s in New York City.

Nearly 100 are in operation today,

predominantly in parts of the city

long-plagued by poverty and low

academic achievement. Central

Harlems District 5 is no exception:

20 percent of local schools are

charters. More are coming. New

York State education leaders said in

December that they support open-

ing 200 new charter schools. Mayor

Bloombergs current five-year capital

plan would allocate $200 million for

the new charters.

Charter schools are public schools

that are exempt from some of the

constraints under which other

schools operate. Their teachers typi-

cally do not work under a union con-

tract, principals have more autono-my over curriculum and instruction

and their students can be selected

by lottery. (Most other public schools

have open enrollment.)

Proponents contend the schools

ability to innovate produces bet-

ter results. In a 2009 study of New

York City s charter schools, Stanford

University academic and charter

advocate Caroline Hoxby con-

cluded that charter school students

make long-term gains that signifi-

cantly narrow (but do not close) theScarsdale-Harlem achievement

gap. Results like those have made

charters increasingly appealing to

policymakers from the left and right.

President Obamas secretary of edu-

cation, Arne Duncan, has called for a

$52 million increase in charter school

funding in the 2010 federal budget.

But the reports of success in the

charter experiment have met with

some skepticism. When the CREDO

institute, also based at Stanford

University, analyzed data from

70 percent of the nations charter

schools, it said only a fraction, 17

percent, excel, while 37 percent post

lower outcomes than do traditionalpublics. Reports from the New York

City Department of Educations char-

ter office say that charter students

do not make as much academic

progress each year as their peers in

traditional public schoolsand note

the dramatic difference in high-need

populations between school models,

with open-enrollment publics serving

far more special needs students and

English-language learners than the

lottery admission charters.

The rivalry between the charter

school and public school models is

not abstract: Its a very real competi-

tion for teaching talent, students,

attention, money andin New York

City, anywayspace. The Depart-

ment of Education is locating more

of the expanding universe of charter

schools in public school buildings,

cutting into space that noncharter

kids use.

The charter debate provokes

philosophical questions too, saysPedro Noguera, executive director

of the Metropolitan Center for Urban

Education and an NYU professor.

The regimentation, the silence and

the emphasis on control concern

me. Middle-class kids are never

treated that way, he says. Many

charters, including the Promise

Academy, seek to cultivate char-

acter and mold behavior to more

traditional, middle-class standards

what some describe as a kind of

paternalistic, top-down impositionof mainstream culture. They are

preparing kids to be followers, not

leaders to conform, not innovate,

says Noguera. I support what Geoff

Canada is doing his ambition, his

dedication, his commitment. He is

a sincere, dedicated individual. It

doesnt mean that everything they do

is right, though.

Helen Zelon


19/47


Above: David Rosen leads vocal

practice in his and Clinton Moores

fourth-grade music class.

Below:Veronica Thomas oversees a 10th-

grade global studies class. Teacher turnover

at the HCZ schools has been significant.


20/47


And comparing the student populations atPromise Academy with those in the nearby regularpublic schools is an apples-to-oranges matchup:Te HCZ schools serve signifcantly ewer high-need learners, like special education students orkids who are learning English. For instance, only 6percent o the third graders who took the 2007-08English test at the Promise Academy had disabili-ties, while disabled kids made up 30, 40, even 60percent o the test-taking pool in open-enrollmentschools in the district. Only a handul o students atthe Promise Academies are English-language learn-ers, compared with 14 percent in schools citywide.And the students who attend HCZ are selectedby lottery, which may in itsel shape the schoolspopulation: Unlike open-enrollment neighborhoodschools, the lottery requires a measure o parentalinitiative that benefts HCZ students in other ways.One has to take the evidence with a grain osalt, Fryer and Dobbie caution. Children who

participate in the HCZ are not a random sampleo students. Students served by HCZ arelikely to be sel-selected, and results thatcompare [them] to other children inHarlem may be biased.

