Mercy College School of Business

Mercy College Strategic Consulting Institute

Graduate Consultants: N. Lee, O. Hinton, B. Ferrell, A. Cohen, and R. Khan
Managing Director SCI :Prof. Williams

YONKERS THRIVES
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................ 2
Methodology............................................................................................................ 3
Goals and Deliverables............................................................................................... 4
Organizational Structure............................................................................................. 4
Operational Structure.............................................................................................. 5
Solution Composite.................................................................................................... 5
Pre-Kindergarten Services....................................................................................... 5
Pre-K Solution Recommendation #1: Parental Involvement....................................6
Pre-K Solution Recommendation #2: Academic Play with Technology....................8
Chronic Absenteeism.................................................................................................. 9
Chronic Absenteeism Recommendation: Mentoring Program................................10
General Business Solution Suggestion: Funding Solutions.......................................11
Acknowledgments.................................................................................................... 14
References................................................................................................................ 15

Table of Figures
Figure 1 Operational Structure................................................................................... 5
Figure 2 Yonkers Thrives Anchor............................................................................... 13
Introduction

Yonkers Thrives is a community-based organization in the City of Yonkers that has been
a partner of the Strive Together network since 2013. The Strive Together network being a
national movement with a model that focuses on improvement and reporting of academic
outcomes, cross-sector partnerships in education, community infrastructure, data-driven
approaches to collective impact, and the alignment of resources to improve education. Yonkers
Thrives aims to aid the educational outcomes of the children of Yonkers from Cradle to Career.
To realize this collective goal for childrens education along with public-private partnerships of
community organizations, business, nonprofits the Department of Education, and The City of
Yonkers. (Yonkers Thrives, 2017)
The scope of this project was for the Mercy College Strategic Consulting Institute (SCI)
to support Yonkers Thrives with its mission to ensure children in Yonkers thrive from cradle to
career. As well as to ensure the development of an effective methodology that makes a successful
and meaningful impact on improving the outcomes in childhood education. The SCI team took a
broad view of any and all aspects that might impact this mission; specifically, the SCI examined
in depth on the issues of Chronic Absenteeism and Pre-Kindergarten Services. The SCI team
systematically investigated possible steps and initiatives that Yonkers Thrives may wish to take
in these two critical areas in order to enhance the impact of Yonkers Thrives. The project consists
of analyzing comparable case studies to help facilitate methods of enhancement in public
education. The ultimate aim of the project is to offer perspective the help Yonkers Thrives create
sustainable, measurable impact. The consultants aimed to provide direction to ensure the success
of Yonkers Thrives.
For this project, we researched several organizations similar to Yonkers Thrives. Two of
these were Platform Learning and Urban Scholars. Platform Learning is a Washington Heights-
based community organization with the aim of providing education enrichment to middle school
aged youth. The organization was funded by the Department of Education in New York City
from 2003 -2007. Platform Learning served the same demographic of children as Yonkers
Thrives. Both served minority communities with chronically absent and underprepared students
who did not meet grade level expectations. Ultimately, the failure of Platform Learning was the
lack of structure. The inability to provide sustainable educational solutions that created a
measurable impact on the children both qualitatively and quantitatively played a major role in its
inability to succeed.
Urban Scholars Program is a Harlem-based organization with the aim of educational
enrichment programming for urban middle and high school aged youth. The program is funded
by the department of Urban and Governmental Affairs in The City College of New Yorks
Research Foundation. The organization has been open since 1993 and active for over 20 years.
Students and families in the Urban Scholars receive counseling services, educational
programming, and enrichment. Both Yonkers Thrives and Urban Scholars work with the same
demographic of children and try to foster data-driven educational initiatives that facilitate the
education of children from cradle to career. Urban Scholars offers measurable impact with its ties
to the local college (City College), community organizations, state grant funding, and
educational planning with parent outreach. Urban Scholars is a successful organization because
they have quantitative and qualitative measurable impact through the educational strategies
which are implemented in the local schools. They connect to the Harlem community and
leverage the College partnership for educational incentives. This organization also communicates
with parents through outreach and multiple language services. Urban Scholars also uses data to
keep track of students, after program completion in the 12th grade, and throughout college.
Urban Scholars is an indispensable anchor for partnerships between the community, college,
families, and to the many different schools, they serve in the area.
Another community organization with a similar mandate as Yonkers Thrives which has
won numerous accolades in recent years is the Harlem Childrens Zone (HCZ). This organization
sees itself as a pioneering organization focused on ending intergenerational poverty in Harlem.
(Harlem Childrens Zone, 2017). While this may seem like a lofty goal, this organization is able
to provide a number of services at a community level for individuals of different age groups,
including a baby college (Pre-K) program, elementary to high school as well as community and
family programs/centers. HCZ has the goal of giving kids the individualized support they need to
make it to college and become self-sustaining adults. Their methodology is to offer a scope of
highly integrated programs and provide a community-based model to helping students achieve
opportunities. Learning from this highly integrated approach in dealing with similar
demographics can be a framework for Yonkers Thrives to operate.
In order for Yonkers Thrives to build a portfolio of success mirroring Urban Scholars
which has been in existence for over 20 years, the organization must become the anchor for
educational initiatives that can also implement and create measurable impact. Yonkers Thrives
must be the link, as HCZ is in its context- between the community, the educational system,
leverage connections like Mercy College, businesses, and recycle resources local resources like
My Brothers Keeper (MBK). The recommendations in this report are to ensure that Yonkers
Thrives stays a key player in the industry as an indispensable unifier.

