CUNY Master Plan 2012-2016

THE CUNY MASTER PLAN 2012-2016
in September 2011, it was serving about 1,800 students in partnership with 62 NYC public high schools,
and by 2016 it expects to serve 3,000 students.
Graduate NYC! College Readiness and Success
In August 2010, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded New York City $3 million over three
years for the Graduate NYC! College Readiness and Success Initiative. Bringing together the resources of
the Mayor’s Office, the NYC DOE, The City University of New York, several city agencies, and an extensive
group of local community-based organizations, Graduate NYC! is committed to the goal of significantly
increasing the number of CUNY graduates by 2020. Each stakeholder shares the belief that
improving high school and college outcomes for all students is imperative to the city’s long-term health
and economic stability, and that they must work together for either to succeed.
In 2020 the city will hold its major education institutions accountable for the following:
• Increase the percentage of high school graduates meeting college readiness standards from 38 percent
(of 2010 graduates) to 67 percent; Increase the percentage of high school graduates going
directly to college by 21 percent;
• Three-year graduation rates for CUNY associate degree students will increase from 10 percent for students
entering in 2006 to 25 percent for students entering in 2017, and the four-year graduation rate will
increase from 15 percent of students entering in 2005 to 40 percent of students entering in 2016; and,
• Six-year graduation rates for CUNY baccalaureate students entering in 2014 will increase to 61 percent
(from 47 percent of students entering in 2003).
To achieve these ambitious goals, work is taking place both within and across the city’s education and
youth-serving institutions. Each college and each organization involved in this effort has significant work
to do to raise academic rigor, enhance advisement and student support services, measure and report
progress, scale up promising practices, and ultimately improve student outcomes.
Graduate NYC! provides an environment to facilitate CUNY’s work with the NYC DOE, to enhance
undergraduate education, and to advance CUNY’s national standing and leadership with regard to student
success. Neither CUNY nor the DOE can do any of this alone. The work expands on what has been
learned from programs such as College Now and At Home in College and must ultimately happen
through partnerships among colleges and secondary schools, enhancing access to, and successful completion
of, college.
To move this initiative forward CUNY will work with the DOE to:
• Develop a comprehensive action plan to better align CUNY and DOE programs and curriculum to
improve college readiness and success in reading, writing, and mathematics;
• Understand the impact of new state assessments, and develop protocols for using new Regents
Exams and/or the new national Common Core State Standards assessments to better diagnose students’
needs prior to graduation;
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