Harlem Childrens Zone schoolleaders, however, are adding more thana grain o salt. Faced with dramaticallydierent testing outcomes betweenstate tests and the Iowa exam, theydecided to fnd an alternative to theIowa. According to the organizations

2008-09 annual report, wo years ago,a decision was made to deemphasizethe [Iowa test] in order to ocus onNew York state standards and the skillsneeded or success on state assessments; thus theschool is looking or another nationally recognizedstandardized test which aligns more closely withNew York State standards.

Being able to display the right kind o results isa matter o survival. We are bottom-line kind opeople. We live by the numbers. Show us the out-come. Tats how were measuredthats how we

measure you, said HCZ supporter Ken Chenaulto American Express at the November Chang-ing the Odds conerence. Te Harlem ChildrensZone thinks about product value, just like they doat Apple, just like they do at J. Crew, just like we doat my company. A strong brand can bring fnancialassetsa promise o goods and services, basedon trust.

At the Promise Academy, school leaders andteachers work backward rom the test score goalsset by Canada and the HCZ leadership: As Paulough related in Whatever it akes, disturbinglylow test scores in the schools frst years dictateda results-oriented attack. Te whole school wasgoing to be concentrating on one thing: raising thetest scores, ough wrote. During the period rom2004 through 2008 when ough reported on theschool, test prep began beore school, at 7 or 7:30a.m. or some students, with cash incentives orattendance. Schoolwide test prep started in Septem-ber, ough reported, with morning test-prep ses-sions, a test-prep block during the school day, testprep in the aer-school program, and test prep onSaturdays. Over the 11-month school year, ocuspersisted on the state tests.

Every week, teachers tell City Limits, studentstook practice tests, using previous state exams asstudy guides. We used exactly what people were

going to see on the exam, says a ormer math

teacher, to make sure students were thoroughlyinculcated with test sophistication, test practice. Sothat when they got on the feld, theyd be ready.

Its all about the numbers, another ormerPromise Academy math teacher tells City Limits.Everyone elt the pressure. People got bonusesor their perormance. Tere was a synergy there.It wasnt so clear-cut, that iXchildren ail, Im

out o a job. But you knew, at any time, you couldbe released.

HCZ does not deny its ocus on testing. We dowork with the kids to prep or state testsduringschool, aer school and weekends, says HCZsLipp. We are judged by the state tests. We haveto pay attention to it.

One part o the HCZ experience that is not

One has to take the evidencewith a grain of salt. Children who

participate in the HCZ are not arandom sample of students.

Results that compare [them] to otherchildren in Harlem may be biased.


21/47


The Harlem Childrens Zonethinks about product value, just

like they do at Apple, just like theydo at J. Crew. A strong brand

can bring financial assetsa

promise of goods and services,based on trust.

Above: Student Cheik Niang on the

recorder. Class sizes at the Zones schools

are significantly smaller than at other

neighborhood schools. Continued on p.23

emphasized in media coverage is the stunningrate o teacher turnover the Promise Acade-mies have posted. In 2006-07, a third o Prom-ise Academy Is teachers le or were dismissed.Te year beore 48 percent were fred or quit.Only one o the original teachers is still withthe Promise Academy middle school.

Some teachers elected to leave, like thosewho told City Limits that working with datatook precedence at the school over workingwith children. Others were fred. One teacher,who ew in rom Hawaii to teach at the Prom-ise Academy, was let go beore her householdurnishings arrived by shipping container.

Efom Ukoidemabia, the schools ormermath coach, stepped into a teaching role aeran instructor resigned, and was summarilydismissed. Beore I was fred, I was neverobserved in the classroom. I was never oeredeedback on my perormance. Tere was no

paper trail, and there was no guidance. I wasgiven no chance to improve over time, hetells City Limitsall steps that would havebeen in place i the school were bound by thesort o union rules and contracts that charterschool proponents contend inhibit educa-tional innovation.

