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City Year publications

Through our publications, City Year seeks to share lessons learned, gather feedback and spread promising practices that we’ve developed from our work to support students in partnership with schools, districts and communities across the country.

City Year Alumni Bridging Study
(2024)

A new study conducted by researchers at Cornell University and the Education Research and Strategy (ERS) team at City Year explores how the national service experience prepares young people to build bridges with others from different backgrounds, seek active engagement in civic and community life, and find satisfaction in the workplace.

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The Power of Student Success Coaches in Community Schools
(2023)

The Power of Student Success Coaches in Community Schools: A playbook for leveraging partnerships to integrate social, emotional, and academic development in schools, is designed to help school and district leaders strengthen their holistic supports for students and families, specifically through adding capacity to schools with student success coaches. The playbook was developed in collaboration with City Year New York, with support from the LEGO Foundation. We’re hopeful that the contents of this playbook will elevate opportunities for collaboration to help address the needs of all students.

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Practitioner Guide: Leaning into personalization to support students and adults during COVID-19
(2021)

The guide draws upon what City Year has learned from years of partnering with educators, schools and communities that are disproportionately affected by systemic inequities, and highlights key lessons learned in Spring and Fall 2020 when the organization adapted its personalized approach to meet student needs via distance learning due to COVID-19 induced school closures.

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Developing Student Belonging, Resilience, and Engaged Learning in Middle Grades
(2020)

While many states and districts are supporting schools in the development of school safety and learning plans as a result of COVID-19, this Change Package is designed to support schools in developing the social-emotional supports to complement these plans. We see this as the essential “third leg of a stool” for students to stand on and meet success in the face of the challenge today.

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What City Year is learning about the power of integrating social, emotional and academic development in public schools: A guide for practitioners and policymakers
(2020)

The purpose of this guide is to provide practitioners and policymakers with practices, tools and recommendations for integrating social, emotional and academic approaches to support improved student and school outcomes. Through this guide, City Year hopes to share some lessons learned from more than a decade of partnering with educators, schools and communities to support student success in schools that serve communities affected by systemic inequities, along with research and evaluation of our work—including a recent study conducted by the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University on City Year’s approach to strengthening students’ social, emotional and academic development.

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Virtual Facilitator Playbook
(2020)

The playbook is a basic introduction to effectively leading online meetings, community building and learning events. The content is designed to be useful for people who are leading online spaces of all types, including those with students as participants as well as adult colleagues. Because this publication was created in the wake of a pandemic, it also includes tips and suggestions about how to support people psychologically in online spaces during this time.

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Virtual Learning and COVID-19: Resources for Teachers and Families
(2020)

This guide provides tips for diving into distance learning and how to vet online resources; communicating with kids about the pandemic and helping them process it; guidance for using texts online; and subject area resources for students K-12. Also included are links to short meditation breaks, fun dance parties and virtual field trips to museums and cultural landmarks to help students focus, reduce stress, get some exercise and explore a wide array of content.

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In school and on track: City Year’s strategy for long-term impact in America’s highest-need schools
(2018)

Together with our school, research, nonprofit and philanthropic partners, City Year is working toward realizing our vision of educational excellence for students, particularly those who live in our nation’s largest urban centers and attend systemically under-resourced schools. With the support of our partners, City Year in 2012 developed an ambitious Long-Term Impact (LTI) strategy to achieve this goal and we made significant progress during Phase I. We are committed to building on our successes to date, and to making even greater strides during Phase II.

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Closing the implementation gap: leveraging City Year and national service as a new human capital strategy to transform low performing school
(2012)

The implementation gap is what results when teachers’ time and school resources are unable to meet student needs, and it’s something that frequently happens in many of today’s systemically under-resourced schools. Closing the implementation gap takes an in-depth look at the challenges schools face every day and highlights the role national service can play to help improve student achievement and close the implementation gap in the schools that need it the most.

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A pilot initiative to advance replicable academic support practices by national service participants in urban schools
(2012)

In this case study, City Year examines its three-year partnership with Neighborhood House Charter School, a K-8 charter school in Boston, where the organization tested and refined Whole School, Whole Child, its school-based model.

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Applying a youth development approach in schools to accelerate the integration of social-emotional and academic development

This business case illuminates the critical role a youth development approach plays in enabling the formation of developmental relationships that foster student social-emotional development in schools and outlines key strategies to accelerate and expand City Year’s innovative work in this critical area.

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Building a teacher pipeline for high-need urban schools

This business case outlines the opportunity to invest in the next phase of development for an innovative teacher pipeline strategy that harnesses City Year’s national service alumni as a pipeline to the critical field of urban education, designed to ensure all students have access to a high-quality, diverse teaching force.

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Strengthening the 21st century talent pipeline through national service in high-need schools

This business case highlights new opportunities to inspire more young adults of all backgrounds to serve students attending our nation’s systemically under-resourced K-12 schools and to build the next generation of leaders.

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