Methodology

The SCI used the following methods to reach conclusions and make recommendations:
1. Researched general existing available data on chronic absenteeism and Pre-K services
2. Obtained and analyzed Yonkers-specific data that is available from Yonkers Thrives and its
partner organizations
3. Analyzed case studies of organizations similar to Yonkers Thrives
4. Interviewed Mercy College faculty in the School of Education
5. Interviewed Yonkers Thrives staff
Goals and Deliverables

At the end of the consulting engagement, the SCI has provided a Solution Composite to
Yonkers Thrives. This document explains steps and initiatives that the SCI recommends that
Yonkers Thrives take to enhance its mission. These steps are related to our research in the areas
of Chronic Absenteeism and Pre-K Services. The Solution Composite document includes the
following characteristics:

Yonkers Thrives Unique Fit:

Through our assessments of the common solutions to minimize Chronic Absenteeism and
better Pre-K Services, the SCI has, of course, considered the unique characteristics of Yonkers
Thrives and Yonkers Public Schools. Where possible, the SCI supported conclusions with
specific data from Yonkers Thrives, the Yonkers Community, and school district. The SCI has
carefully considered the Yonkers Thrives operating model as well as the business and political
environment faced by Yonkers Thrives.
Qualitative and Quantitative Support for Conclusions:
The SCI has carefully explained the rationale for each recommendation and support those
recommendations with clear qualitative and quantitative support.

Measurable Impact Research:

The SCI has assessed which of the breadth of possible recommendations will have
significant, measurable impact. The SCI has not only make recommendations based on which
solutions will have observable, positive impact, we have also provided an explanation and
analysis of the expected measurable impact of each recommendation.

Organizational Structure

The SCI has communicated with Yonkers Thrives as necessary via phone and email. This
is with the aim to provide transparency and fostering teamwork. Communications with Yonkers
Thrives have been through Margie Schustack Partnership Director at Yonkers Thrives. For
research on childhood education, our contact has been Professor Dr. Helge Wasmuth. Dr. Helge
Wasmuth is a notable early childhood educator and philosopher, who has added valuable insight
and expertise to this project. The SCI team has communicated with each other via a weekly
conference call, emails, and in-person meetings. The SCI team stayed in contact with Professor
Zach Williams and sought his guidance as a Managing Director in the Strategic Consulting
Institute. The operational structure is detailed in the figure below. With Professor Zach Williams
as the connecting function between Yonkers Thrives and the SCI team.
Operational Structure

Figure 1 Operational Structure

Solution Composite

Pre-Kindergarten Services

It is important for Yonkers Thrives to continue to support the students of Yonkers by

improving educational outcomes, from cradle to career. Through the strategic focus on Pre-
Kindergarten involvement, Yonkers Thrives will be able to establish best practices that will
empower the student to continue learning behaviors throughout their educational career. Using
available data from national programs and incorporating the unique needs of the Yonkers
community, recommendations presented support solutions that blend parental support with
classroom activities for a well-rounded academic outcome.
The SCI Team considered the importance of Pre-K as a foundation of a childs education.
Through active parental and familial involvement at an early age, children have better early
education development, and a community of learning supports that will grow throughout their
educational career. With the addition and use of technology, the use of a high-quality educational
app within each childs household will introduce Pre-K students to education by technology.
Pre-K Solution Recommendation #1: Parental Involvement

