Education Pipeline

Pipeline News & Updates

Online Updates from the Senior Vice Chancellor
for Community Colleges and the Education Pipeline

The State University of New York’s (SUNY) Offices of the Education Pipeline and Community Colleges are focused on advancing the goals in SUNY’s strategic plan to strengthen the education pipeline and support economic growth and revitalization in New York State. So many of you have worked closely with us over the last several years to put in place strategies and initiatives to make a difference in the lives of students from cradle to career. You have generously shared your time, expertise, and guidance. I thank you for your support, commitment, and dedication to this important work.

Over the last several months, there have been many new major developments and updates within our operation - including a number of transformational new initiatives - which we want to share with you. A number of you have asked for more information on the work that we do and how it aligns to the work of partners across the cradle to career continuum. Based on your feedback and recommendations, we will use this website to share news and updates on developments related to the education pipeline and community colleges as they occur so that you can stay up-to-date with our work. 

Thank you again for your continued support and partnership in our work to strengthen the education pipeline in New York State and to help more students graduate from high school and college prepared for 21^st century careers and citizenship.

Johanna Duncan-Poitier 

News for Spring 2013

• The Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Community Colleges and the Education Pipeline has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP). SUNY campuses with graduate-level and postdoctoral programs in STEM disciplines that are interested in putting in place an innovative STEM education program are urged to apply. Please view the RFP here. There is an application date of June 17th, 2013. Questions and requests for additional information can be directed to Phillip Ortiz (portiz@esc.edu). Link to RFP here.

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News for Fall 2012

• Over 200 partners in education attended the Advancing the Future of Teacher and School Leader Education Convening in Albany, NY

          Read more: http://blog.suny.edu/2012/11/suny-launches-statewide-teacher-education-network/

• SUNY Community Colleges Receive $14.6M Training & Education Grant

• SUNY/NYAS Partnership Receives $2.9M to Scale Afterschool STEM Mentoring Program

• SUNY and Partners Represent New York State in the National Strive Cradle to Career Convening in Milwaukee

• SUNY Works Partners with the Business Council of New York State

SUNY Launches Statewide Teacher Education Network (S-TEN)

Albany – State University of New York Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher, along with faculty and administrators from throughout SUNY, launched the system’s Statewide Teacher Education Network (S-TEN) at a national teacher education summit in Albany, where faculty leaders in teacher and school leader education shared best practices now underway at SUNY campuses. By Fall 2014, S-TEN will enable SUNY to establish a network of institutions with the shared purpose of renewing and improving the preparation of teachers and educational leaders throughout New York, engaging SUNY faculty across the state who prepare future teachers and educational leaders in high quality professional development and research. 

“S-TEN will be a broadly inclusive learning community for teacher educators the likes of which New York has never before seen,” said Chancellor Zimpher. “Teaching is an evolving profession and the education of New York’s future teachers is a top priority for SUNY. S-TEN will help us stay at the forefront of developing teacher education initiatives and ultimately provide New York’s schoolchildren with teachers and schools leaders of the highest quality.”

 “S-TEN is an unprecedented statewide effort led by SUNY in partnership with the state Education Department and P-12 educators across New York to ensure that we are delivering the best possible crop of teachers and school leaders for the next generation,” said SUNY Senior Vice Chancellor for Community Colleges and the Education Pipeline Johanna Duncan-Poitier.

This year, SUNY was awarded $3.5 million in Race to the Top funds by the New York State Education Department to develop and implement a comprehensive teacher and school leader education initiative in collaboration with SUNY faculty to advance the future of teacher and school leader preparation in order to meet the needs of New York State schools. By drawing on the best and brightest faculty and administrative leaders from throughout SUNY, and gathering expertise from external partners, SUNY will collaboratively develop a powerful new approach to the preparation of teachers by addressing four critical areas:

• Common Core Standards;

• Performance assessments, including certification examinations and performance evaluations;

• Data-driven instruction; and

• Clinically-rich teacher and leader preparation.