On the aernoon City Limits was permittedto visit the Promise Academy I school at Har-lem Childrens Zone headquarters, the teach-ers encountered were predominantly young;about hal had not taught school previously

in New York City (or elsewhere). wo cameto teaching via the New York City eachingFellows program and each or America,alternate-certifcation programs that bringbright, young college grads into the publicschools, with mixed long-term outcomes.

Classrooms were clean, bright and bare-bones modest: Tey were thinly supplied,with little student-made artwork, writingor other projects on display and limitedclassroom resources like the libraries andmanipulative materials oen seen in public

school classrooms. Most oen, students werearranged in old-school rows o desks, with theteachers desk at the ront o the room, but theinstruction was oen energetic and engaging:In one ourth-grade music lesson, the teacher,who had drawn a cartoon sel-portraiton a whiteboard beore the lesson, wipedaway an ear in protest aer a cacophonous,enthusiastic recorder display. Put the ear


22/47


1998: New York State CharterSchools Act is passed under Gover-

nor George Pataki, authorizing the

opening and subsequent renewal

of new schools but setting a limit of

100 schools statewide.

1999: Sisulu-Walker Charter School,

New York States first, is established

on West 115th Street. The John A.

Reisenbach Foundation partners

with the Learning Project, a non-

profit educational-management

organization, to found the JohnReisenbach Charter School.

2001: The Bush administrations No

Child Left Behind Act is passed, al-

lowing students in poorly perform-

ing public schools to enroll in char-

ter schools and compelling failing

schools to restructure, perhaps into

charter schools. Harlem Day Charter

School is established by Sheltering

Arms Childrens Service and real-

estate tycoon Benjamin V. Lambert.

2003: KIPP STAR College Prep

Charter School opens in Harlem.

Former teacher and businesswom-

an Deborah Kenny founds the first

of three Harlem Village Academy

charter schools committed to

banishing bureaucracy. Schools

chancellor Joel Klein describes

Kenny as a star.

2004: The Harlem Childrens Zone

Promise Academy I charter schoolopens. Leonard Goldberg, formerly

an administrator at a Westchester

County school, establishes Op-

portunity Charter School on West

113th Street following the inclusion

model. Its student body is roughly

half general-education students

and half students with learning

disabilities who learn in classes

side-by-side. The John Reisenbachschools charter is revoked because

of poor standardized-test scores.

2005: In his re-election campaign,

Mayor Bloomberg pledges to elimi-

nate the cap on charter schools

and double the number of charter

schools in NYC to 100 by 2009. P.S.

861 Future Leaders Institute on West

122nd Street converts to a charter

school in July, and the Harlem

Link Charter School and Harlem

Childrens Zone Promise AcademyII open in September.

2006: Democracy Preparatory

Charter School is founded on West

133rd Street by teacher Seth An-

drews. Harlem Success Academy,

the first of the Success Charter

Network that planned to expand

to 40 schools over the next decade,

is founded by former city council-

woman and education committee

chair Eva Moskowitz, a reformerand adversary of the teachers

union, which she claims under-

mined her bid for borough presi-

dent in 2005.

2007: Britains Prince Charles; his

wife Camilla; and British ambas-

sador David Manning tour the

Harlem Childrens Zone in January,

joined by Geoffrey Canada and Lt.

Gov. David Paterson. Prince Charles

speaks to school officials about

incorporating the Harlem ChildrenZones educational concepts into

his 16 UK foundations. After years

of pressure, state legislators vote

in April to raise the charter school

cap to 200 with 50 of the new char-

ters reserved for New York City. As

part of President Bushs campaign

to pressure lawmakers to reau-

thorize No Child Left Behind, Bush,

Education Secretary MargaretSpellings and Rep. Charles Rangel

tour Harlem Village Academy. Bush

declares, We can see that No Child

Left Behind is working nationwide.

The visit precedes National Charter

Schools Week. South Carolina Demo-

crat and House majority whip Rep.