We recommend the implementation of a Bring Your Parent to School Day event series
to actively engage parents and families with the educational career of their child. The series will
properly aid parents in helping their child become Kindergarten Ready.
Parental and family involvement is an important component of young childrens
cognitive and social development. Throughout the nation, high-quality pre-kindergarten
programs have adopted policies and activities that support family involvement in the home and
school. Research studies show home-school relationships with formal and informal connections
between the family and educational settings create learning supports for young children that
advance academic achievement, social development and school readiness (Weiss, Caspe &
Lopez, 2006).
The introduction of a monthly parental involvement event within the Yonkers school
system will foster the home-school relationship necessary for the replication and enforcement of
learning behaviors modeled in school. The suggested Bring Your Parent to School Day model
will ensure the integral involvement of families with the greater Yonkers school system, while
also engaging and investing parents in their childs development, and a social network of
families. By implementing this model, it would be expected for parents learn how to support
their childrens education through effective involvement that can extend to grades K-12 and into
higher education.

Unique Fit:
Bring Your Parent to School Day is a unique opportunity for Yonkers Thrives to offer
programming that is easily replicable throughout its network. This model can be presented in
formal school settings, as well as other child-care and not-for-profit programs offered beyond the
Yonkers School District. The highlight of this model is that there is little to no cost to Yonkers
Thrives or the subsequent Pre-K programs interested in implementation.
This parental involvement model also allows for parents to interact with their child in an
educational setting. The classroom setting promotes positive reinforcement and exposes the
parent or family member to learning behaviors that can be transferred and executed at home.
Yonkers Thrives will be able to service families and Pre-K programs in both settings by
providing helpful tips and tricks for continual and complementary learning. Specifically, Yonkers
Thrives can share resources regarding parenting attitudes, values and practices that promote
learning skills in young students, as well as help Pre-K programs, create successful linkages to
parents.
Lastly, the students of Yonkers have a particularly strong need to combat social contexts.
With 83% of students classifying as minority (New York State Education Department, 2017),
there is a higher percentage of students disbarred by socioeconomic status and racial disparities.
Minority students are also at a higher risk of falling behind in early childhood education (Hill,
Guin & Celio, 2003). By working to achieve high-quality Pre-K programs in Yonkers, Yonkers
Thrives will create active parent involvement and a model for engaging learning environments.
Yonkers Thrives has the unique opportunity to create a net of necessary supports required for
continual learning, combat poor learning structures that could impact learning beyond Pre-K, and
improve education outcomes, from cradle to career.
Evidence:
Substantial research names familial involvement as a primary learning support for
successful students. Early childhood education, specifically learning occurring before the age of
5, include important learning stages for both the child and the parent. This stage credits social,
academic, and developmental factors such as language acquisition, vocabulary building, strong
fine-motor skills, and basic letter and number awareness (Pew Research, 2011) to the strong
involvement of parents at home and during the school day. These factors help educators and
parents understand more about the childs abilities and how to mold the foundation of life
learning. In this regard, parental involvement can be classified as the following: parenting, home-
school relationships and the parents responsibility for learning outcomes (Weiss, Caspe &
Lopez, 2006).
Parenting: Studies show parents with strong relationships with their child positively
impacts how the child develops. Responsive parental interaction creates positive learning
outcomes in early childhood education (Weiss, Caspe & Lopez, 2006) and helps children find
social acceptance and belonging. Parents who actively engage with their child in games and
child-based interactions also help children advance socially and emotionally (Stevens & English,
2016). Children benefitting from engaging parenting practices show larger vocabulary growth
and comprehension skills. In Yonkers, where students are culturally diverse in nature, it is
important to note that parenting can be expressed differently throughout social and cultural
contexts. Minority families faced with poverty may have disrupted familial structures and
lagging parent-child activities (Hill, Guin & Celio, 2003), which could lead fewer parenting
supports. Thus, it is important for families to have clear learning models in place for parents to
ensure all students are being supported by the same learning tools while at home.
Home-School Relationships: Formal and informal parental involvement with a childs
educational setting is another important factor in developing the early education experience.
Both parental participation in pre-school based activities and regular communication between
families teaches parents how to positively relate to the performance of their student (Weiss,
Caspe & Lopez, 2006). Parental participation, such as attending school meetings, student
performances, and classroom activities, allow students to create positive associations when they
see their parents at school (Gayl, 2008). Most importantly, the student creates positive
engagement with peers, adults, and learning institutions. Studies also show parents who actively
communicate with teachers have a better understanding of their childs development with
realistic perceptions of behavior modifications and skill acquisition (Stevens & English, 2016).
Responsibility for Learning Outcomes: Over the years, parents have raised their
expectations of their how much their child should learn in pre-kindergarten to be kindergarten
ready and prepared for elementary school learning (Stevens & English, 2016). Despite the
increase of expected cognitive skills and abilities expected, many parents have not contributed to
their childs learning outside of school. As it relates to home-school relationships, parents who
take an active role in their childs learning will implement best practices at home and see better
results in their childs development (Weiss, Caspe & Lopez, 2006). This means, parents, learn
activities from teachers and bring it home to fully engulf their child in their education. This form
of positive reinforcement contributes to a childs readiness, while activities such as the Bring
Your Parent to School Day model can help parents establish themselves within their childs
lifelong career of learning. As an outcome, children quickly develop skills such as social
competence, cognitive development, communication skills, literary development and vocabulary
growth when learning is enforced by family involvement (Weiss, Caspe & Lopez, 2006) (Finn &
Rock, 1997).

