Frank Bruni of the NY Times Celebrates USC's Efforts to "Lift Kids to College"

My first two years at USC have flown by.  As I prepare to become the New Chairman of USC Economics, I look forward to helping our #22 ranked department take its next steps.  A big part of my focus will be undergraduate and graduate education.  An Ivy League quality school must have an Ivy League quality economics education. It is that simple.  The New York Times today celebrates one piece of USC's rising excellence. Read Frank Bruni's piece on "Lifting Kids to College".   Here are the details about our Neighborhood Academic Initiative.

This is the right way to build up skill.  Jim Heckman (a member of USC's Schaeffer Center) should approve of this human capital investment strategy.

USC’s Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI) is a rigorous, seven-year pre-college enrichment program designed to prepare low-income neighborhood students for admission to a college or university. Those who complete the program, meet USC’s competitive admission requirements and choose to attend USC are rewarded with a full 4.5-year financial package, minus loans. The  program was established in 1989 and enrolled its first scholars in the 1991-92 academic year. Pulling together private as well as corporate resources, the NAI encompasses three major components: the USC Pre-College Enrichment Academy, the Family Development Institute and the Retention Program.

The academy offers enhanced classes at USC on weekday mornings, the Saturday Academy, after-school tutoring, remedial and enrichment sessions, workshops on time management and study skills, PSAT and SAT1 preparation, cultural field trips and recreational activities.

Before school each day throughout the academic year, NAI scholars meet on the University Park campus from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. for enhanced classes taught by teachers from their home schools. The scholars receive full academic credit for these courses, which cover the following subject matter:

• Grade 7: pre-algebra (students must complete Algebra 1 prior to graduation from 8th grade)
• Grades 7 and 8: language arts
• Grade 9: English and geometry
• Grade 10: English and algebra
• Grade 11: American literature/expository composition and math analysis/trigonometry
• Grade 12: Advanced-placement English literature and either advanced-placement statistics or calculus

Supplementing these early-morning classes, NAI scholars attend the Saturday Academy, which meets for four hours every Saturday to provide enriched as well as remedial instruction in English/language arts and mathematics. Courses incorporate lectures, tutoring and small-group exercises, and are taught by professional teachers, paid and volunteer tutors and teaching assistants from USC’s student body, and NAI alumni. In addition, peer tutoring and cooperative learning activities maximize opportunities for scholars to learn from one another and reinforce the knowledge they have gained.

NAI scholars also receive two hours per week of structured after-school tutoring.