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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by David Adams, Chief Executive Officer of Urban Assembly
7:45:41
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145 sec
David Adams, CEO of Urban Assembly, expresses gratitude for baselining funding for the affinity network in the city budget. He highlights the success of Urban Assembly schools in supporting underserved students and achieving above-average outcomes.
- Urban Assembly schools have a 90% graduation rate, with particularly high rates for students with disabilities.
- The affinity model combines social-emotional learning, career education, and innovative practices like AI integration.
- Adams emphasizes the return on investment, noting that new partner schools have increased graduation rates by an average of 20% over five years.
David Adams
7:45:41
Thank you.
7:45:42
Good evening, Chair Joseph.
7:45:44
Good evening, Chair Brennan.
7:45:45
I am David Adams.
7:45:46
I'm chief executive officer of the Urban Assembly and I want to begin by expressing my deep gratitude to the council for recognizing the value of the affinity network by calling for its funding to be baseline in this year's city budget.
7:45:58
I want to also thank the administration for ensuring that the executive budget includes that baseline reflecting an investment in education, innovation, and equity as well as economic and social mobility of New York City public schools students.
7:46:12
As a member of the affinity network, the Urban Assembly supports 22 public high schools across the city providing unscreened career connected education to students, many of who testified earlier today around the importance of CPR who are often furthest from opportunity.
7:46:27
We do this while achieving outcomes that are consistently exceeding citywide averages particularly for our most vulnerable learners.
7:46:33
Me go through some of those outcomes.
7:46:35
In 2023, our graduation rate was over ninety percent, nearly six points above the city's average for students with disabilities.
7:46:41
Our our schools graduated eighty three percent, a full 19 points higher than the citywide average, And we've narrowed or closed the racial achievement gap that persists across the systems.
7:46:50
In fact, we've reversed the citywide, blackwhite, and Hispanicwhite gaps by four to 10 percentage points.
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This is what equity looks like in action and this is what it looks like to invest in all learners.
7:47:00
The affinity model works because it leverages trusted mission driven partners like the Urban Assembly to deliver high impact school based supports and our approach combines social and emotional learning, career and technical education, post secondary planning, work based learning, and instructional coaching while also driving innovation like the integration of AI into classrooms.
7:47:17
We don't just support individual schools, we scale effective practices system wide.
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Baselining affinity affirms the city's belief in this proven model and unlocks the ability to plan and invest over the long term.
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The results speak for themselves.
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New Urban Assembly partner schools have increased graduation rates by an average of 20% over five years.
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The return on investment is undeniable.
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Our innovations like AI, graduation tracking, crew, English as a new language, social and emotional learning, and portfolio based feedback have produced meaningful impacts for students in New York City public schools, and we won't stop there.
7:47:51
Chair Joseph, members of the committee, thank you for your partnership, thank you for your advocacy, your leadership ensures that equity and excellence remains sustainable for all students in this city.
7:48:01
Thank you for recognizing the value in this work and thank you for standing with us to ensure the future.