James Clyburn visits Harlem Success

Academy in November, speaking

out in support of charter schools.

2008: St. Hope Leadership Acad-

emy on West 134th Street and

Harlem Success Academy 2, 3 and

4 open. Cindy McCain, wife of

John McCain, visits Sisulu-Walker

in June to observe the schools best

practices. I chose to come here

because of the schools high record

of achievement, McCain notes.

In August, Bloomberg and Klein

announce the opening of 18 new

charter schools in the fall, more

than the city has ever opened in

a single year, bringing the totalnumber of NYC charters to 78, with

24,000 students enrolled.

2009: In July, police are called to

P.S. 123, which houses Harlem

Success Academy, after movers

arrive with orders to make way for

the charter schools expansion and

P.S. 123 teachers block the workers.

After an hour-long standoff, DOE

officials declare there has been a

mistake in communications and

stop the move. In his bid for a thirdterm, Bloomberg again pledges

to double the number of charter

schools in the city by creating 100

new schoolswhich would give

charters 100,000 school seats, or

nearly 10 percent of all public

school seats in New York City

by 2013.

Charting a CourseA timeline of Harlems charter schools

Samia Shafi


23/47


KIPP Infinity

Harlem Village Academy

KIPP STAR

Frederick Douglass Academy

Democracy Prep

New York State

Knowledge & Power Prep IV

Thurgood Marshall Academy

HCZ Promise Academy I

New York City

Manhattan District 5

Choir Academy of Harlem

Knowledge & Power Prep II

I.S. 195

Academy for Social Action

I.S. 286

Acad. of Collaborative Education

Powell Middle School

0 20 40 60 80 100(%)

KIPP Infinity


KIPP STAR

Democracy Prep




New York State


New York City

I.S. 286




I.S. 195




0 20 40 60 80 100(%)


I.S. 195







KIPP STAR


0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35(%)

I.S. 286

I.S. 195






KIPP Infinity



Democracy Prep




KIPP STAR


0(%) 3010 2 0 40 5 0 60 70 80 9 0 100

I.S. 195



KIPP Infinity


Democracy Prep

I.S. 286



KIPP STAR







0(%) 62 4 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Eighth-Grade English Scores

Eighth-Grade Math Scores

Class Size

Free Lunches (percentage of students qualifying)

Limited English Proficiency

On standardized tests in 2009, the Harlem Childrens ZonesPromise Academy I fared well compared to most other schoolsin its upper Manhattan district (District 5), and rivaled city- andstatewide averages. Other charter schools in District 5 alsoposted high marks. But there are significant differences between

the student bodies at the Promise Academy and the otherschools to which it is compared.

est PatternHow Harlems miracle really ranks

Data source: New York State Department of Education

(students scoring ator above grade level)

(students scoring ator above grade level)

(students per eighth-grade English class)

(percentage of studentsdeemed LEP)


24/47


Continued from p.20

back! called out one boy, so you wont beVincent van Gogh!

eachers in the classes City Limits visitedoen worked in pairs, giving the very smallclasses o 10 to 16 students additional atten-tion, discipline and guidance. While someteachers shushed kids on the stairways orsnapped their fngers at children, expectingobedience, others coaxed their charges withhumor, like the English teacher who pleadedwith students or details in their essays: No-body wants a sandwich without the mayo andthe lettuce. An essay without color, thats

just the meat and the cheese. Tats dry.Students wear uniorms that wouldnt

be out o place in parochial schoolsgrayplaid skirts and white blouses or the girls,gray slacks and red vests or the boys, withhigh schoolers in khakis and button-downs.

A sign at the buildings entrance prohibitshats, durags and hoodiesstreetwear thatdoesnt belong in the classroom.

