Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ORG
Hope or
Hype in
Harlem?
From Oprah to President
Obama, people think Geoffrey
Canada's Harlem Children's
Zone has found the way for
America to fight poverty.
There's just one question:
Does it work?
Plus:
• Who’s Afraid of Charter Schools?
• Commitment, Connections and Cash
• Going Local Goes National
• A Modest ‘Miracle’
• Read. Think. Do.
CHAPTERS
The Man of the Hour 5 Shaping Success 16
“We will find the money “Failure is not permitted,
to do this because we can’t because funding is tied to
afford not to.” success, not failure.”
Vol. 34, No. 1
March 2010 The Great Escape 9 Going National 25
“If you hit 65 percent of “We are so desperate for any
the population, that’s the little inkling of success …”
City Limits is published bi-monthly support or contact 212-614-5398 tipping point.”
by the Community Service Society for development opportunities. An Act of Faith 34
of New York (CSS). “So you and I, we must
For Bulk Magazine Orders: visit
City Limits www.citylimits.org/subscribe or succeed … in this crusade,
105 East 22nd Street, Suite #901 contact City Limits’ subscription this holy deed.”
New York, NY 10010 customer service at 1-877-231-7065
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CityLimits.org features daily news, SIDEBARS
investigative features and resources Magazine Distribution: For Retail
in the city’s five boroughs. For more and Newsstand Distribution, Canada’s Provinces 10
than 160 years, CSS has been on the contact 718-875-5491 or e-mail: An inventory of the Harlem Children’s Zone’s initiatives
cutting edge of public policy innova- distribute@citylimits.org. By Maria Muentes
tions to support poor New Yorkers in
their quest to be full participants in Sponsorship and Advertising:
In the Zone 13
the civic life of the nation’s largest city Contact: advertise@citylimits.org or
and tackle poverty on many fronts. visit www.citylimits.org/advertise. The physical footprint of the Harlem Children’s Zone
Letters to the Editor: We welcome Jobs and Marketplace: The Charter Challenge 17
letters, articles, press releases, ideas Submit job listings, calendar events,
and submissions. Please send them marketplace listings and announce-
The pros and conflicts of a schooling revolution
to magazine@citylimits.org. ments at www.citylimits.org/post. By Helen Zelon
www.citylimits.org 1
Editor's Note
It is hard not to be impressed with Geoffrey Canada.
Even before he began the Harlem Children's Zone, Canada had dedicated
his life not just to battling but to defeating poverty--to getting results where
others had failed.
But there's
h ' a problem bl when
h admiration
d i i turns iinto d duplication.
li i The
h
impatience sewn by America's past policy failures has amplified the allure of
the Children's Zones early successes. As Canada is the first to state, the
experiment 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've
yet to graduate a high school class. The schools have achieved much, but not
without significant bumps along the way. The impact of the larger model of
HCZ'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. Some
isolate one part of the mix, like the charter schools, as the only necessary
p
element for replicatingg the p
project
j elsewhere. Others p payy little attention to
the unique neighborhood dynamics and financial resources that HCZ has
thrived 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 copy
Canada's model will fail, reflect poorly on his good work, undermine yet
another federal attempt to eliminate poverty and leave thousands in
economic isolation. On the pages that follow, Helen Zelon takes a hard look
at what we and don't know about what Geoffrey Canada has accomplished
in Harlem, and what it might mean for a national agenda.
-Jarrett Murphy
4 Is the Promise Real? City Limits / Vol. 34 / No. 1
Is the
Promise
Real?
The Harlem Children’s Zone becomes
a template for national change
www.citylimits.org 5
“We are launching Promise Neighborhoods
to build on Geoffrey Canada’s successes in
Harlem with a comprehensive approach to
ending poverty,” the President has said.
www.citylimits.org 7
8 Is the Promise Real? City Limits / Vol. 34 / No. 1
THE GREAT ESCAPE
“If you hit 65 percent of the population, that’s the tipping point.”
www.citylimits.org 9
Canada’s Provinces
Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone encompasses an
array of programs serving different needs and populations
The Harlem Children’s Zone’s headquarters anchors the intersection of 125th Street and Madison Avenue.
Charter Schools but will eventually have grades K The Three-Year-Old Journey
Promise Academies through 12. A Saturday workshop for parents
Admission is mainly by lottery, whose children will enter pre-K
conducted when students are 3 Saturday Academy the following year. The program
years old; admission to the school Gives extra support in English emphasizes developmental
includes an invitation to enroll in and math to Promise Academy stages and language skills.
Harlem Gems, HCZ’s intensive pre- students.
kindergarten program. Students Harlem Gems
have an extended school day and Pre-K for 4-year-olds with a 4-to-1
year, with classes running until Early Childhood student-teacher ratio. The re-
early August. Promise Academy I, Programs ported expenditure per student is
launched in 2004, will eventually The Baby College $13,500, twice that of Head Start.
cover kindergarten through 12th An early intervention program
grade but currently has students for expectant parents and
in grades K through 6, 9 and 10. parents of children up to 3 years Targeting Youth
The school’s elementary, middle old. The nine-week parenting Harlem Peacemakers
and high school divisions oper- workshop emphasizes early- In conjunction with AmeriCorps,
ate separately, each with its own childhood development and this program trains college-age
principal. Promise Academy II, reading to infants and children, interns to offer in-classroom sup-
located several blocks away and while discouraging corporal port to young children, supervise
operating since 2005, currently punishment. them during the school day,
has kindergarten to fourth grade provide after-school program-
www.citylimits.org 11
Canada conceived an alternate pipeline, a cradle-
to-college “conveyor belt” that would insulate
Harlem’s children from the ills that long plagued
the community—one that would, once a child was
in the pipeline, guide that child inexorably, inevitably,
toward high school graduation and into college.
138
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689 Lenox Avenue The Harlem Children’s Zone covers 97 square blocks, from 116th Street to 143rd
Street and from Madison Avenue to Frederick Douglass Boulevard.
