In 1992, Goldman, Sachs & Co., a New York City-based investment bank, helped develop the Metropolitan Corporate Academy (MCA), an alternative New York City Board of Education high school with 350 students located in Brooklyn.

The 1990s saw a dramatic surge in corporate investments in improving public education, with business leaders hoping to advance the cause of school reform by injecting business practices of standards and accountability. But not many corporations went as far as Goldman, Sachs. Company officials were instrumental in starting MCA and designing its program, which was intended to provide a small number of students considered at risk of school failure with a career-focused education, intensive mentoring and workplace experience.

Ten years later, Goldman Sachs is still involved in MCA, funding enriched academic programs and providing mentors, but it has reduced the level of funding and the number of mentors. The company is currently reevaluating its commitment in order to determine if it’s made the “right investment,” said Eileen White, director of charitable services.

MCA has changed as well. It is still small, but the curriculum is more traditional. The student body is different too, with a smaller percentage of “at-risk” students. The average class size has doubled, from about 16 to 32 students per class.

The Evolution of MCA
Geoffrey Boisi, a former Goldman Sachs managing director, was instrumental in starting MCA. Boisi was on the board of Communities in Schools, a nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, Virginia that connects schools to community resources. Communities in Schools had developed over 50 storefront street academies, and Boisi thought that a corporate-sponsored alternative school could serve as a model for corporate/school partnerships.

Because then-chancellor Joseph Fernandez supported establishing small schools that would offer students more personal attention than the 3,000-student “plants,” the Board of Education in partnership with Goldman Sachs launched MCA in 1992. Steve Phillips, the superintendent for Alternative Schools, had already launched smaller schools dedicated to helping the homeless, special education students, and over-21 students, so MCA was a natural development for him.

Why did Goldman Sachs want to get involved with a New York high school? “Goldman Sachs takes very seriously its responsibility to the community where our people work and live. We’re a firm of 22,000 people, and the educated population is the pool where we draw our strength. MCA provided an opportunity to see if a company like Goldman Sachs could make a difference in a small school where we can partner to help kids, who might not otherwise get a chance,” said Eileen White.

Originally, MCA targeted students who faced difficulties learning or fitting into large academic schools. Instead of traditional classroom learning, it stressed “experiential” learning. Peter Kaufman, MCA’s principal from 1992-1998 and currently the New York City Department of Education’s director of career and technical education, defined experiential learning as “learning by doing. It’s dynamic, a more powerful type of learning, than sitting in rows aimed at one teacher.”

For MCA students, experiential learning included twice-a-week internships at jobs related to their career goals, job shadowing, where the student observed someone at work, and mentoring, in which the mentor reinforced academic learning and connect learning to work.

Because MCA targeted at-risk students, it received additional funding, allowing it to reduce class sizes from 32-34 students as in most city schools to 16-18 in a class. In addition to taking standardized tests, students were judged by “portfolios,” which might include making a video or performing scenes from “Waiting for Lefty” to demonstrate their understanding of the Depression. About 70 percent of students graduated MCA annually and about 70 percent of those started college, many at community colleges, Kaufman said. “We took students who had never succeeded in educational environments and helped them become students who respected learning, improve their self-esteem, secure jobs, and have access to work through their Goldman Sachs interaction,” Kaufman said.

At the height of its involvement, Goldman Sachs contributed $500,000 a year, which funded two major programs: a Community In-School (CIS) employee who supervised the internship and mentoring program, and the Institute for Student Achievement Program, tutors and advisors who prepared students for state-wide Regents exams and offered counseling. Each week, between 100 and 200 Goldman Sachs employees would spend five hours a week working with students at the company’s lower Manhattan headquarters.

“The emphasis was on Goldman’s mentors stressing academic training and designing projects,” Kaufman said. Kaufman praised Goldman Sachs for not seeking publicity. “They were very low-keyed, more philanthropic than self-serving.”

Changes at the Top
But when Chancellor Fernandez was fired in 1995, his replacement Raymond Cortines was not enamored of smaller, alternative schools. “Fernandez had courted the corporate community. He believed they were key to creating a new paradigm of partnership,” said ex-principal Kaufman. “But Cortines did not buy into the whole concept that large schools were archaic and small schools were the answer.”

