Promising findings for the Netter Center's university-assisted community school partnerships

• In a 2008 survey given to K-8 After School Program students at Lea, West, Huey, Drew, and Sayre:

  o  94% feel that there is at least one thing they are really good at

  o  90% of students feel that the after school program has helped them to finish their homework

  o  87% of students feel that the program has helped them to learn things that help them do better in school

            o  77% feel safe after school.

• Academic Growth Plans (AGP) are a new but central component of the College Access and Career Readiness Program.  Students’ AGPs often focus on one or two subjects in which they most need to improve.  For the 70 Sayre students participating, from the first to third marking period in 2007-08:
  

o 72% increased at least one letter grade in one subject area

o 39% increased at least two letter grades in one subject area

o 42% increased at least one letter grade in two subject areas.

• Sayre teachers completed surveys for the 70 students enrolled in Netter Center College & Career programs.  Of those students needing improvement:

o  71% improved their behavior in terms of getting along well with other students

o  70% of students improved their classroom behavior

o  68% improved their academic performance

o  68% improved behavior in terms of participating in class

o  63% made improvement in completing satisfactory homework.

• Out of the 19 seniors in College and Career programming:

o  91% graduated on time
o  68.4% are enrolled in a two- or four-year college
o  15.7% improved have secured a full-time job upon graduation.

• Sayre High School made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) according to NCLB measures, by meeting 13 out of 13 AYP targets in 2006-07.  This includes attendance rates, test participation, and academic performance on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA).  Sayre is one of only five neighborhood high schools (of a total of >30 city-wide) that made AYP in 2007, making progress along with many of the city’s magnet schools.  Specifically, student attendance increased from 75% to 85% from the 2005-06 to 2006-07 school year.

• In 2006-07, among Sayre’s first graduating class of 80 students, 71 graduated (90%); 40 out of the 71 enrolled in post-secondary education; 2007 graduates received more than $50,000 in scholarships as a result of the Penn-Sayre partnership (including from the Palmer Foundation; Mural Arts Program; Young Business Leaders; National Youth Leadership Forum).

• The Math Chair at West Philadelphia High School reports, “The addition of the Saturday enrichment program through the West Philadelphia High Community School (WPHCS) has had immediate and impressive results on the achievement of a core group of students…. As a result of the Saturday program, these students are active learners and engage with the material in ways that are not observed during the regular school day.”  Specifically, students participate in math and reading enrichment with community school staff, who use PSSA prep materials in addition to Study Island, a computer based program directly linked to the PSSA.  The Math Chair reports that the students in this program now have an average Math score of 72.3% on the Study Island program, versus the school-wide average of 66.7% and the statewide average of 66.1%.  Reading scores have also increased.

• In a 2007 survey of Sayre students in the Neuroscience Pipeline program, 73% reported that the program increased their motivation to apply to college; 60% felt strongly that the program increased their ability to recognize serious medical and neurological diseases; 47% felt strongly that they had developed mentor relationships. Following the program, two students each summer (2006-08) have participated in the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine.

• There are approximately 120-150 regular participants in Sayre's Family Fitness Nights twice a week.  In a 2008 survey, 95% of respondents said that the program has led them to eat healthier and exercise more.  100% report feeling satisfied with the program.

• The Individualized Reading Program has been developed in the Linguistics Department at Penn. The 75 Drew Elementary students who participated in this Program with undergraduate tutors from ABCS courses (2001-04) all showed improvement in standardized reading scores from pre- to post- tests, approaching national averages in decoding skills. As a result of this program, there was a 50% improvement in the number of proficient readers in the 3rd grade from 2003 to 2006.

• Since the mid-1990s, Penn Environmental Studies courses have been engaged in a lead reduction study that links Penn students to work at local public schools on education and outreach on lead.  The City of Philadelphia’s archives revealed that the area surrounding Shaw Middle School, the first site of the Netter Center’s Lead Exposure Risk Reduction Project, showed one of the highest reductions in blood lead levels of any region in the city.
  
  

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• The University of Pennsylvania was selected as one of three schools in the country to receive the Presidential Award for General Community Service from the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) in their second annual Honor Roll.  Selected out of more than 500 institutions, Penn was recognized for its overall efforts in community service and service-learning.  The Corporation’s citation highlighted, “The University of Pennsylvania is an exemplar for its outstanding commitment to leveraging university resources to solve real world problems in their local community and beyond…. One strong and long-term project, coordinated through Penn’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships, is the development and support of community schools in the neighborhood surrounding the university.  Community schools provide an array of educational, health, athletic, cultural, and other programs to the community…. Penn faculty teach more than 50 courses in the community. In addition, the Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative…. continues to expand from one school community in 1995 to 22 schools and 10,000 students currently” (2008).
• The School District of Philadelphia honored the partnership between Sayre High School and the Netter Center with a Best Practice for Effective Community Partnership Award (2008).
• Sayre was honored as one of three school recipients of the Coalition for Community Schools’ National Award for Excellence (2007). 
• The Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative (UNI) was recognized as the best year-round youth internship program by Work Ready Philadelphia, a program of the Philadelphia Youth Network (2007).
• Sayre students in a Medical Intake Course presented with Penn Nurse Practitioner students at the National Pediatric Nursing Conference and twice received First Prize for Research (2006 & 2008).  [From 2005-08, Sayre students—trained and monitored by Nurse Practitioner students—evaluated a total of 177 after school children: six were identified as having linear growth failure and 40 were identified as at risk for type 2 diabetes; Penn nursing partners made proper family and primary care notifications for these students.]
• The W.T. Grant Foundation Youth Development Prize, selected by the National Academies, was awarded to the university-assisted community school program for its “high-quality, evidence-based collaborative efforts that generate significant advances in knowledge while increasing the opportunities for young people to move successfully through adolescence with ample support and care” (2003).
• The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recognized the Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative as one of four model programs for improving childhood nutrition (2003).