A letter from the midst of a pandemic
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Dear Friends,
What a difficult time to be a child in New York City!
Amidst a global pandemic, economic turmoil and forced isolation, ESPI’s City Smart Scholars have been persevering. Most ESPI families live in neighborhoods where the virus is most present, including in the worst affected areas in East Elmhurst and Corona, Queens. For two thirds of our students, who live in the Bronx, the infection rate was 28 percent above the city average as of April 19, with that percentage rising as testing expands. The Bronx has the highest fatality rate for coronavirus cases in the city. For some it is difficult to practice consistent social distancing in small apartments, often shared with their extended families. In addition, low income wage earners make up a disproportionate share of the city's “essential” workers: nursing aides, caregivers, grocery store clerks, Uber drivers, janitors, delivery workers and mass transit personnel. Our students face economic risk, as unemployment skyrockets and health risk where parents and family members put themselves, and their families, in danger of exposure while going to work.
It is in this unsettled, worrisome mood that I write to you, and yet there is still such good news to share… With our continued hard work and commitment, a promising future lies ahead for our talented kids despite current circumstances.
Please allow me to thank you in advance for your continued support,
Vizhier Mooney
President, ESPI: City Smart Scholars
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SPRING 2020 HAS LAUNCHED ESPI’s 5th YEAR!
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We started off on a positive note on February 1, having just completed a wonderful Fall 2019, with full Saturday classes of 6th, 7th and 8th graders at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. The 8th graders took the SHSAT in October after a summer and early fall of rigorous prep work while a group of 6th graders took the Hunter test in January. Results of both are discussed in Program Chair and ESPI Founder, Andy McCord’s report. (see below)
February 2020, marked the fifth year in which ESPI welcomed a new class of students to the multi-year City Smart Scholars program. An interview process conducted by Kyle Somersall, a veteran teacher and also the creator of ESPI’s Mindfulness program, set a welcoming tone for this year’s admitted students and families, while also requiring students to look Kyle in the eye and commit to a challenging multi-year journey.
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Among the 41 new students, I met Delilah, Joshua and Idriss over our lunch break on the first day. Though coming from different schools, they were already fast friends! You can meet them here:
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The ESPI “Class of 2023” comes from 21 different elementary schools and 28 different zip codes. All have 90+ percentile records in their schooling so far. Half will be first generation undergraduates when they enter college.
Building on the experience we have now had and the organizational improvements we have made, we are determined to deliver for these 5th graders and their families over the next four years.
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A TRANSIT TO “DISTANCE LEARNING”
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Our online classes have been a wonderful success and here is why:
ESPI managed to host six Saturday sessions at our program headquarters in the Silberman School For Social Work at Hunter College in East Harlem. Friendships and commitment were consolidated before transitioning to remote learning. During this time our operations director, Francesca Bacon, kept a keen eye on the increasing likelihood of remote learning. She communicated with all the families about the upcoming change. ESPI’s interns reached out to students to gauge their internet and tech needs. Students who did not have computers were able to access them through their schools or were supplied by ESPI. Families who did not have WiFi at home are able to use their cellular network to access the internet. A week before we officially went online Francesca set up remote access ESPI accounts for all the students and we then sent them home with all the printed materials necessary to continue classes as a safeguard should their online access fail or be slow to materialize.
ESPI’s online learning uses a combination of Google Classroom to exchange home work and lesson plans and Google Meet to conduct online classes. Our small army of 5 teachers, 4 instructors, and 3 interns,1 near-peer mentor, and two administrators conduct the Saturday 9am to 4pm sessions. At the start of each day, interns note attendance and text or call students that are not present online. (In the four weeks we have conducted class, ESPI has had a 98% attendance rate.). Our teachers and instructors have had an increased amount of work to do to prepare for remote learning. We decided to break the classes into smaller groups for a more intimate and attentive environment and this has worked well though the teachers have had to conduct multiple lessons - actually teaching the same class four times to groups of 5 - students at a time. Participation among many of our students has been roundly enthusiastic. In fact, some students who were shy in the classrooms are blossoming online. Furthermore, at the request of many of our students, ESPI has extended online sessions into the week. Midweek our teachers now provide one on one help along with small study groups sessions.
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2020 Admissions Report by ESPI Founder Andy McCord
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September 2020 will be the second year that a full cohort of ESPI students enter 9
th
grade. In this group we have worked with 43 students. Three subsequently moved out of the city. Two students left after their 5th grade spring for Prep for Prep and are now at top private schools on scholarship. One student entered Hunter College High School in 7th grade. Of the remaining 37 students,
12 have received offers from specialized high schools, including 1 to Stuyvesant, 2 to Bronx Science and 3 to Brooklyn Tech
. Both of our students with offers from Bronx Science are actually from the Bronx. Additionally, our two students who received offers from the High School of Math, Science and Engineering, a smaller specialized high school on the City College campus, and had scores qualifying them for Bronx Science had they preferred that school. All but one of our students accepted to a specialized high school are Black or Latinx.
Overall our students this year had a
32 percent success rate on the SHSAT
, an improvement over the 25 percent SHSAT success rate last year. Our results are already considerably better than the success rate for the Ronald Lauder Foundation’s intensive tutoring program last fall, which had a 16 percent success rate, or the publicly funded NYC Dream program, which does not announce its results, but we estimate at a 19 percent success rate for Black and Latinx students.
More significant is the
53 percent SHSAT success rate for students who continue in 7th grade with ESPI
. Perseverance pays off and longevity with ESPI is correlating with greater success in high school admissions.
ESPI 8th graders also received offers from many other highly selective high schools, including
Bard High School Early College, Beacon, NEST+M and Columbia Secondary
among public high schools and
Regis, Horace Mann, Friends Seminary and Hotchkiss
among private and parochial schools.
On the admissions test for Hunter College High School, which is given in 6th grade for admission to the 7-12 school, one ESPI student succeeded. This was a come down from last year when four students were successful.
Our overall success rate on Hunter admissions is 10 percent over the four years we have worked on this test
. This is about double the rate for all students who attempt Hunter’s idiosyncratic and very difficult admissions test. We aim to do much better in the future by continuing to emphasize mastery of foundational skills in English and math and out-of-the-box thinking in math and as writers.
As we bring in new students and families each year, we can say with increasing confidence that if they stick with us we will stick with them, and that all of us will be proud of the destinations we arrive at together.
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ESPI Welcomes New Board Member
ESPI welcomed the newest board member to our team, esteemed educator John Loonam. John was an English teacher and Assistant Principal for 35 years and has spent the last ten years at Hunter College High School. We are grateful to have his experience and expertise advising our board as well as instructing our students.
Fundraising Challenges
Like many non-profit organizations, ESPI has felt the impact of social distancing and the severe downturn in the economy. Important fundraisers this spring have had to be canceled and we have heard news that our grant applications have been temporarily put on hold. Our ability to provide consistent and high level service to our students has been made more difficult by these obstacles. We are communicating with our supporters individually and are optimistic regarding their continued support, especially in light of our successful transition to distance learning. We also plan to host online fundraising campaigns through social media when the timing is right. Every donation, large or small, matters. Please consider initiating or continuing your support today. You may do so through the following link:
https://espi.nyc/donate/
or contacting Francesca Bacon: fbacon@espi.nyc.
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