9. Family Support Center
207-211 Lenox Avenue
15. Midtown Family Place 18. Promise Academy II
10. Harlem Gems (not shown) 2005 Madison Avenue
41 West 117th Street 457 West 51st Street
19. Truancy Prevention
11. Harlem Gems Head Start 16. Promise Academy I Upper (Project CLASS)
60 West 117th Street Elementary, Middle School 309 West 134th Street
& High School
12. Harlem Peacemakers — South 35 East 125th Street 20. TRUCE Media Project
2031 Fifth Avenue 147 St. Nicholas Avenue
17. Promise Academy I
13. Harlem Peacemakers — North Lower Elementary 21. TRUCE Fitness and
1916 Park Avenue 175 West 134th Street Nutrition Center
147 St. Nicholas Avenue
14. Learn to Earn
1916 Park Avenue
www.citylimits.org 13
the College Success program, which offers high school se- and Madison Avenue. In 2000, the area was home to
niors at six area schools workshops on college admission around 70,000 people.
and financial aid and helps students secure internships Physical expansion was supported by exponential
and community service placements. financial growth: The annual budget has grown from $6
Adults who live within the Zone’s boundaries gain million in 1994 to $74 million in 2008. In fiscal 2007,
access to community-building resources; more than HCZ paid $7.2 million in salaries and wages. Canada
two dozen city-owned properties have become tenant- earned $494,000. George Khadoun, the chief operating
owned co-ops through HCZ-led organizing, and HCZ- officer, earned $217,600; development director Mindy
supplied tax guidance has secured millions in tax credits Miller was paid $266,000, or slightly more than both
and rebates for local residents, the organization says. Promise Academy principals combined. Consultants
Community-wide HCZ initiatives harness local hospital billed for more than $1.4 million. The chess tutor received
and social-service resources to fight asthma and obesity; $66,000 to $75,000 a year; $105,000 went to Wyzant
provide medical, dental and mental-health services for Tutoring, a national tutor-placement service; and the
Promise Academy students; and aim to keep struggling organization spent $175,000 on travel. The Zone’s in-kind
families intact—with their children out of foster care. support for the Promise Academy I (which leases its
They are all part of the Zone’s score of programs, which space, unlike Promise Academy II, which is located in a
employ a staff of 1,500 and involve about 8,000 local public school building) slashes the school’s rental costs
youth at a per capita cost of $5,000 a year. from an estimated $35 per square foot in 2003 to $2.70
per square foot.
According to Canada’s tipping point theory, once HCZ’s physical presence is easy to see. Take the inter-
Harlem reaches a 65 percent level of success—academic, section of Madison and 125th. On one corner, an empty
economic, social and health—future success and academ- shell of a building languishes. On another, there’s a row of
ic achievement will be the natural outcome. At that point, shops—some vacant, others full—topped by the derelict
what Canada characterizes as a positive “contamination” Mason and Trowel ballroom. But directly across the
will take place: Everyone will begin to benefit from HCZ, street, dominating the block and the local skyline with six
whether he or she is part of the schools, the after-school spanking new stories of steel, glass and brick, sits the Har-
and youth employment programs, the community devel- lem Children’s Zone headquarters, a $44 million structure
opment efforts and the myriad other projects that exist that exudes both permanence and wealth.
in the Zone—or not. That tipping point, and the osmosis
of benefits from the HCZ reports that its programs serve more than 17,000
few to the many, has local residents. Its schools enroll about 1,200 students—
CITYLIMITS.ORG
been part of Canada’s a fraction of the number of children in the neighborhood
thinking for nearly 30 but still substantial for an aspect of the HCZ that, at
A video report on the HCZ
years. It is, however, the outset, was an afterthought. While the Promise
from Jay DeDapper. Check
not a fixed target. Academies and the early-childhood programs that
out www.citylimits.org/HCZ
“There’s no known feed them now command the greatest public attention,
science to support 65 the Harlem Children’s Zone didn’t originally envision
[percent],” says Anne running its own schools.
Kubisch, director of the Aspen Institute’s Roundtable on Instead, back in 1994, the weight was squarely on social
Community Change, who has studied HCZ and other services; schools were out of the picture. “We had com-
place-based initiatives. “It’s not like there’s scientific evi- mitted ourselves to not going into that business in the
dence that if you hit 65 percent of the population, that’s early ‘90s,” says longtime treasurer Mitch Kurz. “We didn’t
the tipping point. But that’s their theory.” want to have to deal with the old [Board of Education]
Canada began putting the theory into practice in 1994 bureaucracy.” Schools meant risk: If the program quality
with community centers and a blocked-off weekday “play suffered, Kurz says, “the brand would be attached to some-
street” that revived a drug-steeped, bullet-scarred block thing mediocre, and that would hurt the brand and hurt
of West 144th Street. Today, that same block houses the our ability to make money” to support the programs.
Countee Cullen Community Center, a teen center, and a Working with the local schools in the 1990s meant
nursery school, all under HCZ auspices. Since 1994, the wrangling with local school boards, which were variously
Zone has grown from 24 to 97 square blocks of central indebted to, or controlled by, local politicians. “Geoff
Harlem, in a rough rectangle from 116th Street up to Canada was very soured on the inability of the public
143rd Street, bounded by Frederick Douglass Boulevard school system to educate Harlem children, or children
www.citylimits.org 15
SHAPING SUCCESS
“Failure is not permitted, because funding is tied to success, not failure.”
Students in the Harlem Children’s Zone achieve the tions. But the HCZ schools are simply too new to be able
results they do, Canada says, because they invest more: to measure success in the vocabulary of graduation or
They invest more actual time in the classroom, with college enrollment—no students have yet graduated from
a far longer school day and a school year that begins the Promise Academy’s high school, so there’s no gradua-
in September and ends in early August. All Promise tion rate to discuss. Regents scores from 2009 are encour-
Academy students are in school about 60 percent longer aging but preliminary, as only one cohort of students has
than average public school students. Struggling students taken the exams. Nearly 500 young adults who partici-
can spend twice as many hours in school as the average pated in nonschool HCZ programs are now in college,
kid—in class and in tutoring or in small-group before- but not much is known about that group.
and after-school instruction. HCZ’s corporate and school Instead, at the Promise Academies, success has an ex-
leaders say they hold each child to high standards and plicit benchmark: “We are judged by the New York State
expect teachers to do “whatever it takes” to achieve tests,” says HCZ spokesperson Marty Lipp. “We literally
success. And the charters invest more money per child live or die by that test.”
