CUNY Master Plan 2012-2016

THE CUNY MASTER PLAN 2012-2016
CUNY and NYC public school administrators and faculty will work together to determine how existing
assessment tools can be used to provide more complete information about students’ college readiness by the
end of the 11th grade. This information will be used to place students in the appropriate 12th grade intervention.
A range of courses or activities designed by experts from DOE and CUNY will be offered to help prepare
students for success on both the CUNY Assessment Tests and in first-year courses. A professional development
component will allow English and mathematics faculty teaching in this project to meet regularly to discuss
curriculum and student work. Workshops and advisement services by high school guidance counselors
and college mentors will provide information about postsecondary education opportunities and benefits,
financial aid, and college entrance requirements. Students who demonstrate that they are already prepared
for college will instead be encouraged to take college-credit courses, through existing College Now partnerships,
with a focus on courses that align explicitly with CUNY’s new general education Common Core.
CUNY and Community Based Organizations Support
CUNY will also work with several Community Based Organizations (CBOs) to support those organizations’
college success initiatives. There are many CBO programs that build on a foundation of effective
strategies in youth development to help young New Yorkers transition to college. The CUNY team will
help these organizations build their capacity to support students more effectively through the college
admissions and enrollment processes, including helping these students understand what college readiness
is in order to maximize college access and retention efforts. CUNY will also provide pertinent data
and expert analysis of students’ academic progress through CUNY, and will facilitate conversations
around these reports so that CBO staff can develop a better understanding of how to use the data to
inform programming and practices.
Early College High Schools
CUNY’s network of 12 early college schools represents another type of partnership with the DOE that
helps students enter and complete college. These schools offer a carefully integrated curriculum that
allows students to graduate from high school having earned one to two years of transferable college
credit. Early results suggest that these schools are effective in supporting students who have been historically
underrepresented in higher education. For example, in 2011, 95 percent of the students at Hostos-
Lincoln Academy in the South Bronx graduated on time, and 40 percent earned both an associate degree
and their high school diploma. Approximately 45 percent of these students entered ninth grade below
grade-level proficiency in English and math, and roughly 45 percent were English language learners. The
newest early college school, P-TECH, emphasizes both college and career readiness through closer alignment
with industry and higher education. It is the result of a partnership among the NYC DOE, CUNY’s
New York City College of Technology, and IBM. Focused on computer science, P-TECH students will
have opportunities to explore various careers through internships and mentoring provided by IBM and
other New York companies. Graduates will be first in line for jobs at IBM.
CUNY has agreed to work with the DOE on three additional 9-14 College and Career schools. The first
will open in September 2013 and the others will follow in 2014. Each school will have an industry partner.
The health care industry is being considered for the school opening in 2013.
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