Alternative schools remained but without the enthusiastic support that Fernandez had offered. MCA, under Fernandez, was scheduled to move out of its aging Brooklyn building—completed in 1865—and look for a new facility in Wall Street near Goldman Sachs. That plan was cancelled under Cortines.

When Kaufman left MCA in 1998, he was replaced by Linda Seigfeld. At the same time, Cortines was dismissed, replaced by Chancellor Harold Levy. Emphasis in the school system shifted to ensuring that every student meets New York State Regents’ requirements. Students attending alternative schools like MCA were facing the same educational requirements as traditional schools.

MCA Today
By 2002, educational standards had changed throughout the Board of Education and MCA’s 350 students are on a Regents’ exam track, said Mike Fienga, principal since January 2002. MCA now appeals to more mainstream students, though it still attracts about 30-40 percent at-risk students, who now attend classes of 32-34 students.

“MCA draws its students through applications, family references, a Web site and contacts with counselors, and students attend via assignment and choice,” Fienga noted. Portfolios have been eliminated, though Fienga said that experiential learning continues since one-third of its students are on internships at Goldman Sachs, Fleet Bank and Brooklyn Hospital, working 80 hours a semester after school and 28 hours per week in summer.

After being involved with MCA for a decade, Goldman Sachs is “reevaluating” its commitment, noted White. It reduced its contribution from $500,000 to $350,000 and now supplies 50 mentors, who mentor once every two weeks for two hours each session. “We bring an expertise to the table as investment bankers who understand finance and investment. We want return on our money,” she said.

In January 2000, Goldman Sachs evaluated the school, looking at academic improvement, college attendance and impact of resources provided (career counselor, academic enrichment and mentoring coordinator). “We wanted to determine if the investment from Goldman Sachs is being utilized effectively and efficiently,” said White. Asked about what conclusions the company could draw, she replied, “Our evaluating is ongoing.”

Over the decade of its involvement, Goldman Sachs cut its financial contribution to the school by 30 percent and reduced the number of mentors and their weekly commitment of hours to 25 to 50 percent of former levels. Economic pressures on Goldman Sachs including a declining stock market and downsizing of its staff undoubtedly contributed.

Meanwhile, over the same decade, MCA has made equally dramatic changes—in part responding to the shifting priorities of an array of chancellors. Today MCA, once a prototype school with a non-traditional curriculum emphasizing experiential learning, has turned into a small school with the same emphasis on tests as traditional schools.

Asked to comment on why a corporation reduces its commitment to a school partnership, Vanessa Coleman, director of the Coalition of Essential Schools, an Oakland, California organization that promotes school reform, said, “Any time a corporation gives a school funds, the school can’t expect to receive those funds forever. In most cases, a corporation’s financial involvement diminishes over time. It’s the school’s responsibility to look for more funds and additional funders.” In fact, Coleman praised Goldman Sachs for sustaining its commitment over a decade.

But she added that school change takes time. “Goldman Sachs may be looking for big bangs for their bucks, but school change is a lengthy process,” she said.

Is MCA Succeeding?
Principal Fienga proudly notes MCA’s 87 percent attendance rate, high for an alternative school, which he attributes to staff’s making follow-up calls to absentees and their parents, and that 63 percent of its students had started college. “MCA is special because it provides students with a Regents-oriented academic program in a small, family-oriented setting that is most conducive to learning,” Fienga said.

He added that Goldman Sachs has played a critical role in the school’s success. “Goldman Sachs has made a positive impact on students who are opened to opportunities in the world of business. Students learn the values of what it takes to succeed in the workplace and see what the outside world is like,” Fienga said. Further, it funds the Institute for Student Advancement, which provides academic enrichment, tutorial services, counseling and college advisors.

But Goldman Sachs’ White is more measured when asked to evaluate the school’s success. “We believe we are making a positive difference in the lives of the students at MCA,” she said. But she added that Goldman Sachs has learned that “it can take time to make progress because of the (educational) system. We’re constantly evaluating to do things better and ensure that we’re making the right investment.”

Resources:

• Connect for Kids' education topic page offers resources on community solutions [1] and the condition of education in America [2].

Talk Back

If you've got comments or questions about this story, we'd like to hear them. Send your response to Susan Phillips [3].

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Gary Stern is a freelance writer living in New York.