Te schools two science labs are notcurrently used as labs but as regular class-roomscertainly complicating the instruc-tion o Regents-level science classes like biol-ogy and chemistry.History students learningabout World War I studied rom books thatincluded Regents and other test preparatorymaterials, although their teacher assured CityLimits that they used a textbook on other

days. (We didnt see any textbooks in use, buta ew were on classroom shelves.) Te gleam-ing gym, visible rom 125th Street through awall made o 15 double-height panels o plateglass, eatures an HCZ logo on the basketballcourts maple oorand 15 automated white-abric panels that slide down, like so manyeyelids, when the kids in the gym wave topassersby on the street.

Most o the teachers who came toandlethe Promise Academies (the second

school, launched a year aer the frst in 2005,is located a ew blocks away on Madison Ave-nue) bought into Canadas vision o educationreorm. One ormer staer recalls crying, shewas so inspired the frst time she heard Can-ada speak. Ukoidemabia says that becomingthe math coach o the Promise Academy wasa dream aer 15 years teaching in the citys

public schools. On a visceral level, Im anArican male, this is 125th Streetyou cantget any more Harlem. Tere were these otherArican males, rom Harvard, BowdoinIwas dazzled, he says. It was an amazingopportunity to shape kidsand a $44 millionbuilding. I thought, I want in on this.

But reality was less inspiring. Physicalconditions in the frst years were bad, someteachers say. Discipline, an initial obstacleor many Promise Academy teachers, was achallenge or leadership as well, says HCZtreasurer Kurz. We developed a lot o grandplans, educational philosophies, he recalls,and we overlooked sort o the undamentalaspect o running a successul school, andthat is managing the culture o the school,managing the discipline. Forget the curricu-lum maps and everything else, until youvegotten the blocking and tackling o the

culture as a whole.Canada says teachers should be treated

as proessionals, like hard-driving, well-compensated young associates at law frms.You take the brightest young people, andyou work them to death, he said at theSheraton conerence, only hal joking.Indeed, the demands on Promise Academyteachers are high and near constant. Teschool year begins on or near Labor Day andfnishes in the second week o August. Longerhours and a longer year were part o the

original job description; evening sessions andSaturday school were not. All o the schoolssta, rom the principals down, serve at thepleasure o Canada and the HCZ board.Tere is no union, there is no tenure, andthere is no job security. Tat lack o securitycan be a stumbling block or experiencedteachers and administrators.

Former Promise Academy teachers saythat leadership applied a double standard toteachers versus parents. o get parents tomeetings, they would give away iPods, ste-

reos, Pathmark gi certifcates, says ormerliteracy coach Shelly Klein. At parent meet-ings, dinner was ordered or parents whoattended, but they would not let the teacherseat, Klein says, despite the act that teach-ers remained on call aer a very long schoolday. Te message rom the board was clear,she says: Te people who gave us the money


25/47


Details on the

Presidents plan.

More coverage at

www.citylimits.org/HCZ

CITYLIMITS.ORG

[or the schools] wanted to see results. Tesegentlemen gave millions o dollars. Te kidswerent getting better. Te responsibility, andthe critique, was to the teachers.

Canada does not dispute this. O the mostreluctant parent-participants, he says atly,

I bribe them. Boxes o Pampers,cases o Coke, ree pizza din-ners, tickets to ballgames, gicertifcateswhatever it takesto get parents engaged and intothe schools. Canada relates howhe motivated competition inan ongoing anti-obesity initia-tive: Children who lost the mostweight won a trip to Disney

World in Orlando; winning staers wererewarded with a sojourn in the Bahamas.

Canada, in eorts to inspire students,visited the school requently, Klein says. In

middle school, when kids did their home-work, Geo Canada would stand in theauditorium with a roll o money and paythem. Kids would be called up by name. Oh,you gotXgrade, heres $20. He would callup kids. Dont orgethes not the principal.And hed hand out money. Tats what Oprahdoesnt say.

Te conditions and demands took theirtoll, on individual teachers and the schoolsthemselves as they tried to build a cultureo success amid staggering turnover. New

teachers come in12 new teachers, 12distinct cultures. It aects the gestalt. Tesum o the parts doesnt equal the whole,says Ukoidemabia.

