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Findings from Transfer Schools and YABCs
Findings from Transfer Schools and YABCs
New York City Public Schools' Learning to Work (LTW) program is a powerful support to youth for whom the traditional school system hasn’t worked. LTW partners community-based organizations (CBOs) with transfer high schools and Young Adult Borough Centers (YABCs) to provide counseling and support services, paid internships, and in-depth postsecondary preparation. Previous research has documented the success of the program in raising graduation rates for students two or more years behind. In the summer and fall of 2023, Eskolta School Research and Design engaged CBO staff, students, principals, and program leaders at 25 transfer schools and 12 YABCs to hear about what LTW looks like at its best.
Here we present the fruits of this research to raise up six core elements at the heart of the program’s success. We follow with recommendations for program practitioners and DOE/CBO central teams for how to address critical challenges.
What does LTW look like at its best?
When we asked youth and program staff this question, here is what we heard:
What does LTW look like at its best?
When we asked youth and program staff this question, here is what we heard:
At its best, LTW offers holistic services, woven together with care. Community and school resources are pooled together to address students’ immediate and academic needs, clearing a path towards success. This means meeting students and families where they are, with responsive, flexible support and referrals for unmet mental health needs, language barriers and legal challenges, housing and food insecurity - all at a time when these needs are growing citywide.
At its best, LTW cultivates supportive, motivating relationships as a foundation for engagement. LTW schools and programs are rooted in youth development and culturally responsive practices, with strategies to ensure all students are connected to an adult. Youth appreciate these relationships; their strengths are nurtured, and they feel understood and engaged in opportunities for growth.
"It's just seeing someone like that believe in me and stuff, it makes me want to be like, okay, I can do it. I'm going to make you proud.” - YABC Alumnus
At its best, LTW provides individualized postsecondary planning that develops from deep knowing relationships, where LTW staff help students explore career options that matter to them, set tangible goals, and then work through obstacles together. With these opportunities to discover and learn from new experiences, students emerge with more confidence, skills, purpose, and hope. They succeed academically and take steps toward the careers and futures they envision.
"I got to try new things and job opportunities and evolve into the person that I am today. There was a time when I was going through hardship at home and I felt panicked. [My AC] was there to help me get through all the emotions and the physical, mental, emotional thoughts that were going through my mind.” - Transfer School Student
At its best, LTW offers paid, purposeful work-based learning that aligns to student interests and builds important skills in a structured, supportive environment. Students engage in on- and off-site internships, certificate-granting programs, and community service projects. Internships are scaffolded to student readiness, with effective onboarding, support and feedback, culturally responsive employers, and opportunities for advancement or future employment.
Our analysis found that when compared to similar LTW students, those who participate in paid work-based learning earn more credits, and are significantly more likely to graduate. Moreover, while students have faced barriers to participation in other programs, LTW work-based learning is at its best inclusive, serving Black and low-income students at higher rates, and students with IEPs at equitable rates.
At its best, CBO and DOE partners understand and value each other, a relationship which is intentionally nurtured through clearly articulated roles and responsibilities, with systems in place for routine communication, information-sharing, and collaborative planning.
At its best, well-resourced and committed staff are trained, supported, and fairly compensated. Staff have the opportunity to develop mastery in their role, with access to onboarding support, mentorship opportunities, toolkits, and communities of practice. At its best, effective staff are retained and vacancies filled, to ensure this population of students - one battered by compounding systems of inequality - has stability.
Looking Ahead
Looking Ahead
Learning to Work is at its best a powerful program. In a city with a growing number of students and families facing financial hardships, LTW has demonstrated success in reengaging students in school, providing them with holistic support, and graduating them into postsecondary pathways they find meaningful.
"I think if the students are at the core and the center of everything we're doing, all those obligations will be fulfilled because that's our real work -- to make sure these students are engaged, they're in school, they're moving forward, and then that they're on a path.”
- CBO Supervisor
But practitioners caution that the program is facing real challenges in this unique moment: staff salaries have not kept up with labor market forces, driving high turnover and vacancy rates; multiple data tracking systems make program monitoring and evaluation a challenge; and the citywide budget crisis has stretched resources thin amidst increases in the number of students and families - including asylum seekers - facing housing and food insecurity or unmet mental health needs. Also, policy shifts like the inclusion of younger “shared instruction” students in YABCs have increased the lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities for LTW staff.
For more details on these challenges and our recommendations below, read our full report:
Part One (Transfer Schools) and Part Two (YABCs)
Our research makes the following recommendations
In order to reduce vacancies and retain CBO staff, increase and align salaries to clarified job responsibilities. Pay should be commensurate with the skills, tasks, and experience required; should align to market value; and should include regular cost-of-living increases.
In light of limited CBO capacity and changing student needs, coordinate access to resources and staff development, including central DOE and CBO support in navigating interagency services for mental health, asylum seekers, housing, and financial support; along with cohesive staff onboarding, tools and guidance.
Put systems in place to cultivate strong partnerships including: clarity in program goals, roles, and approach; regular communication and feedback loops; collaborative inquiry and planning; and shared data systems.
Given an evolving postsecondary landscape, continue to diversify paid work-based learning opportunities beyond internships. Create a centralized hub for high-quality, inclusive WBL experiences, including access to certificate-granting programs. Ensure tools for monitoring are grounded in clear guidelines for quality, while still centering student voice and fostering their growth.
For YABCs specifically: YABCs have transformed from recuperative spaces for older youth to spaces that currently serve a majority of younger “shared instruction” students who attend school during the day before joining the YABC in the evening. CBOs have had to negotiate how they provide services at the site level. Recommendation: Clarify the program model for YABCs, including which students are served, how, and when, as well as how clear lines of responsibility are distributed across CBO and DOE roles.
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