Measurable Impact:
Through the implementation of a strong parental involvement activity, Yonkers Thrives
would be able to show child progress that is related directly from classroom activities and family
involvement. The Bring Your Parent to School Day model can be monitored through parent
assessments that parents will complete after participation in each monthly event. The assessment
will survey how the students growth is perceived by the parent, measure academic performance,
school engagement, and student behaviors. It will also include a section for at-home
participation and continuous learning. This way, Yonkers Thrives will be able to collect data that
will support how parents are enforcing continuous learning supports. Parents will be presented
with different learning models available to them, such as other families, early childhood
programs, different schooling options, out-of-school programs and activities, social services, and
activities offered by libraries, museums, and other community-based institutions. The hopes of
presenting alternative learning supports, Yonkers Thrives will be able to provide possible
alternatives for parents and begin to teach impactful behaviors.

Pre-K Solution Recommendation #2: Academic Play with Technology

We recommend incorporating the use of PBS Kids educational apps, high-quality

educational apps great for academic play within each childs household. Studies show that the
use of a high-quality educational app suggests more preschoolers be kindergarten ready. PBS
Kids is a great producer of high-quality educational apps that introduce pre-k students to
education by technology and its free to download on your devices app store. The use of these
educational apps will allow students to interact and educate themselves on an independent level.
In addition, the apps provide parent notes that will better assist parents with continued
development and helpful ideas for next step education. Everything encompassed, this will
promote an ongoing focus of a continuous educational cycle in and out of the classroom.
Unique Fit:
 The PBS Kids educational apps are free to download and easy to incorporate. They
provide parent/teacher notes of each childs activity which is great to evaluate progress, pinpoint
trouble area(s) and suggestive learning patterns. This fits Yonkers Thrives as funding for projects
may be limited as a not-for-profit organization.
Quantitative / Qualitative Analysis:
The average time young children spend using electronic devices has more than tripled in
the last five years. The demand for high-quality educational apps is increasing as communities
become more connected, devices become more affordable and teachers and parents are looking
for new ways to use technology to engage students. The U.S. Department of Education recently
announced an Ed Tech Developers Guide as a solution to address the most urgent needs in
education. PBS Parents Play and Learn app by PBS Kids is one of many ways PBS Kids is
connecting teachers, parents, and children to a network of early childhood learning. You can
build your childs natural curiosity with engaging games that connect math and literacy skills to
familiar locations. The app gives the ability to play more than a dozen interactive games based
on everyday experiences. This app is currently available in English and Spanish which begins to
address language barriers in multilingual households. Also, each game comes with parent notes
for extra ideas and advice. Case studies show that students using interactive educational apps
scored so high on a test that it put them in the category, Ready for Kindergarten, while students
who did not use the app was very far behind.