Attrition has lessened since 2008, a result,at least in part, o a dramatic move to revampthe schools ocus.

Te tension between the teaching staf atPromise Academy I and the HCZ board cameto a tumultuous head in March 2007, when,aer three years o consistently dismal test

scores, Canada elected to close enrollmentin the middle school or a year. No newsixth-graders were to be admitteda luxurythat an open-enrollment neighborhoodschool, which is by law obliged to educate allyoungsters within its catchment zone, couldnever entertain. (Te school also decided notto admit sixth-graders the ollowing year,

restarting the middle school in grade fve.It also ended the practice o the middleschool admissions lottery and began thepreschool lottery that determines eventualenrollment in the Promise Academy. Neitherstrategy would be permitted in conventionalopen-enrollment schools.)

As it closed the entrance to new kids, thePromise Academy also ushered existingstudents out the exit. O the 100 eighth-graders who were the inaugural PromiseAcademy middle school studentsthose whoentered the school with the understandingthat they would continue through 12th gradethere65 remained in the academy whenthe board stopped enrollment. Tat May,they were hastily graduated and placed incity and private high schools. Where the kidsended up is not clear.

We dont track them in the sense that we

evaluate our own kids, says HCZ spokes-person Lipp, who couldnt detail where thatcohort went to high school or discuss theirprogress toward graduation. We dont trackthem as a group, like we would track oureighth-graders. Tis divisionour eighth-graders vs. the children who were oncePromise Academy eighth-gradersstands insharp contrast to the o repeated promise othe Promise Academy and the HCZ: Once achild is in the HCZ pipeline, theyre secureand supported all the way through college.

Here, children who once were in are now out.In the all o 2008, the Promise Academy

I midle school again accepted new students.But instead o admitting sixth-graders, thedecision was made to start resh with fhgraders who came up rom the PromiseAcademy lower grades, eectively controllingthe quality and previous education ostudents entering the middle school. Teeighth-graders whose 2007 test score gainsinspired Fryer and Dobbies enthusiasm, justa year aer the middle school hiatus went

into eect, are now in the Promise Academyhigh school. In 2014, 10 years aer it openedits doors, the Promise Academy will fnallyreach its ull K-12 enrollment.


26/47


Above:

Roshana

Richardson

and Stephen

Sutherland

in class.

The Promise

Academies

have recorded

impressive

scores on state

math tests.

Its unclear

why that

success hasnt

translated to

other tests.

Doubts about test scores shouldnt nulliy allthe optimism about the Harlem Childrens Zoneschools. Lots o schools are accused o teachingto the test and cherry-picking the numbers theypresent to the world, but the Promise Academieshappen to have better numbers than many. Tat

the gains are pretty recent and largely limited to thestate tests, that they contrast sharply with the sameschools perormance just a ew years ago, eventhe serious problems with teacher turnoverthesedont invalidate the idea that something special isgoing on in Harlem. Tey might just be warningsigns or those hoping to replicate the Harlemmodel elsewhere: Tere are curves in the road,

slippery conditions, even sudden stops.Tere also might be more than one road.

Whats oen overlooked in the warm glow omedia attention to HCZ is the act that othertraditional public schools and charter networksachieve comparably robust test scores, with lower

per-student spending and oen without theextended dayextended year paradigm.

Dozens o open-admission public schools andcharters, in New York and the nation, demonstrateongoing, dramatic success with high-need, high-poverty students. Some have progressive educa-tional policies; others hew to a more traditional,structured, prescriptive style. Established national

GOING NATIONAL

Continued on p.28

We are so desperate or any little inkling o success


27/47


aking ItLocal

The Comprehensive Community

Revitalization Program (CCRP), which

ran from 1992 through 1998, concen-

trated its efforts on struggling South

Bronx neighborhoods along the Cross

Bronx Expressway that had since the

1960s and 1970s been battling de-

population, arson, declining business

activity and job loss. While HCZ has

made intensive investments in pre-K

through 12th-grade education, neigh-

borhood outreach and preventive

care at the family level, CCRPs ap-

proach focused more on employment

assistance, health care, economic

development and overall quality of

life to help reverse years of blight and

poverty in this part of the city.

