N&R reports students at Gboro’s downtown Elon University Law School “will work with local attorneys to offer legal counseling services for families through Say Yes Guilford.”
The legal counseling will be part of a broader system of supports and services offered to families through Say Yes Guilford, the local chapter of New York-based Say Yes to Education.
Say Yes officials have said it will take several years to completely roll out what they call wraparound services.
The idea behind those services is that outside factors such as inadequate housing, hunger or family legal trouble could affect how students perform in school. So breaking down the barriers students face to graduation would involve addressing some of the issues they carry with them to school each day.
Say Yes has also hired Akisha Jones, a Harvard Strategic Data Project fellow, to work out of the Guilford County Schools Office of Accountability and Research:
The Strategic Data Project works with education agencies, schools or school systems to make better use of data. The fellows, who have “heavy quantitative research skills,” are vetted through Harvard and then placed with education agencies across the country, Jones said.
Jones said her work will include looking at discipline issues and racial disparities in Guilford County Schools, as well as evaluating and analyzing data related to the school system’s African American Male Initiative. Her broader job is to support research and evaluation efforts through the school system.
Guess I’m just a cynical type, but it seems to me that Say Yes appears to be yet another quasi-governmental entity designed to provide jobs for bureaucrats, educrats and —last but not least—-lawyers. The other question is if —-as the N&R reports—– Say Yes officialshave said it will take several years to completely roll out what they call wraparound services,” there where will be the so-called ‘wrap around services’ for students graduating in 2016, the first class eligible for last dollar tuition scholarships?