Measurable Impact:
A reading and phonics learning App has a measurable impact on the literacy of children.
Given the importance of phonological awareness and how it contributes to school readiness,
using digital resources in a highly controlled setting, like a classroom or using a device with
parental controls actively enforced, the results could be substantial. Allowing a child to spend a
few minutes to a couple of hours a day using a reading and phonics app will increase their
literacy and greater their chances of becoming kindergarten ready on or before the anticipated
time. This would serve to the Kindergarten Readiness Network established by Yonkers Thrives
that has a goal to have 80% of students Kindergarten Ready by 2020. Currently, only 62% of
Yonkers children are Kindergarten Ready.

Chronic Absenteeism

The scope of the project is to assist Yonkers Thrives in their commitment to support the
Yonkers School District with the issue of chronic absenteeism. This term denotes students who
are missing school for more than 10% of a school year for any reason. Insights from a business
management perspective will be provided. By combining available data sources and successfully
completed initiatives in the recent past, practical recommendations are offered to increase
attendance rates throughout city schools while taking into account the political, social and
economic realities faced by the city and its residents. Existing programs around this issue on the
local scale include Pledge 182: Every Day Counts by Mayor Mike Spano and Attendance
Matters, undertaken by the office of County Executive Robert Astorino.
The SCI team at Mercy College considered several innovative solutions to tackle the
issue of chronic absenteeism in the specific context of city schools within Yonkers, Westchester
County, New York. Taking into account financial strains, administrative structure, and overall
feasibility; the suggested measure is based on a program undertaken in New York City with
similar socioeconomic circumstances.
.
Chronic Absenteeism Recommendation: Mentoring Program

We recommend that Yonkers Thrives implement a mentoring program to combat

chronic absenteeism. The model we suggest they follow is the NYC Success Mentor Corps. This
is a researchbased, datadriven mentoring model with a mission of decreasing chronic
absenteeism for at-risk students in chronic in low-income communities citywide (The NYC
Success Mentor Corps Guide, 2013). Chronically absent students are assigned a success mentor
who will work to address the barriers that keep the student from attending school every day and
help the student reach their education potential. Success mentors can be staffed externally
through outside agencies or internally by teachers and guidance counselors, or peer mentors
consisting of high school seniors. We recommend Yonkers Thrives establish a peer to peer
mentoring model as students will have a relatable role model to look up to and also track their
success.
The NYC Success Mentor Corps is the largest in-school mentoring program in the
country within a single city, reaching close to 10,000 chronically absent, or at-risk students
(Balfanz & Byrnes, 2014). By implementing this approach, Yonkers School District will be able
to provide their chronically absent students with an individualized mentor dedicated to their
improvement. Success Mentors are assigned to their mentees at the beginning of the school year
with a commitment of the full school year. Success mentors greet their student every day and
have the responsibility of highlighting the student's strengths while finding out the reasons
behind the chronic absences. The Success Mentor works closely with school officials to help
combat the issues of attendance and work to develop a personalized success plan for the student.
Considering similar socioeconomic hurdles, concerns on funding and the daily realities
faced by the population served and structure of Yonkers Thrives, we suggest a peer to peer
mentoring program. It should be able to incentivize older students for their participation and
encourage underclassmen to attend school regularly.
Unique Fit:
All three mentoring models would be cost-effective as they would be essentially free for
Yonkers Thrives to implement. For example, by staffing social work students as mentors for the
external model, Yonkers Thrives can award these students with internship or community service
hours for the time they spent mentoring. We select the internal model because it would be staffed
by seniors in high school who would receive community service hours for their time spent. Our
discussion with your organization helped us see this would be a unique fit as mentors could
collect data on attendance trends which may not currently be available for Yonkers Thrives. The
existing nonprofit structure of the organization, ease of implementation and limited funding
required would mean this program can become a reality. This program had a significant impact
in NYC which is located directly outside of Yonkers with a similar population of diverse
students.
Evidence:
Chronically absent students who benefitted from the program gained over 11,800 days of
attendance (NYC Success Mentor Corps, 2013). 49% of elementary students with full-year
mentors exited chronic absenteeism status vs. 42% of students without mentors. This resulted in
17% more students attending school. 23% of high school students with full-year mentors exited
chronic absenteeism status vs. 18% of students without mentors. This resulted in 27% more
students attending school. By connecting at-risk students with caring mentors through a carefully
developed infrastructure, this enables mentors to be positive role models, encourage regular
attendance, and identify and begin to address underlying causes of chronic absenteeism in a
personalized way (NYC Success Mentor Corps, 2013).
Measurable Impact:
The data suggests that Success Mentors will measurably improve attendance in the
Yonkers School District which is a mission of Yonkers Thrives. Implementing this initiative
would give Yonkers Thrives an outlet to track attendance and create more unique programs based
on trends in the data and help influence policy more proactively.