Through a series of faculty development and research opportunities, S-TEN will enable SUNY to lead campus faculty as they engage with their P-12 partners in education to implement clinically-rich teacher and leader preparation strategies within the four areas, both before and after certification.

Since the design phase and beginning this fall, campus-based SUNY teams have worked in coordination with campus presidents, chief academic officers, deans, and faculty across the schools of education and the colleges of arts and sciences to create campus-based and regional plans of action for the preparation of future teachers and school leaders. Next, their work will be coupled with opportunities to participate in communities of practice, a rigorous action research agenda, and the development of regional centers of pedagogy-like structures, where SUNY faculty can interact and engage in leading transformative change.

At the summit, which was held during American Education Week, Chancellor Zimpher provided a keynote address, followed by featured speakers Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford University’s Charles E. Docummun professor of education; Sharon Robinson, president of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education; and Merryl H. Tisch, chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents; John B. King, commissioner of education and president of the University of the State of New York; Johanna Duncan-Poitier, SUNY Senior Vice Chancellor for the Education Pipeline and Community Colleges; and Christine Givner, SUNY Fredonia dean and professor, and chair of the S-TEN Design Team. "The SUNY teacher and leader preparation network convening represents a powerful demonstration of the SUNY teacher education community's commitment to our ongoing work to improve the preparation of educators and to ensure effective teachers and leaders for P-12 schools," said Givner.

SUNY Community Colleges Receive $14.6M Training & Education Grant

Thanks to the unprecedented collaboration between SUNY's 30 community colleges, the dedicated work of a small team of grant writers from across the SUNY network, the support of the New York State  congressional delegation, and the engagement of our partnership with the business community ,the U.S. Department of Labor awarded a $14.6 million grant to the community colleges to design, implement, and deliver a strategic approach to job training and education for high-need industries in the field of advanced manufacturing. This systemwide collaboration will provide more than 3,000 of New York’s Trade Adjustment Assistance-eligible workers and unemployed veterans with the training and education required to find high-quality, high-wage jobs within the advanced manufacturing sector.

“Developing a strong collective voice with a competitive, innovative and executable action plan is what the Power of SUNY is all about,” said Senior Vice Chancellor Duncan-Poitier to the participating college presidents. "This is a perfect example of 'systemness' and how we are making a difference for our students. As a result of all our colleges choosing to work together, we've been able to respond to the workforce development needs of thousands of displaced adults and unemployed veterans … and this is just the beginning. With this funding, SUNY is well-positioned to be an even stronger national leader in workforce development. It is our hope that the power of this unprecedented collaboration will leverage other resources, including the considerable funding under SUNY 2020 to support our important work."

U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis visited MCC’s Applied Technologies Center on September 24, 2012 with SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher to highlight the importance of the grant. To read more about her visit, click here. To watch video highlights, click on the image below.

The grant, issued as part of the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program, will allow the SUNY Consortium of Community Colleges, with Monroe Community College (MCC) as the lead campus, to design curricula to directly address the needs of industry employers via its new Training and Education in Advanced Manufacturing (TEAM) Educational Pathways Project.

To learn more about the TEAM Educational Pathways Project, click here.

Full news release, including information about the hundreds of business and industry partners

SUNY/NYAS Partnership Receives $2.9M to Scale Afterschool STEM Mentoring Program

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $2.95 million grant to SUNY System Administration, the New York Academy of Sciences (Academy), and SUNY Empire State College (ESC). The Informal Science Education grant will help bring to scale a successful after-school program in which graduate students and postdoctoral fellows mentor middle school students from high-need school districts in STEM.

More specifically, the grant will enable SUNY and the Academy to introduce the program in urban and rural communities throughout New York State over the next three years. Initially, it will be implemented by SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, the University at Albany College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering in the Capital District, and SUNYIT in Utica and Rome. The campuses were selected for their geographical diversity, STEM-focused degree programs, and existing partnerships with community-based organizations.

