Program Successes for 2011:

Friends NY targets three primary goals for our Achievers:

1. Graduate high school with a plan for the future
2. Avoid the juvenile justice system
3. Delay parenthood until adulthood

Within the first goal, we’ve had many academic successes:

• 100% of our high school Achievers remained in school compared to the 24% drop-out rate reported by the State Comptroller’s Office for the population we serve.
• 75% of our Achievers who took the Algebra Regents Test passed compared to a passing rate of 50% for the schools they attend.  In Geometry 50% passed compared to 37% of their same-school peers. One of the high school guidance counselors commented, “If it were not for your work, Regents testing would not even be in the vocabulary of the kids in your program.”
• 91% of our Achievers scored above the 50th percentile in Math and 92% of our Achievers scored above the 50th percentile in Literacy on a nationally standardized achievement test battery.
• 91% of our Achievers showed a growth of one year or more in Math and 89% showed a growth of one year or more in Literacy the past school year.
• 97% of our Achievers were promoted to the next grade compared to a city-wide rate of 89%.
• The school attendance rate for the past year for our Achievers was 96% compared to a 90% attendance rate for all NYC schools.

For our second goal, avoiding the juvenile justice system involvement, over our ten-year history only one of our Achievers has been involved with the juvenile justice system.  Based on projections from the U.S. Department of Justice we would have expected nine of our Achievers over the age of twelve to have been involved, an 89% improvement.

Our third goal, delaying parenthood until adulthood, only one of our Achievers has become a teen parent compared to a projection of six, based on statistics from the New York City Department of Social Services, an 83% improvement.

Social and Emotional Development:

• Over the time of their participation in the program, Achievers improved their social skills, such as making friends easily and getting along well with other children.
• Achievers increased their self-esteem and self-confidence, but for many of the children maintaining a positive self-image remains an ongoing challenge.
• Teachers indicate improvements in social contacts with peers, particularly in socializing and interacting with classmates and having lots of friends.

Making Good Choices:

• Assessments indicate that incidents of violent and/or illegal behavior have decreased among the Achievers over time. Given that aggression and anger were two of the most prominent characteristics found among the children at the time of selection into the program, and given that many of the Achievers have family members with criminal involvement, the fact that these behaviors have decreased among Achievers is striking.
• Another area in which improvements over time for Achievers were found was authority acceptance in the classroom, particularly breaking things and property damage.
• All teachers that were interviewed noted the positive difference that the program has on the Achievers’ behavior in the classroom.