PromiseNet Week Is Here!

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At the center of Thursday’s Cities of Promise Town Hall — to be held in the School of Management’s new campus, Edward P. Evans Hall — is the case study focused on the national Promise movement, the country’s premier place-based scholarship and economic development program. Representatives of Promise organizations from across the United States will discuss the challenges and opportunities in knitting together the various Promise organizations into a more formal network for collective impact.

“Promise programs share a big vision and role vital to tackling the challenges facing our nation around college access and success,” said Andrew Metrick, Deputy Dean of the Yale School of Management. “We have already established a relationship with New Haven Promise and its Promising Leaders initiative, pursuant to which our graduate students mentor and develop New Haven Promise’s scholars. We are pleased to assist the Promise community through utilization of our unique Yale case study method in support of this year’s PromiseNet conference.”

The event will be moderated by Emmy Award winner Jack Ford, who is a co-founder of the American Education Television Network. On the stage with Ford will be Dr. Janice Brown, a trustee of The Kalamazoo Promise, Saleem Ghubril, Executive Director of The Pittsburgh Promise, Patricia Melton, Executive Director of New Haven Promise and Dr. Gabriella Gonzalez, a sociologist at the RAND Corporation who has closely examined Promise programs.

Below is an overview of the case study — PromiseNet: Toward a More Unified Network? — authored by Rosalind Wiggins, Project Editor at the Yale School of Management. Download the full case study.

Here are some housekeeping items for attendees:

• Trainspotting — If you are taking either Amtrak or Metro North into New Haven, it is about a 15-minute walk to the Omni Hotel. You would walk north on Union Street (bear left under the bridge) to either George or Crown Streets, where you’d make a left. You’d walk three blocks to Temple Street and turn right and the hotel will be on the right side of the street. As the walk does go under a dark highway overpass, we recommend a short cab ride (roughly $6) at night.

• Some Sweet Deals — Several merchants are offering special rates for PromiseNet attendees. That includes everything from lunch and dinner to cookies… and even a variety of Mojitos! Special thanks to our friends at Visit New Haven for pulling together these wonderful values!

• Making Yourself Known — We still encourage attendees to send us your bios and photo if you’d like to let folks know you are coming to PromiseNet. We have roughly 75 bios and photos online and would be happy to create a page for you to help network. Please email Brett Hoover with your bio and image.

• Comfy Shoes, Hats & Gloves — New Haven is a green city. In fact, a half-block away from the Omni Hotel is the famous New Haven Green. Because it is a city designed for walking, we encourage attendees to join in the spirit and walk to some of the conference locales, which are all within a mile of the hotel. The extended forecast is calling for sunny, but cold and perhaps windy, conditions.

• Freeing Up Your Signal — There is not free WiFi in rooms at the Omni, unless you sign up for the Omni Loyalty Program, which means you will likely get member notifications and such. There is free WiFi in the lobby of the hotel.

More Than 100 Organizations Coming To PromiseNet 2014

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There are certainly more to come, but more than 100 organizations from 20 states and Washington, D.C., have signed up for PromiseNet 2014. We will add to the list as more registrants emerge and we encourage you to follow us on Facebook.

We encourage everyone to register before the event as we will be pulling together materials for networking opportunities and more. We want everyone to get the most from their visit to New Haven!

ARKANSAS

Arkadelphia Promise
El Dorado Public Schools
Murphy Oil Corporation
The El Dorado Promise
University of Arkansas

CALIFORNIA

10,000 Degrees
City of Richmond
East Bay College Fund
Fulfillment Fund
Humboldt Area Foundation
La Piana Consulting
PACE Promise
Richmond Community Foundation
San Marcos Unified School District
West Contra Costa Unified School District
Youth 2 Leaders Education Foundation

COLORADO

Denver Scholarship Foundation

CONNECTICUT

Albertus Magnus College
American Savings Foundation
Centerplan Development Company
Central Connecticut State University
Cities of Promise
City of New Haven
College Summit Connecticut
Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
Connecticut Center for Arts & Technology
Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN)
Connecticut Community Foundation
Connecticut State Colleges & Universities
Cook & Williams Consulting
Data Haven
Eastern Connecticut State University
Edge Development
Elm City Housing Authority
Excel Bridgeport
Freeman Chiropractic
Gateway Community College
Group C, Inc.
Hartford Consortium for Higher Education
Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
Hartford Public Schools
Higher Heights Youth Empowerment
Horizons at the Foote School
Livable Cities Initiative
Marcum LLP
New Haven Academy
New Haven Police Department
New Haven Promise
New Haven Public Schools
New Haven Works
Omni New Haven Hotel
Peter & Patricia Gruber Foundation
Public Square Partnership
Quinnipiac University
Say Yes to Education
Southern Connecticut State University
Stamford Achieves
START Bank
Teach For America
Teach Our Children
University of Connecticut
University of New Haven
U.S. Grant Foundation
Yale Art Gallery
Yale New Haven Hospital
Yale School of Management
Yale University
ZOOM Foundation

FLORIDA

Buffalo Scholarship Foundation, Inc.

