Buffalo's Say Yes to Education program is going to get a hard look from education researchers.
The goal of the research is to see how the program started and how its offerings for kids were developed. The study is being done by professors from Teachers College of Columbia University with a grant from the Wallace Foundations.
"We think it has a lot of promise but there's lot of indications that it's not easy to pull off," said Sociology and Education Policy Professor Carolyn Riehl. The goal, she says, is not to evaluate the program's success.
"You want to see people progressively learn as communities try this approach. You want to see them get better, over time."
Riehl says she will be looking at existing data from the school system and the State Education Department but will be coming here fairly soon to look at the schools on the ground.
The study will also look at the same pattern of collaboration in Milwaukee and Portland in the startup. It is expected to take about 18 months.
