Building Blocks for Better Schools: How the Next Mayor Can Prepare New York's Students for College and Careers

The shift in education reform to a goal of college and career readiness for all students is a change that has been embraced widely across the country. The challenge of designing new policies and programs that could accomplish the goal that all students should graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college and career is tremendous. The pressing question now is whether and how students, schools, and the New York City public school system can move this ambitious goal from rhetoric to reality. To help understand this change, the challenge it presents for schools and students in New York City, and the ways in which philanthropy might help move New York City's schools closer to the goal, Philanthropy New York commissioned a set of three papers. This paper, the third in the series, combines research from the other two papers in this series, and identifies a series of priorities for building on what New York City has already achieved to enable the City to increase the number of students who graduate "ready for success" in college and careers. The following is appended: The City Budget and Mayoral Discretion. [For the first paper in this series, "College and Career Readiness in Context," see ED562071. For the second paper in this series, "The Experiences of One New York City High School Cohort: Opportunities, Successes, and Challenges," see ED562061. For the "Initiative Overview & Summary of Research," see ED562084.]