The federal funds, awarded by the Corporation for National and Community Service, will be used to train 25 AmeriCorps members who will be deployed in each city this fall to coach students on college and career choices.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the career coaches will serve 1,440 students each year, while coaches in Philadelphia are to reach 1,000 students each year. Though at least one study has demonstrated that past zone programs similar to Promise Zones have not reduced poverty or created jobs, others are optimistic, particularly with the advent of cross-city collaboration.
Testing a strategy in two cities simultaneously will provide unique research opportunities. Those watching the project will be able to identify what works well in both cities, practices that may work well in one place but not another, and practices that perhaps don’t work well at either location. Opportunities for such comparison lend more credibility and scientific rigor to the process so that best practices might be more easily replicated in the future.
The coaching model to be used by the cities was adopted from one used by Chicago Public Schools that places advisors culturally closer to the students they are coaching. Advisors are thought of more as coaches, closer to the age of the students, than older adults who prescribe solutions that students may be less receptive to.
“The grant that they applied for, which appraised high school counselors or a set of near-peer counselors, is based on a model that’s been used in other places and boosted college enrollment by up to 20 percent,” Jed Herrmann, senior adviser to the CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, told NextCity. “What’s really exciting about doing this in two different places is, while there are many challenges that are unique to communities, there are also many shared challenges.”
