Educational Alliance: Empowering Families Through Education

1. Founded in 1889 as a settlement house on the Lower East Side of Manhattan • 1951: First NYC-subsidized child care for low income mothers • 1965: One of the first Head Start pilot programs • 1996: One of the first Early Head Start pilot programs • Now serves a diverse group of 50,000 New Yorkers annually across 16 locations • $34 million budget and 700 employees implement 38 programs Educational Allianceoverview

2. Is place-based and anchored in our community • Offers a wide range of programs that integrate education, social services, arts and recreation • Strives to nourish the total person, strengthen family connections and build inclusive communities • Recognizes that everyone has the same basic human needs • Provides opportunity and promotes learning with and from neighbors Educational Allianceoverview

3. Education offers everyone, regardless of background, the opportunity to transcend difficult circumstances and pursue higher aspirations that benefit them and their communities • The vision of the Educational Alliance is to help families achieve economic self-sufficiency by making a college education available and achievable for low-income adults and their children Education at the core of our 2G work

4. Education and income are closely intertwined • College graduates earn over 60% more than high school graduates over their working life (Baum & Ma, 2007) • Only 10% of those with a Bachelor’s degree are poor, compared to 30% of those with a high school diploma or less (Redd, 2011) • Increasingly, higher education is necessary for many jobs • In 2018, 62% of jobs in the U.S. will require educational attainment beyond high school (OECD, 2010) Education at the core of our 2G work

5. We seek to bolster Head Start impacts and reduce “third grade fade” by enhancing supports for families • Our settlement house approach offers a variety of supports to families • We engage parents and caregivers of Early Head Start & Head Start children in continuing their own education. Improving parents’ education helps them support their children’s learning • Our program positions parents as child’s primary teacher • Staff encourage and support parents to advocate for child’s education Education at the core of our 2G work

6. When we make it possible for parents and children to access higher education, we foster a community in which families are healthier and more economically stable, and parents are better able to support and encourage the education of their children, we promote positive educational and economic results Education at the core of our 2G work

7. Interdisciplinary approach (education, social services, family support, health/nutrition) • Developed in partnership with the City University of New York/Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) College Access and Success Program

8. Program components: • Early childhood education • Wrap-around social services • Family Literacy • Adult education • English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) • GED/High School Equivalency • College (including advisement) • Financial Education (Community Financial Resources) College Access and Success Program

9. JPMorgan Chase – Founding Funder • Federal Head Start (early childhood and wrap-around services) • Lower Manhattan Development Corporation • NYS Education Department • Annie E. Casey Foundation funders

10. Convened External Task Force to inform program from the start • Formative Evaluation: NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development • Partnership forged at the beginning of program implementation allowed for: • Collaboration on logic model and theory of change • Collaboration on data system development Strategic experimentation:A work in progress

11. Pilot Year 1: Describing the program • What is the program and how is it being implemented? • How satisfied are families? • How might the program be improved to better meet the needs of families? Strategic experimentation:A work in progress

12. Pilot Year 2: Improving the program • What changes have been made since the first pilot year? • Reaching its target population? • To what extent are families participating? • How well is the program functioning? Strategic experimentation:A work in progress

13. Participants are overwhelmingly positive about their experience • Partnership with BMCC is central and productive • Data suggest that as a result of the program, even participants in the early stages of their education are engaging in behaviors that may impact their children’s educational success such as reading to their children, helping them with homework, and communicating with their teachers Formative evaluation: key strengths

14. Expand and refine recruitment and engagement practices, particularly among parents who are ready or close to ready for college • Support unexpected diversity in participants’ backgrounds, goals, and levels of education • Added ESOL Level 0 (zero) and high-level off-site “bridge” ESOL classes at BMCC • Hired full time college advisor Program changes and growth

15. In the current academic year our 2G program serves 53% of Early Head Start/ Head Start families • Year 1: 129 unduplicated families • Year 2: 225 unduplicated families • Year 3 (to date): 267unduplicated families • Year 1: One parent enrolled in college • Year 3: 20 parents enrolled in college Program changes and growth

16. Persistence for parents in their own education is critical • Exploring incentives • Balance short and long-term outcomes • Improved economic security can, in short term, trump parent education • Different parents may have different short-term outcomes but the same long-term outcomes for their family Lessons learned

17. Stay the course with current model and work to expand to offer services for families when children leave Head Start for elementary school • Continued learning, including new partners through Annie E. Casey Foundation and Ascend • Impact evaluation: Connect outcome data on children and parents • NYU Steinhardt to research specific context of our 2G program: place-based with high immigrant population • Influence models, especially Head Start What’s next