INDIANA

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis

MASSACHUSETTS

Harvard University, Center for Education Policy Research
Mount Holyoke College
Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps

MARYLAND

Montgomery College

MICHIGAN

Community Link Foundation
Detroit Regional Chamber
Grand Rapids Community Foundation
Pontiac Promise Zone
Public Policy Associates
The Kalamazoo Promise
Upjohn Institute

NEVADA

Fulfillment Fund

NEW JERSEY

Cooperman College Scholars
Pathways to College

NEW YORK

Education Pioneers
NYC Promise
Say Yes to Education – Buffalo
Syracuse University

NORTH CAROLINA

The Cleveland County Promise

OHIO

Akron Promise
American Education Television
Montgomery County Ohio College Promise

OREGON

Gateway to College

PENNSYLVANIA

City of Lancaster
Karmarush
Pittsburgh Promise
RAND Corporation
School District of Lancaster
University of Pittsburgh, Learning Research and Development Center

RHODE ISLAND

A Door To The Future
Providence Children & Youth Cabinet
Rhode Island Foundation
Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council

TEXAS

Tyler Junior College

VIRGINIA

City of Richmond
Richmond Public Schools Education Foundation

WASHINGTON STATE

Redeeming America’s Promise

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Georgetown University

WISCONSIN

Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation
La Crosse Promise

Mayor Toni Harp To Participate At PromiseNet 2014

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New Haven’s Mayor Toni Harp will play an active role at PromiseNet 2014, which will take place in her Elm City from Nov. 19 to Nov. 21.

Mayor Harp — who helped inspire a new session at PromiseNet called “Speed Data’ing: The Promise of Big Data in Changing Our Cities” — has taken an info-driven approach to address persisting social issues in her city. To better analyze and evaluate both problems and solutions, she has pushed to connect data which has been largely disconnected. The Speed Data’ing session will be moderated by Kellogg Foundation Fellow Mark Abraham, who has been studying New Haven as the Executive Director of Data Haven.

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Mayor Harp, who sits on the five-member Board of Directors for New Haven Promise, will also moderate Thursday afternoon’s “The Politics of Promise,” which will explore political stability for these programs of “public good,” particularly in times of transition. She will also address the need for local industry to bring home the Promise investment by hiring young people who want to return to their city… Students whose footprints as role models extend deeply into each neighborhood.

The Promise movement is a powerful means to motivate, incentivize and inspire their young people and the nation’s Promise programs — which are as diverse as our scholars — have doled out a conservative $150 million in private funding for students so far, but that figure could grow exponentially in the next few years.

Two dozen established or aspiring Promise programs from across the country have already registered while many more have expressed intention or interest to explore the initiative at PromiseNet. The states represented include Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.

If you are interested, we invite you to join us in New Haven. Omni New Haven Hotel rates and registration rates are locked until Oct. 30, so there is little time to delay. PromiseNet is going to be great, but even better with you!

Four Studies To Be Discussed At PromiseNet

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Research will play an important role at PromiseNet 2014 as studies from four prominent Promise programs will be examined.

First will be an examination of the early progress of New Haven Promise, presented by Dr. Gabrielle C. Gonzalez and Lindsay Daugherty of the RAND Corporation and Patricia Melton of New Haven Promise. Since Promise’s 2010 launch, RAND has been researching and analyzing its implementation and the changes in the college-going culture in New Haven. The results of that study will be the focus of a 10:30 am session on Thursday, November 20, at the Omni New Haven Hotel.

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Dr. Gonzalez will moderate a second session — entitled Research from the Field: Three Studies of Promise — that afternoon, intended to give a close look at the results of Promise programs in Buffalo, N.Y., El Dorado, Ark., and Kalamazoo, Mich.

pnet-logo-300wSyracuse University researchers Ross Rubenstein, Robert Bifulco and Honsung Sohn will present findings on the effects of Say Yes to Education in Buffalo, using rich administrative data from that City’s school district. They have estimated the impact of the college scholarship on high school completion and college going.

University of Arkansas researchers Dr. Gary W. Ritter and Jennifer W. Ash are similarly estimating the impact of the El Dorado Promise, particularly on high school graduation rates before and after its implementation. Their comparisons do not just include pre- and post-Promise rates in El Dorado, but also focus on similar students in similar school districts.

W.E. Upjohn Institute researchers Brad Hershbein, Timothy Bartik and Marta Lachowska have examined the longer-term effects of the Kalamazoo Promise, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year. Dr. Michelle Miller-Adams of Upjohn will present the findings and discuss the implications of the results on the possibility for place-based programs to promote educational opportunity and alleviate social inequality.

Dr. Miller-Adams will frame the conversation about the impact of Promise programs by drawing on her forthcoming e-book on the evolution of the Promise movement.

Yale President Salovey To Deliver Keynote

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The 23rd President of Yale University — Peter Salovey — will serve as the keynote speaker at PromiseNet 2014 in New Haven, Conn., on Thursday, November 20. The chair of the New Haven Promise Board of Directors, Salovey is an award-winning instructor in the field of “emotional intelligence,” the theory he helped popularize in his research with John Mayer of the University of New Hampshire.

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Prior to becoming president, Salovey served as the provost of Yale University from 2008 to 2013. As provost, Salovey facilitated strategic planning and initiatives such as: enhancing career development and mentoring opportunities for all Yale faculty members; promoting faculty diversity; creating the Office of Academic Integrity; establishing the University-wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct; developing the West Campus; and overseeing the University’s budget during the global financial crisis.

Other leadership roles at Yale have included: chair of the Department of Psychology from 2000 to 2003; dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 2003 and 2004; and dean of Yale College from 2004 to 2008.

After receiving an A.B. (psychology) and A.M. (sociology) from Stanford University in 1980 with departmental honors and university distinction, Salovey earned three degrees at Yale in psychology: an M.S. (1983), M.Phil. (1984), and Ph.D. (1986).

As a freshman at Stanford, Salovey began listening to bluegrass music and discovered his love of the banjo. Shortly after joining the Yale faculty in 1986, he founded the Professors of Bluegrass, which has featured rotating membership — including faculty, students and New Haven residents — over time. in 2013, the band released its first album, “Pick or Perish.” Salovey serves as chairman of the board of the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, Ky.