per year—nearly $19,000 in 2008—than the $14,525 the Like all other public school students, those at the Prom-
city spends on children who attend general-education ise Academies take statewide assessments every year. The
programs in traditional open-enrollment public schools. Promise Academy schools have recently posted strong
The financial investment starts well before the first results in math: In 2009, 87 percent of Promise Academy
formal day of kindergarten. The Harlem Children’s Zone eighth-graders scored at or above grade level, compared
spends almost as much per child in its Harlem Gems with 61 percent overall in District 5. On the state math
preschool, $13,500, as the city spends on a typical older test, 91 percent of Asian students and 86 percent of white
student. Gems tykes are carefully cultivated and groomed students citywide scored at or above grade level, as did
for school; they’re in the Promise Academy pipeline a mere 62 percent of black students in the city’s schools.
already, because Harlem Children’s Zone planners hold Since the Promise Academy is 91 percent black, its high
kindergarten lotteries when a cohort of students is 2 or scores suggest a far narrower racial achievement gap than
3 years old—effectively holding seats until they are old might otherwise be expected.
enough to attend kindergarten. In addition, HCZ spends On the 2009 English-language arts (ELA) test, 57 per-
$5,000 per child each year for after-school and extra- cent of Promise Academy eighth-graders met or exceeded
curricular programs for students who don’t attend the grade-level standards, compared with 46 percent in
Promise Academies but live within the Harlem Children’s District 5 at large and 50 percent of black students in New
Zone. Some of the money goes to direct payment of York City. While HCZ students' scores exceed city aver-
middle school children, for good grades and participation ages for black students, a substantial and significant race
in HCZ programs. gap persists: Citywide, 76 percent of both white and Asian
The school day begins at Promise Academy I and II at eighth-graders scored at or above grade level. (Promise
8 a.m., even for the youngest students. At Harlem Gems, Academy eighth-graders bested their District 5 counter-
the lottery admission pre-K program that feeds into the parts in 2007 and 2008 on math and English, as well.)
Promise Academies, the day stretches from 8 a.m. to 4 In April 2009, Harvard economists Roland Fryer and
p.m. After-school programs, which include 4- and 5-year- Will Dobbie released a study asserting that “the Harlem
olds, run until 6 or 7 p.m. There’s Saturday school every Children’s Zone is enormously effective at increasing the
weekend, and some teachers and students meet as early as achievement of the poorest minority children,” based
7 a.m. for intensive test preparation. on their analysis of 2007 state test score data. In middle
“Every single child has to make it,” says Shana Brodnax, school, they documented gains that “reverse the black-
senior manager of early-childhood programs at the HCZ. white achievement gap in mathematics.” Grade school
“It’s an entirely no-excuses-accepted policy that takes an al- results are even stronger, Fryer and Dobbie say, and “close
most incomprehensible amount of resources and support.” the racial achievement gap in both subjects [math and
“Failure is not permitted,” vowed Canada, speaking to a English-language arts].”
public gathering in Springfield, Mass., in November. “No
excuses. Failure is not permitted, because funding is tied Test scores are the single most powerful measure in the
to success, not failure.” city’s annual progress reports about each school. Yet both
In the world of education, success has many defini- the city’s Department of Education and New York State
www.citylimits.org 17
Above: David Rosen leads vocal Below: Veronica Thomas oversees a 10th-
practice in his and Clinton Moore’s grade global studies class. Teacher turnover
fourth-grade music class. at the HCZ schools has been significant.
www.citylimits.org 19
emphasized in media coverage is the stunning
rate of teacher turnover the Promise Acade-
mies have posted. In 2006-07, a third of Prom-
ise Academy I’s teachers left or were dismissed.
The year before 48 percent were fired or quit.
Only one of the original teachers is still with
the Promise Academy middle school.
Some teachers elected to leave, like those
who told City Limits that working with data
took precedence at the school over working
with children. Others were fired. One teacher,
who flew in from Hawaii to teach at the Prom-
ise Academy, was let go before her household
furnishings arrived by shipping container.
Efiom Ukoidemabia, the school’s former
math coach, stepped into a teaching role after
an instructor resigned, and was summarily
dismissed. “Before I was fired, I was never
observed in the classroom. I was never offered
feedback on my performance. There was no
paper trail, and there was no guidance. I was
given no chance to improve over time,” he
tells City Limits—all steps that would have
been in place if the school were bound by the
sort of union rules and contracts that charter
school proponents contend inhibit educa-
tional innovation.
On the afternoon City Limits was permitted
to visit the Promise Academy I school at Har-
lem Children’s Zone headquarters, the teach-
ers encountered were predominantly young;
about half had not taught school previously
in New York City (or elsewhere). Two came
to teaching via the New York City Teaching
Fellows program and Teach for America,
alternate-certification programs that bring
“The Harlem Children’s Zone bright, young college grads into the public
schools, with mixed long-term outcomes.
thinks about product value, just Classrooms were clean, bright and bare-
like they do at Apple, just like they bones modest: They were thinly supplied,
with little student-made artwork, writing
do at J. Crew. … A strong brand or other projects on display and limited
classroom resources like the libraries and
can bring financial assets—a manipulative materials often seen in public
promise of goods and services, school classrooms. Most often, students were
arranged in old-school rows of desks, with the
based on trust.” teacher’s desk at the front of the room, but the
instruction was often energetic and engaging:
In one fourth-grade music lesson, the teacher,
who had drawn a cartoon self-portrait
Above: Student Cheik Niang on the on a whiteboard before the lesson, wiped
recorder. Class sizes at the Zone’s schools away an ear in protest after a cacophonous,
are significantly smaller than at other enthusiastic recorder display. “Put the ear
neighborhood schools. Continued on p.23
1998: New York State Charter side-by-side. The John Reisenbach Education Secretary Margaret
Schools Act is passed under Gover- school’s charter is revoked because Spellings and Rep. Charles Rangel
nor George Pataki, authorizing the of poor standardized-test scores. tour Harlem Village Academy. Bush
opening and subsequent renewal declares, “We can see that No Child
of new schools but setting a limit of 2005: In his re-election campaign, Left Behind is working nationwide.”
100 schools statewide. Mayor Bloomberg pledges to elimi- The visit precedes National Charter
nate the cap on charter schools Schools Week. South Carolina Demo-
1999: Sisulu-Walker Charter School, and double the number of charter crat and House majority whip Rep.