General Business Solution Suggestion: Funding Solutions

Funding Recommendation :
We recommend that Yonkers Thrives procures its own funding. Yonkers Thrives should
apply to three My Brothers Keeper (MBK) Grants offered in the state of New York. Both
Yonkers Thrives and MBK have similar goals and operate within the same community. Applying
to the MBK grants and potentially securing funds from these grants essentially keeps Yonkers
Thrives in a stronger position as an anchor in the community with their own funding to
implement the aforementioned solutions in this document.
Currently, the NY State Education Department along with the board of Regents is
accepting applications for the My Brother's Keeper Challenge Grants. A total of $ 7 million
dollars is available through this grant. The grant is designed to encourage school districts, and
community organizations to develop as well as implement cradle to college strategies aimed at
improving the life outcomes of boys and young men of color. The funding for eligible school
 districts and community organizations has to address two out of six goals of MBK which are
similar to Yonkers Thrives vision detailed in the unique fit section below. (NYSED, 2016

Unique Fit:
Specifically, in New York, the GOALS of MBK are as following:
1. Ensuring equitable access to high-quality schools and programs
2. Expanding prevention, early warning, and intervention services
3. Using differentiated approaches based on need and culture
4. Responding to structural and institutional racism
5. Making comprehensive and coordinated support services widely available
6. Engaging families and communities in a trusted and respectful way.

New York's My Brothers Keeper is designed to create partnerships with school districts,
colleges and universities along with community groups to join the mission. The Grant is
available in 4 categories. In order for Yonkers Thrives to procure its own funding they have to
apply to the MBK grants. The categories of grants that are applicable to Yonkers Thrives are the
following.
The first MBK Challenge grant ($7 million) is available to the school district which is
encouraged to design cradle to career strategies that are aimed at targeting two of the six
milestones.(NYSED,2016)
The second grant that Yonkers Thrives can apply for is for the Office of Family and
Community Engagement ($8 million). This particular grant encourages the use of parent
advocacy and to create outreach material in home languages so that families can learn how to
enhance school success for their children beginning at early stages of education. (NYSED, 2016)
The third grant ($2 million) is from the State Education Department that awards districts
and organizations that develop / or expand exemplary school models and practices that show
cultural and linguistic responsiveness in the needs of boys and young men of color. (NYSED,
2016)
 Figure 2 Yonkers Thrives Anchor

The grants available offer a unique fit for Yonkers Thrives and the MBK partnership.
First Yonkers Thrives along with the MBK in Yonkers would apply for MBK grant funding as a
community organization. Each of the aforementioned funding opportunities applies to Yonkers
Thrives which will serve as the anchor organization that connects the community partnerships,
Mercy College, District development and family /community engagement. Yonkers Thrives
serving as the anchor organization would essentially allow this organization to be a key
developer in fostering and implementing educational improvement strategies. The financial
backing of these grants can help Yonkers Thrives become a powerful educational driver in the
community. This would allow for the creation of working partnerships between schools like
Mercy College (School of Education). The interconnection of the tiles in the figure above shows
Yonkers Thrives as an indispensable unifier for all of the key connections. With the financial
backing of the grant Yonkers Thrives would essentially create a unique success portfolio:
1. Data-driven strategies for educational improvement with chronic absenteeism and Pre-K
Education.

2. Engage parents and the community through the dissemination of information in home languages.

3. Yonkers Thrives becomes a key power player in the creation of cradle to career strategies that will give
substantial backing to school districts that are applying for funds using Yonkers Thrives as a foundation
system to model educational initiatives.
4. Yonkers Thrives would tie the success portfolio with leveraging existing community partnerships.

Evidence:
If Yonkers Thrives procures MBK grant funding they will be able to implement the
suggested solutions that have evidence of being successful. Particularly the evidence solutions as
detailed in the Pre-K and Chronic Absenteeism section of this document.
Measurable Impact:
If Yonkers Thrives procures MBK funding they will be able to implement projects that
have measurable impact and allocate funding to the endeavors, detailed measurable impact in the
Pre-K and Chronic Absenteeism section of this document.