The project will create a foundation and model from which additional pilot sites can be fostered nationally. It will be carried out in three stages:

• Together, SUNY and the Academy will implement a comprehensive, systemic science education initiative to recruit scientists-in-training (graduate students and postdoctoral fellows) studying in the STEM disciplines at pre-identified colleges and universities to serve as mentors in high-need middle school programs.

• The scientists-in-training will participate in a new credit-bearing online course, designed with STEM content-specific subject matter and worth three graduate-level academic credits. Faculty from SUNY Empire State College will partner with the Academy and each participating campus to prepare the mentors using the new course.

• SUNY campuses will partner with community-based organizations to place mentors in afterschool programs, serving middle school students in high-need, low-resource urban and rural communities.

Project implementation will be coordinated by Principal Investigators from all three partners, including Johanna Duncan-Poitier, Senior Vice Chancellor for Community Colleges and the Education Pipeline (SUNY Admin); Jill Lansing, Assistant Vice Chancellor for the Education Pipeline (SUNY Admin); Dr. Meghan Groome, Director of K12 Science Education Initiatives (New York Academy of Sciences); and Dr. Phil Ortiz, Area Coordinator and Mentor for the Center for Distance Learning (SUNY Empire State College).

Full press release

To learn more about the STEM Mentoring program from students themselves, click on image below to watch a video from the New York Academy of Science's website.

SUNY and Partners Represent New York State in the National Strive Cradle to Career Convening in Milwaukee

A delegation of representatives of New York cradle to career networks in Albany, Rochester, Brooklyn, and the South Bronx participated in the National Strive Cradle to Career Convening in Milwaukee at the end of September. Over 350 educators, elected officials, community leaders, business leaders and others representing 60 communities in 31 states attended the annual event.

The convening, titled “Moving from Proving to Improving,” explored how communities building a Cradle to Career civic infrastructure use data more effectively to improve academic achievement. As described on the Strive Network website, "Data has been the informant, the translator, and the compass in a lot of what we do; but historically, data has also been the punisher, penalizing organizations and programs when scores or outcomes have slipped.  Yes, data needs to motivate change. But instead of using data to prove success or failure, we will have more impact when we use it to continuously improve the kinds of supports we provide to ensure every one of our children is successful." 

A cadre of speakers with expertise in the development of cradle to career networks and on the power of collective impact were featured at the event, including SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher; Strive Managing Director, Jeff Edmondson; Milwaukee County District Attorney, John Chisholm; Paul Schmitz, CEO of Public Allies; Patrick McCarthy, CEO of Annie E. Casey Foundation; Deborah Delisle, Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Education; Mike Lovell, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; and Stacey Stewart, Executive Vice President of United Way Worldwide.

Convening workshop presenters included two members of SUNY's Education Pipeline Team - Pat Brown and Margaret Ashida. To view their presentations or read the transcripts, click the links below:

• Integrating Community Voice: How Two Communities Operationalize Grassroots Engagement into the Cradle to Career Civic Infrastructure (Pat Brown, SUNY; Chris Cutter, Zone 126)

• Strive + STEM = Success² (Pat Brown, SUNY; Margaret Ashida, SUNY; William Becker, Portland State University; Mary Adams, Greater Cincinnati STEM Innovation Collaborative)

SUNY Works Partners with the Business Council of New York State

SUNY took a giant step forward in connecting business and industry partners with higher education to offer more students the opportunity to participate in cooperative education (co-op) experiences and better prepare them for the 21^st century workforce.

Our SUNY Works Cooperative Education Program Manager, Paula Perna, participated in the annual Business Council of New York State’s meeting in September to share the benefits of co-op education to business/industry, and ways in which employers can support scale-up and sustainability of the initiative. Several chamber of commerce members from across the state, members of the New York State Assembly, the board chair of the Manufacturing Association of New York (MACNY), and many other private sector business/industry representatives (e.g., GlobalFoundries, Citibank, Verizon, NYSEG, General Mills) shared enthusiasm and interest in a partnership with SUNY, while a number testified to the role that co-op and other internship experiences played in forming their own careers.

SUNY Works is funded by a grant from the Lumina Foundation. Learn more about this partnership