According to a 2006 assessment

report published by the program,

CCRPwhose founders were linked

to the Surdna Foundation and the

Local Initiatives Support Corporation

(LIFC)relied on the philosophy

that in order to achieve success and

longevity, redevelopment had to start

at the ground level with local support.

The best way to do this, the leaders

believed, was through community

development corporations (CDCs). The

program partnered with four South

Bronx CDCsthe MBD Community

Housing Corporation, the Mid-Bronx

Senior Citizens Council, the Mount

Hope Housing Company and Phipps

CDC-West Farmsto lead revitalization

efforts in each neighborhood,

building off of what the CDCs had

already managed to accomplish in

housing production and property

management and broadening

those roles to include addressing the

economic and social needs of their

neighborhoods.

CCRP managed to raise $10

million from 21 funding groups,

according to a 1998 final assessment

report by the Organization and

Management Group. Successes

include the development of six parks,

the conversion of the prostitution-

plagued Jerome Motel in Mount

HopeMorris Heights into a supportive

housing project for homeless HIV-

positive individuals (renamed

Jerome Court, and opened in 2000)

and a predevelopment grant that

helped lead to the construction of

the New Horizons Shopping Center,

which brought close to 350 jobs to

Crotona Park East. While it was not

free from trial and error through

its demonstration phase, CCRP, in

its 2006 assessment report, said

that by the end of the program,

the neighborhoods emerged from

the initiative vastly enriched and

energized, and the participating

CDCs ended with more staff, more

money and a more comprehensive

plan to address the social and

economic needs of its residents.

Community Change for Youth

Development (CCYD), launched in

1995 bythe nonprofit Public/Private

Ventures (PPV), aimed at providing

young people from sites in five cities

across the countryAustin, Texas;

Kansas City, Mo.; Savannah, Ga.; St.

Petersburg, Fla;and, in New York

City, the Lower East Side and Staten

Islands adjacent Stapleton and

Clifton neighborhoods (considered

one site) with resources and

support programs that tried to

steer youth away from crime and

joblessness and toward skill-building

and future goals. Unlike HCZ, its

efforts were concentrated almost

exclusively on developing programs

that met the needs of teenagers

during the nonschool hours: after-

school programs, regular support

and guidance from neighborhood

adults, homework help, and summer

employment programs. It worked by

partnering an existing and credible

lead agency, such as a government

agency or a nonprofit community

In its 15 years of

existence, the

Harlem Childrens

Zone has earned

national recognition

for its comprehensive

approach to reversing

generational poverty.

But Harlem is not the

only neighborhood

in America where

a focused, holistic

attempt has been

made to reduce

poverty.

Philadelphias Penn Alexander

School. Photo: UPenn.

Anti-povertyprograms beyondthe Zone


28/47


institution like the YMCA, with a

neighborhood council composed of

local residents to design and guide

programs that best met the needs

of each site, according to a 2002

report by the founders.

In its six years working with these

cities, CCYD yielded some concrete

results in the target neighborhoods.

In St. Petersburgs Childs Park neigh-

borhood, the CCYD framework lived

on through the Childs Park Youth

Initiative Council. The lead agency,

the Pinellas County Juvenile Welfare

Board, helped the council garner

attention and support from local

government for neighborhood

needs. This led to major improve-

ments in and around the Childs

Park Recreation Center: increased

police presence, progress in plan-

ning for a long-awaited swim-

ming pool and greater input from

residents in overall management of

the recreation center. At the policy

level, the initiative yielded lessons

going forward on the dos and donts

for creating positive youth develop-

ment programs at the neighbor-

hood level.