New York State’s first, is established schools in NYC to 100 by 2009. P.S. James Clyburn visits Harlem Success
on West 115th Street. The John A. 861 Future Leaders Institute on West Academy in November, speaking
Reisenbach Foundation partners 122nd Street converts to a charter out in support of charter schools.
with the Learning Project, a non- school in July, and the Harlem
profit educational-management Link Charter School and Harlem 2008: St. Hope Leadership Acad-
organization, to found the John Children’s Zone Promise Academy emy on West 134th Street and
Reisenbach Charter School. II open in September. Harlem Success Academy 2, 3 and
4 open. Cindy McCain, wife of
2001: The Bush administration’s No 2006: Democracy Preparatory John McCain, visits Sisulu-Walker
Child Left Behind Act is passed, al- Charter School is founded on West in June to observe the school’s best
lowing students in poorly perform- 133rd Street by teacher Seth An- practices. “I chose to come here
ing public schools to enroll in char- drews. Harlem Success Academy, because of the school’s high record
ter schools and compelling failing the first of the Success Charter of achievement,” McCain notes.
schools to restructure, perhaps into Network that planned to expand In August, Bloomberg and Klein
charter schools. Harlem Day Charter to 40 schools over the next decade, announce the opening of 18 new
School is established by Sheltering is founded by former city council- charter schools in the fall, more
Arms Children’s Service and real- woman and education committee than the city has ever opened in
estate tycoon Benjamin V. Lambert. chair Eva Moskowitz, a reformer a single year, bringing the total
and adversary of the teacher’s number of NYC charters to 78, with
2003: KIPP STAR College Prep union, which she claims under- 24,000 students enrolled.
Charter School opens in Harlem. mined her bid for borough presi-
Former teacher and businesswom- dent in 2005. 2009: In July, police are called to
an Deborah Kenny founds the first P.S. 123, which houses Harlem
of three Harlem Village Academy 2007: Britain’s Prince Charles; his Success Academy, after movers
charter schools committed to wife Camilla; and British ambas- arrive with orders to make way for
“banishing bureaucracy.” Schools sador David Manning tour the the charter school’s expansion and
chancellor Joel Klein describes Harlem Children’s Zone in January, P.S. 123 teachers block the workers.
Kenny as a “star.” joined by Geoffrey Canada and Lt. After an hour-long standoff, DOE
Gov. David Paterson. Prince Charles officials declare there has been a
2004: The Harlem Children’s Zone speaks to school officials about “mistake in communications” and
Promise Academy I charter school incorporating the Harlem Children stop the move. In his bid for a third
opens. Leonard Goldberg, formerly Zone’s educational concepts into term, Bloomberg again pledges
an administrator at a Westchester his 16 UK foundations. After years to double the number of charter
County school, establishes Op- of pressure, state legislators vote schools in the city by creating 100
portunity Charter School on West in April to raise the charter school new schools—which would give
113th Street following the “inclusion cap to 200 with 50 of the new char- charters 100,000 school seats, or
model.” Its student body is roughly ters reserved for New York City. As nearly 10 percent of all public
half general-education students part of President Bush’s campaign school seats in New York City—
and half students with learning to pressure lawmakers to reau- by 2013.
disabilities who learn in classes thorize No Child Left Behind, Bush,
— Samia Shafi
www.citylimits.org 21
Class Size
Test Pattern
(students per eighth-grade English class)
On standardized tests in 2009, the Harlem Children’s Zone’s Choir Academy of Harlem
Promise Academy I fared well compared to most other schools Frederick Douglass Academy
in its upper Manhattan district (District 5), and rivaled city- and Manhattan District 5
statewide averages. Other charter schools in District 5 also
Knowledge & Power Prep IV
posted high marks. But there are significant differences between
the student bodies at the Promise Academy and the other Powell Middle School
schools to which it is compared. Thurgood Marshall Academy
KIPP STAR
(students scoring at
Eighth-Grade Math Scores or above grade level)
HCZ Promise Academy I
(%) 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
(%) 0 20 40 60 80 100
Frederick Douglass Academy
(%) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
(students scoring at
Eighth-Grade English Scores or above grade level)
(percentage of students
Limited English Proficiency deemed LEP)
KIPP Infinity
Harlem Village Academy
I.S. 195
KIPP STAR
Powell Middle School
Frederick Douglass Academy
Manhattan District 5
Democracy Prep
KIPP Infinity
New York State
Knowledge & Power Prep IV
Knowledge & Power Prep IV
Democracy Prep
Thurgood Marshall Academy
I.S. 286
HCZ Promise Academy I
Academy for Social Action
New York City
Acad. of Collaborative Education
Manhattan District 5
KIPP STAR
Choir Academy of Harlem
Knowledge & Power Prep II
Knowledge & Power Prep II
Choir Academy of Harlem
I.S. 195
Frederick Douglass Academy
Academy for Social Action
Thurgood Marshall Academy
I.S. 286
Harlem Village Academy
Acad. of Collaborative Education
HCZ Promise Academy I
Powell Middle School
(%) 0 20 40 60 80 100 (%) 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
www.citylimits.org 23
[for the schools] wanted to see results. These “restarting” the middle school in grade five.
gentlemen gave millions of dollars. The kids It also ended the practice of the middle
weren’t getting better. The responsibility, and school admissions lottery and began the
the critique, was to the teachers.” preschool lottery that determines eventual
Canada does not dispute this. Of the most enrollment in the Promise Academy. Neither
reluctant parent-participants, he says flatly, strategy would be permitted in conventional
“I bribe them.” Boxes of Pampers, open-enrollment schools.)
cases of Coke, free pizza din- As it closed the entrance to new kids, the
CITYLIMITS.ORG ners, tickets to ballgames, gift Promise Academy also ushered existing
certificates—“whatever it takes” students out the exit. Of the 100 eighth-
Details on the
to get parents engaged and into graders who were the inaugural Promise
President’s plan.
the schools. Canada relates how Academy middle school students—those who
More coverage at
he motivated competition in entered the school with the understanding
www.citylimits.org/HCZ
an ongoing anti-obesity initia- that they would continue through 12th grade
tive: Children who lost the most there—65 remained in the academy when
weight won a trip to Disney the board stopped enrollment. That May,
World in Orlando; winning staffers were they were hastily “graduated” and placed in
rewarded with a sojourn in the Bahamas. city and private high schools. Where the kids
Canada, in efforts to inspire students, ended up is not clear.
