P-TECH Black Males 2015 & 2016

For more than two decades I have been working in New York City Department of Education high schools. Since 2011, I have been the founding principal of Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH), an education reform model that includes public and private collaborations with high schools, colleges, and industry. P-TECH includes grades 9-14 (the first two years of college) where students can earn a high school diploma, industry experience and a free-associate in applied science degree without remediation. Our college partner is the City University of New York's (CUNY) New York City College of Technology (City Tech) and P-TECH students have two pathways in Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM). The two STEM pathways are computer information systems and electromechanical engineering technology and graduates are first in line for job opportunities with our industry partner, IBM. P-TECH is now replicated in 11 states in the USA and 5 of those states have already produced STEM college graduates 3 or 4 years after 9th grade. Additionally, P-TECH is replicated in more than 20 countries outside of the USA. For me, the litmus test has been the performance of Black males who are the majority of our student population. An independent evaluation released by MDRC showed that in seven P-TECH schools in New York City, students were more college ready and more likely to pass state regents exams. Please click on the link to read and share with your communities (https://www.mdrc.org/news/press-release/interim-findings-nyc-s-p-tech-9-14-schools-show-students-earn-more-credits-are). As President Barack Obama said on October 25, 2013, “P-TECH is Proof of What Can Be Accomplished, But We’ve Got to Have the Courage to do it”.

I credit P-TECH’s early exposure to matched skills from industry, blending of high school and college, and supports with putting Black males on a path to keep pace with the rapid changes of a knowledge-based economy. The P-TECH public/private partnership model should be included in covid19 economic recovery conversations. I write this fall 2020 as a P-TECH school leader who serves a predominantly black male student population in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The first year of P-TECH's opening, 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests were in full effect and in 2020 Black Lives Matter protests were in full effect. Thus, our first decade of existence is in between income inequality and fighting for Black Lives to Matter. Education and workforce development initiatives are needed now more than ever. Additionally, with more than 70% of CUNY's full-time first-time freshmen coming from NYCDOE schools, P-TECH shows the innovation and inclusion that needs to be championed more.

The above data comes from CUNY's Performance Process Management 2019-2020 Data Explorer. The numbers for 2015 and 2016 are in the charts below.

The chart above shows 40 P-TECH's August 2015 Black males who graduated high school and 27 of them earned two-year STEM degrees by August 2017. The chart also shows 10 CUNY colleges or universities two-year graduation rate of associate full-time first-time freshmen (completed at college of entry), for Black men. P-TECH's 27 Black males are higher than 8 of the 10 CUNY colleges or universities.

The chart above shows 58 P-TECH's August 2016 Black males who graduated high school and 26 of them earned two-year STEM degrees by August 2018. The chart also shows 10 CUNY colleges or universities two-year graduation rate of associate full-time first-time freshmen (completed at college of entry), for Black men. P-TECH's 26 Black males are higher than 8 of the 10 CUNY colleges or universities.

Messaging matters and in education reform there may be no more important message than that which comes from the highest-ranking people in education or those responsible for hiring the highest ranking people. Since P-TECH's announcement in 2010, there have been five Chancellors of New York City schools (Joel Klein, Cathie Black, Dennis Walcott, Carmen Farina, and now Richard Carranza). Additionally, there have been three Chancellors (Matthew Goldstein, James Milliken, and now Felix V. Matos Rodriguez) of the City University of New York (CUNY). The instability of leadership has tremendous implications for New York City. The P-TECH students have shown that a free STEM post-secondary education is not only working but for some we can move faster and the earlier we begin the access to college level work the better. The students have established a culture of STEM college completion, which stretches the high performers and pulls the struggling learners along simultaneously.