Make the Road New York

Make the Road New York provides a variety of educational opportunities for adults, including English For Speakers Of Other Languages (ESOL), computer literacy, citizenship, and Spanish-language literacy classes.

Make the Road New York currently runs classes for two semesters annually as well as a shorter summer term, for an average of 6 hours a week per class. Each semester we offer 12 ESOL classes, two citizenship, 6 computer literacy classes, and 4 Spanish literacy classes. Class sites include Make the Road New York's own neighborhood community centers in Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, as well as our partner high schools: the Bushwick School for Social Justice and Pan American International.

Methodology and Approach
Our ESOL classes maintain an average of 15 students. For Spanish and computer literacy classes, there is an average of 10 students per class. Each cycle, approximately 250 students participate in classes.

Make the Road New York incorporates ongoing dialogue and reflection to insure that the pacing, methods, and content of the classes are relevant to our students' needs.

We also use a range of teaching approaches currently supported by leading practitioners in the field to assure that students with different strengths and learning styles are all challenged and nurtured. These approaches include the integration of technology into the classroom, and the use of project-based learning.

Our students are learning in ways that connect the nuts and bolts of language and computers with the issues that are most critical to life in our community. Parent/teacher communication, housing, health care, and voting rights for immigrants are examples of themes around which units have been developed, often with the participation of members and staff from Make the Road New York's advocacy projects.

Demonstrable Educational Gain
Nationally recognized oral proficiency tests and other in-house assessment measures illustrate that those who have attended Make the Road New York classes consistently:

1. Speak, understand, read and write better in English;
2. Gain new word processing and internet navigation skills from computer literacy classes;
3. Read and write in Spanish with more comfort and pride than ever before.

Sustained Student Engagement
Approximately 65% of our adult students continue their studies at Make the Road New York from one cycle to the next. Regular surveys of program participants consistently show high levels of satisfaction with teaching and with their resulting English, literacy, and computer skills development.

Partnerships/Collaborations
Make the Road New York is proud to be a pilot site, in collaboration with the Mexican government and NYU's Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, of the Plazas Comunitarias program which provides resources for Spanish literacy students and those seeking to either earn a Mexican primary or secondary credential or study for a GED in Spanish. In addition, Make the Road New York has been invited by IBM to pilot online resources for adults seeking to improve their English reading and pronunciation.