visited the school frequently, Klein says. “In “We don’t track them in the sense that we
middle school, when kids did their home- evaluate our own kids,” says HCZ spokes-
work, Geoff Canada would stand in the person Lipp, who couldn’t detail where that
auditorium with a roll of money and pay cohort went to high school or discuss their
them. Kids would be called up by name. ‘Oh, progress toward graduation. “We don’t track
you got X grade, here’s $20.’ He would call them as a group, like we would track our
up kids. Don’t forget—he’s not the principal. eighth-graders.” This division—“our” eighth-
And he’d hand out money. That’s what Oprah graders vs. the children who were once
doesn’t say.” Promise Academy eighth-graders—stands in
The conditions and demands took their sharp contrast to the oft repeated promise of
toll, on individual teachers and the schools the Promise Academy and the HCZ: Once a
themselves as they tried to build a culture child is in the HCZ pipeline, they’re secure
of success amid staggering turnover. “New and supported all the way through college.
teachers come in—12 new teachers, 12 Here, children who once were in are now out.
distinct cultures. It affects the gestalt. The In the fall of 2008, the Promise Academy
sum of the parts doesn’t equal the whole,” I midle school again accepted new students.
says Ukoidemabia. But instead of admitting sixth-graders, the
Attrition has lessened since 2008, a result, decision was made to start fresh with fifth
at least in part, of a dramatic move to revamp graders who came up from the Promise
the school’s focus. Academy lower grades, effectively controlling
the quality and previous education of
The tension between the teaching staff at students entering the middle school. The
Promise Academy I and the HCZ board came eighth-graders whose 2007 test score gains
to a tumultuous head in March 2007, when, inspired Fryer and Dobbie’s enthusiasm, just
after three years of consistently dismal test a year after the middle school hiatus went
scores, Canada elected to close enrollment into effect, are now in the Promise Academy
in the middle school for a year. No new high school. In 2014, 10 years after it opened
sixth-graders were to be admitted—a luxury its doors, the Promise Academy will finally
that an open-enrollment neighborhood reach its full K-12 enrollment.
school, which is by law obliged to educate all
youngsters within its catchment zone, could
never entertain. (The school also decided not
to admit sixth-graders the following year,
signs for those hoping to replicate the Harlem tional policies; others hew to a more traditional, other tests.
model elsewhere: There are curves in the road, structured, prescriptive style. Established national
Continued on p.28
www.citylimits.org 25
Taking It • The Comprehensive Community
Revitalization Program (CCRP), which
the conversion of the prostitution-
plagued Jerome Motel in Mount
www.citylimits.org 27
Continued from p.25 about birth rate and family structures, despite concerns
programs like the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), about data-gathering and incomplete counting in poor
Achievement First and the Opportunity Charter Net- communities. But current hard data are lacking, says
work, as well as individual local charter schools like Bos- Lisbeth Schorr, of the Washington-based Center for the
ton’s Roxbury Prep and the Bedford Stuyvesant Charter Study of Social Policy and a lecturer in social medicine
School for Excellence in Brooklyn, achieve comparable at Harvard. “What Geoffrey Canada has accomplished is
results without the vast HCZ network of social sup- to give people a reason to believe that you can put a lot
ports—or the HCZ’s copious financial resources. of things that have worked separately together and pro-
The success of these schools and programs does not duce better outcomes. He doesn’t have the data to show
diminish HCZ’s work. Rather, they are alternative models that. It’s an inspiration,” Schorr says. “The fact that they
that often deliver similar gains for far less money, going don’t have a lot of hard results hasn’t kept people from
to the heart of the challenge in designing new responses being inspired by it. He’s been so successful at convinc-
to poverty. Does urban poverty have a single cure? Or ing people it can be done that there’s no challenge for
do different models, with unique approaches, have their hard data.”
place? And are great schools enough to tackle poverty, or Even the Zone’s strongest academic supporters, Fryer
do neighborhoods need a broader array of resources? and Dobbie of Harvard, caution against extrapolating too
much, too quickly from the schools’ academic successes.
The two strands of HCZ—its social programs and its They write, “The Harlem Children’s Zone combines
schools—are supposed to work together to transform reform-minded charter schools with a web of community
central Harlem. But while state testing data and other services. … We cannot, however, disentangle whether
statistics—about attendance, poverty, spending and the communities coupled with high-quality schools drive
like—are accessible for the Promise Academy charter our results, or whether the high-quality schools alone are
schools, HCZ’s broader social programs, which were the enough to do the trick.” Of the more than 20 programs in
founding purpose of the Zone, are far more difficult to the Zone, the Harvard authors say, only two lend them-
assess objectively. Although some are 15 years old, the selves to statistical analysis.
impact of these programs is obscured by immaturity: The Oddly, in an era where accountability and metrics are
data are not yet comprehensive or ripe enough to dem- education reform and public policy watchwords, the lack
onstrate conclusively of data about HCZ hasn’t dampened enthusiasm for rep-
that the pipeline actu- licating Canada’s model. Even those skeptical about the
CITYLIMITS.ORG ally works, or that the lack of evidence embrace the hope Canada articulates.
65 percent critical mass “To date, these investments have not aggregated to
Covering poverty: where that Canada identifies improvement in neighborhood-wide well-being nor
policies meet people. as the tipping point to produced population-level changes in, for example, infant
www.citylimits.org/poverty positive “contamination” mortality, graduation rates, or income,” reads a recent
has been reached in any report by a research team led by Kubisch of the Aspen
meaningful way. Institute Roundtable for Community Change.
While Canada says publicly, “We’ve been really suc- Yet Kubisch strongly endorses HCZ as a model for na-
cessful with teen pregnancy,” independent verification is tional change. “We are so desperate for any little inkling
impossible. Births to teenage mothers are down slightly of success that as soon as we get something, we grab on
in the community district containing most of the Zone, to it. The Harlem Children’s Zone has more to offer than
but they have fallen in adjoining neighborhoods as well, other places,” she tells City Limits. “If you’ve got to do
and the causes cannot be discerned. Employment data something, it’s better than a lot of alternatives.”
show little change in the HCZ era; at least one HCZ
job-training program fizzled and was shuttered when Even before the bright lights of national prominence
it didn’t reach its intended targets. After two years, “the shone on Canada’s work, educators and civic leaders from
young people we designed the jobs program for were across the U.S. and overseas sought out the Zone’s secrets
not coming in. The program was a failure. We closed the and strategies. In response, Canada assigned his longtime
program. It just simply did not work,” Canada said at the colleague, confidant and fellow Bowdoin alum Rasuli
public gathering in November in Springfield. He added, Lewis the task of creating the HCZ Practitioners Institute.