In 1996 the Neighborhood

Improvement Initiative (NII),

a $20 million-plus project supported

by the William and Flora Hewlett

Foundation, set out to reduce poverty

in three sites across Californias Bay

Area (Mayfair, West Oakland and

East Palo Alto) that were geographi-

cally compact and moderately

populated and that shared char-

acteristics like high unemployment,

high crime and low high-school

graduation rates.

By partnering a local community

foundation with a local lead agen-

cy at each site to help create and

manage neighborhood improve-

ment plans that drew heavily from

resident involvement, NII attempted

to strengthen and bring together

anti-poverty efforts already in place

in these communities, according

to a 2007 assessment report. On the

whole, experts in the community

change field deemed NII a disap-

pointment because end results in

each of the three communities did

not match the scale envisioned by

stakeholders, given the substantial

financial backing the initiatives

received. Nonetheless, at least

one successful project managed

to bloom from the West Oakland

initiative after some reorganization:

The McClymonds Youth and Family

Center runs a host of after-school

programs mainly geared toward

college readiness, youth leader-

ship, physical and mental health,

and family support. The center is

located in the McClymonds Educa-

tional Complex, which also houses

two small high schools that require

all their seniors to apply to college.

Housed in an adjacent building, the

complexs clinician-staffed Chappell

Hayes Health Center provides to past

and present McClymonds students

and their siblings ages 12 to 21 a

range of physical and mental health

services free of charge, courtesy of

the Childrens Hospital of Oakland.

Lack of jobs, rising crime, failing

schools and a general decay of re-

sources and infrastructure had been

taking its toll on West Philadelphians

for decades. But not until the murder

of a University of Pennsylvania

graduate student just off campus

in 1996 did the citys largest private

employer decide to take action.

TheWest Philadelphia Initiatives,

designed, led and mainly funded

by the university, comprised a heav-

ily marketed campaign that drew

on university resources, student par-

ticipation, local community groups

and government to spark what

organizers hoped would be fast,

noticeable improvements in several

key areas: infrastructure and public

safety (streetlight installation in a

123-block area, for example), hous-

ing options, local retail and devel-

opment activity, and the quality

of local public schools. (The Penn

Alexander School, a joint project of

the university and the Philadelphia

School District, opened its doors

in 2001.)

The university, through a top-

down structure starting with the

presidents office, delegated each

component of the initiative to a

different university entity while hold-

ing monthly meetings with neigh-

borhood representatives and civic

groups to share information about

current plans and to hear and ad-

dress local community concerns,

according to a 2004 case study by

the university.

The university has agreed

to provide an annual subsidy

of $1,000 per student for Penn

Alexanders 700 pre-K through

eighth graders, to cover operating

costs (up to $700,000 annually) for

10 years. Penns Graduate School of

Education plays a major role in staff

and curriculum development and

continues to offer support programs

to Penn Alexander and other local

public schools, according to the

case study. Children enroll in Penn

Alexander not through a lottery

system, as is the case with the

HCZs charter schools, but instead

based on how close they live to

the school. This helps ensure a

connection between the school and

the community, the study states.

According to the universitys case

study, at least 70 percent of Penn

Alexanders primary-grade students

show proficiency in reading and

math on standardized tests.

Rachel Dodakian


29/47


programs like the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP),Achievement First and the Opportunity Charter Net-work, as well as individual local charter schools like Bos-tons Roxbury Prepand the Bedord Stuyvesant CharterSchool or Excellence in Brooklyn, achieve comparableresults without the vast HCZ network o social sup-portsor the HCZs copious fnancial resources.

Te success o these schools and programs does notdiminish HCZs work. Rather, they are alternative modelsthat oen deliver similar gains or ar less money, goingto the heart o the challenge in designing new responsesto poverty. Does urban poverty have a single cure? Ordo dierent models, with unique approaches, have theirplace? And are great schools enough to tackle p

Hope or Hype in Harlem? City Limits Magazine

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