Acknowledgments

For their dedication, support, and contributions to the fruition of this report, the SCI team would
like to acknowledge the following people:
Prof: Zachary Williams
Assistant Dean, Mercy College School of Business
Managing Director of the Mercy College Strategic Consulting Institute

Prof. Helge Wasmuth

Mercy College School of Education
Department of Childhood Education

Margie Schustack
Partnership Director at Yonkers Thrives
References

$7 Million in Grants Now Available for My Brother's Keeper Challenge. (2016, August
11). Retrieved February 27, 2017, from http://www.nysed.gov/news/2016/7-million-grants-now-
available-my-brothers-keeper-challenge
2013 April. Lopuch, Maya. The Effects of Educational Apps on Student Achievement
and Engagement
2015 April 19th. NYU Steinhardt. Literacy App Improves School Readiness in At-Risk
Preschoolers, Finds Study by Steinhardt Researchers
Balfanz, R., & Byrnes, V. Meeting the Challenge of Combating Chronic Absenteeism.
Retrieved from http://new.every1graduates.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/NYC-Chronic-
Absenteeism-Impact-Report.pdf
Finn, J. & Rock, D. 1997. Academic Success Among Students at Risk for School Failure.
The American Psychological Association. Journal of Applied Psychology 1997. Vol. 82 No 2,
221-234. Retrieved February 26, 2017, from:
http://www.viriya.net/jabref/Academic_success_among_students_at_risk_for_school_failure.pdf.
Gayl, C. 2008. The Research on Pre-K. Center for Public Education. Retrieved January
2, 2017 from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Pre-kindergarten/Pre-
Kindergarten.
Harlem Childrens Zone. http://hcz.org/. Accessed 3 March 2017.
Hill, P., Guin, K., & Celio, M. 2003. Minority Children at Risk.
Hoover Press: Peterson/Schools. Retrieved February 26, 2017 from:
http://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/0817939210_111.pdf
http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/site/ataglance/2015/04/literacy-app-improves-school-readiness-
in-at-risk-preschoolers-finds-study-by-steinhardt-researchers.html
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/support/technology/technology_initiatives/e-
learning_backpack/institute/2013/Educational_Apps_White_Paper_eSpark_v2.pdf
New York State Education Department. 2017. Yonkers City School District at a Glance.
Retrieved February 11, 2017 from https://data.nysed.gov/profile.php?instid=800000034777.
NYC Success Mentoring Corps. Mayors Interagency Task Force on Truancy, Chronic
Absenteeism, and School Engagement. Retrieved from
http://www.attendanceworks.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/NYC-HANDOUT-
Success-Mentor-Corps-Overview_2013.pdf
PEW Center on the States. 2011. Transforming Public Education: Pathway to a Pre-K-12
Future. Retrieved January 2, 2017 from: http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-
analysis/reports/0001/01/01/transforming-public-education.
 Stevens, K. & English, E. 2016. Does Pre-K Work?: The Research on Ten Early
Childhood Programs- And What it Tells Us. American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy
Research. Retrieved February 11, 2017 from: https://www.aei.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/04/Does-Pre-K-Work.pdf.
Truancy Task Force - NYC Success Mentor Corps. Retrieved February 26, 2017, from
http://www.nyc.gov/html/truancy/html/smc/smc.shtml
Vang, C. 2005. Minority Students are Far from Academic Success and Still At-Risk in
Public Schools. Multicultural Education College of Education at California State University Vol.
12 No. 4, 9. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ727794.
Weiss, H., Caspe, M. & Lopez, M. E . 2006. Family Involvement in Early Childhood
Education. Harvard Graduate School of Education. No. 1. Retrieved January 2, 2017 from:
http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources/browse-our-publications/family-involvement-in-
early-childhood-education
Yonkers Public Schools. 2016. 3 Year Strategic Plan 2016 2019: Creating a Foundation
for Success: Innovation, Inspiration, and Excellence for All. Retrieved January 2, 2017 from
http://www.yonkerspublicschools.org/cms/lib011/NY01814060/Centricity/Shared/docs/strategic-
plan/Yonkers-Public-Schools-Strategic-Plan.pdf.
Yonkers Thrives Home. Retrieved February 26, 2017, from
https://www.yonkersthrives.org/ (Cover Page Image from Yonkers Thrives)