“We are probably the biggest youth employer in Harlem,” More than 100 groups, from the U.S. and overseas, have
but no public data exist to support—or refute—his claim. since visited the HCZ to observe its techniques.
The 2010 census might provide more accurate insights Now that the White House has tapped Canada’s model
as the template for tackling 21st century poverty, more are a close second. Many signature HCZ elements didn’t
people from more cities are coming to Harlem to learn. succeed in Richmond, Lau said. “We tried Baby College,
A picture is emerging of what the new federal program Harlem Gems, AmeriCorps—they didn’t work for us.
will look like. At Canada’s November conference, Edu- What works for us is what you do for people and how
cation Secretary Arne Duncan said that “high-quality you engage them. You can’t just pick up Harlem and put
schools are at the center”—essential elements of all po- it in Richmond.”
tential Promise Neighborhoods. According to the govern- Dr. Karen Fox, head of the Delta Health project that
ment’s funding guidelines, prospective Promise Neigh- spans 18 bayou counties in Mississippi, told the confer-
borhoods must demonstrate at least 30 percent childhood ence of a vastly different geographic landscape: 70 percent
poverty. Anchor organizations must be community-based of her area’s residents must drive 45 miles just to reach a
entities and show evidence of long-term community grocery store, she said. There are few community librar-
engagement, the capacity to launch a successful initia- ies; many lack access to an emergency room or a local
tive and the ability to build partnerships with public and physician. Basic social services, omnipresent in central
private entities and community leaders. Harlem, are near absent. “Access is so different,” she said.
U.S. DOE budget materials say the selected programs “Forming collaborations is different.” Because there is
will be “modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone” and little infrastructure and “terrible transportation,” the kind
“designed to combat the effects of poverty and improve of intensive door-knocking outreach that HCZ program
education and life outcomes for children, from birth participation depends on is simply impossible. Neighbor-
through college.” hood saturation is not feasible in an underdeveloped area
“The core idea behind the initiative is that providing “bigger than the state of Rhode Island.” Neither is the
both effective schools and strong systems of support to creation of a single school to anchor a potential Promise
children and youth in poverty and, thus, meeting their Neighborhood—a requirement of the Obama adminis-
health, social services, and educational needs, will tration’s funding guidelines.
offer them the best hope for a better life,” the DOE’s The HCZ is careful to issue a disclaimer to all potential
description continues. Recipients of planning funding Practitioners Institute participants: The workshops
that submit “promising plans and partnerships” will be are not guaranteed to actually prepare community
eligible to get more money to implement their ideas in representatives to go home and implement their own
the following year. versions of the Harlem Children’s Zone. (HCZ even sued
What’s unclear is whether the federal program intends a Hartford, Conn., charity—the Asylum Hill Children’s
to mass-produce the HCZ model or merely use it as a Zone—for copyright infringement. The charity changed
loose framework of ideas. That distinction matters, be- its name to settle the case.)
cause among those who attended the November “Chang- “None of this is easy anywhere,” Canada conceded at
ing the Odds” conference were representatives from areas the November conference. “We are not going to fran-
whose similarities to Harlem begin and end with the fact chise. We are not going to replicate the work ourselves.”
that their residents are overwhelmingly poor. But, he added, “we don’t want people to have to reinvent
In Richmond, Calif., MacArthur “genius prize” winner the wheel—or the science” of how to turn a troubled
Dan Lau has been working to replicate HCZ programs neighborhood around.
and results since he visited Harlem in 2005. Instead of the “We are in the process of inventing a science that will
figurehead leadership personified by Canada, however, allow us to win,” he continued. “What we haven’t done
Lau must coordinate the efforts of 25 partnering agen- is figure out the way to share. ... People have the fantasy
cies. “Fundraising is our biggest challenge,” Lau said at this is easy, that we had all the answers, we didn’t fall on
the “Changing the Odds” conference; neighborhood jobs our face. None of it was ever easy,” he added. But as he
Continued on p.32
www.citylimits.org 29
Making Connections
Powerful friends, deep pockets and the Harlem Children’s Zone
Mayor Bloomberg
• Canada advised
the White House
not to endorse
Bloomberg’s 2009
mayoral rival.
www.citylimits.org 31
Continued from p.29 defined a new kind of reality in central Harlem, one that
completed the thought, he gave hope to cities that see in drinks deep from the well of hope. There’s no prescriptive
themselves what Canada saw in Harlem. “None of it,” he process that details how to cultivate inspirational leaders,
added, “is so complicated that it can’t be replicated—if much less those with a lifelong commitment to a singular
done correctly.” cause, impeccable social skills and street cred, and deep
In his remarks, Canada never closed the door on the connections to politicians and funders.
possibility that the rest of urban America has something The list of individual and corporate donors to the Har-
to learn from him. But he didn’t mention the unique lem Children’s Zone, posted in its annual report, looks a
attributes that helped the Children’s Zone achieve what lot like the donors wall at the Metropolitan Museum of
it has: a dense neighborhood that permitted a focused Art or any other entrenched New York City icon of good
approach, the profound financial resources that reside works: studded with megawatt corporate and private
in New York City (and, notably, on the HCZ board), the names, the big funders who have donated multiple mil-
city’s long-established web of social services that the HCZ lions to the Zone’s projects every year since its creation.
can harness and direct. The money doesn’t walk itself in the door; it takes
They are all factors that may not be reproduced concerted, dogged effort, by some of the same moneyed
elsewhere in America. “Is it possible to replicate?” asks financiers and philanthropists, to drum up the support
Schorr, of the Center for the Study of Social Policy. “The the Zone currently enjoys.
answer to that is a clear no. Adaptations are required by Donors to the Harlem Children’s Zone include Druck-
new settings and new circumstances.” Plus, says Schorr, enmiller—chairman of HCZ’s board—who ran George
20 Promise Neighborhoods “will require at least 20 ex- Soros’ investment fund and is listed as No. 85 on the
traordinary leaders.” Forbes 400 list of richest Americans. Among other sup-
But not every struggling city or impoverished neigh- porters are ex–American International Group chairman
borhood has a Geoff Canada to tell its story. “I’m not a Maurice H. (Hank) Greenberg, Home Depot founder and
believer in the McDonald’s version of education—you former New York Stock Exchange director Ken Langone
build a franchise and sell the same hamburgers across the and Mayor Bloomberg (No. 8). A $100 million campaign
country,” says Robert Hughes, president of New Visions is currently under way to bolster the Zone’s existing $168
for Public Schools, which has opened 96 New Century million to $175 million endowment.
schools in the Bloomberg-Klein era. “That’s why I’m resis- Canada’s ability to move between the boardroom and
tant to the idea of replication. You can’t replicate Geoff— the street has been honed, over time, to a kind of art. It
you’ll inevitably fail.” helps that some of his relationships with funders go back
nearly 40 years—and that doors have continued to open,
Canada has, over years of work and in countless and introductions have been made, in the years since.
speeches, interviews, meetings and conversations, Chenault, American Express CEO and Canada college
www.citylimits.org 33
AN ACT OF FAITH
“So you and I, we must succeed … in this crusade, this holy deed.”
The HCZ model might not work in every creation of the Drew Charter School, where
depressed urban center. But something else 84 percent of students now meet state
might work in those cities—or might already standards for reading and 94 percent for
be working, albeit outside the media spotlight math. The project also includes a community
or the White House’s embrace. center, early-childhood resources, a YMCA
William Strickland, like Canada, has and a public 18-hole golf course. Only 5
dedicated most of his adult life to working percent of adults in East Lake Meadows are
to counter urban poverty. He established the now unemployed, another hallmark of the
nonprofit Manchester Bidwell Corp. in 1968, redeveloped neighborhood, which has its
in Pittsburgh’s toughest district, first as an own service and support pipeline featuring Opposite:
arts education resource for local schoolchil- multiple college partnerships that bring A de la Vega mural
dren and later, when Pittsburgh’s steel indus- college students into the community and, at Promise Academy
try collapsed, to provide vocational training by doing so, provide living, breathing role I. It reads in part,
for unemployed workers. Today, the corpora- models for local schoolchildren. “We have so much to
tion works with Pittsburgh public schools, Other local approaches to combating unlearn here.”
placing artists in the classroom and offering poverty have been tried from Savannah to
a broad swath of after-school, summer and Philadelphia to Oakland, with mixed results
evening programs for kids and adults. (See “ Taking it Local,” p.26).
An overwhelming majority of teenagers The Obama administration’s decision to
who participate in Strickland’s programs—90 require school-based approaches to poverty
percent—graduate from high school. Nearly reduction means the Promise Neighborhoods
as many go on to college or other postsec- initiative is unlikely to support projects that
ondary education. And at least 86 percent mirror the Manchester Bidwell or East Lake
of job-training graduates—who can learn Meadows models—efforts built around
culinary arts, lab technology or horticultural job training and housing, respectively. By
skills, among a score of options—go on to the same token, cities like Orlando, Fla.,
paid employment. where the mayor and other civic leaders
A different approach revitalized East Lake have launched a series of HCZ-based
Meadows in Atlanta. There, developers bet reforms, cannot apply for funding, because
that building mixed-income housing would it is restricted to nonprofits. States without
be the catalyst for community growth—and charter schools, like Washington, may not
so far, it seems, the bet is paying off. Carol be legally able to dedicate a public school
Naughton, speaking at “Changing the Odds,” to Promise Neighborhood development.
says that “the depth of the distress was Cities where court desegregation rulings
liberating” in East Lake Meadows: In 1995, require busing cannot provide the centrally
unemployment was rampant; only 13 percent located school model that the Promise
of adults in East Lake Meadows had a job. Neighborhoods require. And efforts already
Crime was triple that of downtown Atlanta— under way are not eligible for the funding
East Lake marked a murder a week, on aver- either; only newcomers need apply.
age—and 18 times the national average. Only The White House did not respond to a
5 percent of schoolchildren met state-testing request for comment. But Obama’s urban
standards. “Our ideas, our program, was so czar, former Bronx borough president Adolfo
audacious that nobody believed it would Carrión, told HCZ’s November conference
work,” said Naughton. that the President “fell in love” with
The construction of 542 mixed-income Canada’s project. Promise Neighborhoods
residences—half now occupied at market are “of global importance,” Carrión said.
rates and half subsidized by Section 8 “They are a smart investment in people
housing vouchers—was enriched by the and in neighborhoods that build strong
www.citylimits.org 35
Above: A Saturday dance class Bottom left: Children from Promise Bottom right: Patrice Ward in her
at the Zone. The impact of HCZ's Academy and the Harlem ninth-grade English class. The
nonschool programs has been Children’s Zone community center spending per student at HCZ may
hard to quantify. participate in a Saturday double- be more than programs elsewhere
Dutch program. in the country can afford.
www.citylimits.org 37
The Mount Hope Housing The Manchester Bidwell
Company Corporation
This organization made the goal of Established in Pittsburgh, Pa. in
making high-quality Internet access 1968, this organization operates two
available to low-income residents subsidiaries aimed at exposing both
in its 31 apartment buildings a children and young adults to arts and
priority, and finished outfitting its vocational-based education programs.
buildings with wireless links and The Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild
an Ethernet infrastructure for that offers apprenticeship-training
purpose in 2007. Today, the company programs in ceramics, photography,
still partners with the other original and the digital as well as design arts.
Where to learn more about members of the CCRP (see p.26) to The Bidwell Training Corporation
local efforts to reduce poverty help find jobs for Bronx residents. provides displaced steel workers
and improve quality of life. www.citylimits.org/resources/2256 with ready-to-work training in fields
ranging from culinary arts to medical
coding.
The Mid-Bronx Desperadoes The Phipps Community www.citylimits.org/resources/2259
Community Housing Corp., Development Corporation
Inc. Created in 1996 in collaboration
In February of 2008, Peter M. with the city’s Department of The William and Flora
Williams, a former Vice-President at Education, the West Farms Hewlett Foundation
Medgar Evers College and Director Technology and Career Center Although the 10-year, $20 million
of Housing and Community is the centerpiece initiative of National Improvement Initiative
Development at the National Urban this community development aimed at addressing poverty-related
League, was named President corporation. A Bridge to College issues for the communities of West
and CEO of MBD Community program operated out of the center Oakland, Mayfair and East Palo
Housing Corp., Inc. Under Williams, provides assistance for high school Alto fell short of its stated goals,
the organization has focused on students and residents interested in the foundation still actively funds a
upgrading the corporation’s affordable continuing their education through number of nonprofits in California’s
housing properties and providing college, GED or vocational programs. Bay Area around environmental,
free tax preparation services to East www.citylimits.org/resources/2257 population, performing arts and
Crotona Park residents as priorities. education program areas. Through
www.citylimits.org/resources/2251 its support of a New Teacher Center
The West Philadelphia at the University of Santa Cruz,
Initiatives achievement scores for students
The Mid-Bronx Senior The West Philadelphia area in the East Palo Alto community
Citizens Council that includes the district where increased and the district itself boasts
The Mid-Bronx Senior Citizens the University of Pennsylvania teacher retention rate of greater than
council was instrumental in re- concentrated its community 85 percent.
launching a stalled initiative to bring development efforts is currently www.citylimits.org/resources/2260
a Business Improvement District a member of a Sustainable
centered around the new Yankee Communities Initiative program
Stadium to Bronx residents this past funded by the Local Initiatives The Lumina Foundation
September, and today the council Support Corporation. To learn more This Indianapolis-based, private
operates a youth employment about the University City District and independent foundation was
initiative, among other workforce and the SCI West Philadelphia established with the ambitious
programs, that helps to find paid initiative, go to: goal of increasing the percentage
employment and internships for www.citylimits.org/resources/2258 of Americans with high-quality
young people in the area. college degrees and credentials to 60
www.citylimits.org/resources/2255 percent by the year 2025, and gave
Continued on p.40
Project GRAD
As an education reform model that
currently serves more than 132,000
students in 12 communities across
the country, this Houston-based
educational model is similar to the
Harlem Children’s Zone in its belief
that consistent support programs for
low-income students from the Pre-K
level through 12th grade can improve
educational outcomes. The organiza- Charles R. Drew charter school, the
tion has set the goal of making sure foundation estimates it has saved $89
that 80 percent of entering ninth to $107 million in costs related to the
graders goes on to graduate from incarceration of high-risk youth.
high school, with 50 percent of that www.citylimits.org/resources/2263
number attending college.
www.citylimits.org/resources/2262
Public/Private Ventures
Since the release of a 2002 report on
The East Lake Foundation its seven-year Community Change
Founded in 1995, this foundation for Youth Development initiative,
was created to address poverty Public/Private Ventures (PPV)
issues in a section of Atlanta that has continued to evaluate after-
was home to the East Lake Meadows school and Out-of-School Time
public housing project, which at one programs throughout the country,
time boasted a crime rate that was PPV published a six-city study
18 times higher than the national this past September that found
average and where 5 percent of the that improving program quality
area’s fifth graders met state math and expanding access for youth
standards. With the development programs received the largest share
of mixed-income housing and the of infrastructure investments.
creation of a “Cradle to College” www.citylimits.org/resources/2264
program operated out of the nearby
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www.citylimits.org 41
Opportunities in the
urban affairs world
from events to careers.
CALENDAR
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11
Teacher Quality: The Key to
Closing the Achievement Gap
Conference sponsored by Census 2010 forms wait in a federal warehouse. Photo: Census Bureau.
The Wagner Economic and
Finance Association and
Wagner Education Policy development, from infancy to Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, counted in this year's census.
Studies Association adolescence. The course pres- Washington D.C. The United States Department
ents play therapy techniques www.citylimits.org/ of Commerce’s Census Bureau
The Rudin Family Forum for individuals and groups, calendar/11482 is responsible for the count.
for Civic Dialogue, The along with methods for
Puck Building nurturing children’s natural MONDAY APRIL 19 Millennium Minds Seeks
www.citylimits.org/ resilience and potential for Dynamics of Immigration Board of Directors Members,
calendar/11480 healing. In order to receive and Unionization on Labor Volunteers
a certificate you must attend Markets for Low-Skilled Millennium Minds is a non-
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 19 - all trainings within the series. Occupations profit Queens-based cultural
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 20 Pre-registration is required. arts youth organization that
The 27th Annual Winter The course fee is $150 per The Baruch College School provides production training
Roundtable on Cultural Psy- person, with sliding-scale of Public Affairs and the in language and the arts to
chology and Education payment available. The course Weissman School of Arts youth ages 12 to 21. The orga-
will run from 10 a.m. to 2 and Sciences nization is seeking members
Teachers College at p.m. on February 25, March 135 East 22nd Street for its board of directors, as
Columbia University 4, March 11, March 18, March www.citylimits.org/ well as volunteers to assist
525 West 120th Street 25, April 8, April 15, April 22 calendar/11537 in their efforts. For more
www.citylimits.org/ and April 29. information, please visit
calendar/11481 www.mimikids.org or
3 West 29th Street, 9th ANNOUNCEMENTS contact 347-361-7767.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25 Floor Between 5th Avenue U.S. Census Day: April 1
Working with Children & Broadway April 1, 2010 is the mail The New Museum Launches
Exposed to Domestic Violence www.citylimits.org/ deadline for this year’s U.S. Imaginary Museum
Training sponsored by calendar/11384 Census. The United States “The Imaginary Museum”
CONNECT, an organization Constitution requires that the is a new exhibition series at
dedicated to the prevention SATURDAY MARCH 20 - number of people living in the the New Museum that will
and elimination of family and TUESDAY MARCH 23 United States be counted every periodically feature leading
gender violence. In this nine- The Council of the Great City 10 years. People of all ages, private collections of contem-
week course, participants Schools’ Legislative Policy races, ethnic groups, citizens porary art from around the
are trained on the impacts of Conference and non-citizens alike, regard- world, providing the opportu-
trauma at different stages of less of legal status, are to be nity for great works of art to
Continued on p.44
EXECUTIVE
MPA
Columbia University Executive Master
of Public Policy and Administration
program (EMPA) of the School of
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