Make the Road New York

Make the Road New York (MRNY) provides a variety of educational opportunities for adults, including classes in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), Computer Literacy, Citizenship preparation, and Spanish-Language Literacy “Bridge to ESOL.” During one of MRNY’s typical cycles, at least 525 students study in one of our 30-35 classes across the city.

MRNY currently runs at least three cycles of classes every year, for a minimum of six hours a week per class. Each cycle, we offer three levels of ESOL classes and basic Computer Literacy classes in all three of our neighborhood community centers in Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. We offer Citizenship preparation and Spanish-Language Literacy/ESOL Bridge classes in Queens and Brooklyn. Whenever possible, classes are also offered at MRNY’s partner high schools: the Bushwick School for Social Justice in Bushwick, Brooklyn and the Pan American International High School in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Methodology and Approach
MRNY’s mission, to promote economic justice, equity and opportunity for all New Yorkers, is at the heart of our Adult Literacy work. Instructors use a research-based philosophy in which classes are organized thematically to address real-life issues of student concern, and language and literacy skills are acquired via participant-led, project-based learning. We strive to fully intertwine literacy skill development with the development of skills needed for fostering social change in our communities.

Our students are learning in ways that connect the nuts and bolts of language and computers with the issues that are most critical to life in our community. Parent/teacher communication, housing, health care, and voting rights for immigrants are examples of themes around which units have been developed, and instructors strive to integrate active members and staff from MRNY advocacy projects into the process of unit planning and implementation whenever possible. This includes the incorporation of promotional materials, photographs, stories or interviews from MRNY’s campaign work into classes and the active participation of students in MRNY-sponsored events whenever possible.

Make the Road New York instructors regularly engage in dialogue and reflection with each other and with the students to ensure that the pacing, methods, and content of the classes are relevant to our students' needs and that the work we are doing is the most effective.

We also use a range of teaching approaches currently supported by leading practitioners in the field to assure that students with different strengths and learning styles are all challenged and nurtured, including technology integration when possible, the use of project-based learning, and the arts.

Demonstrable Educational Gain
Nationally recognized oral proficiency tests and other in-house assessment measures illustrate that those who have attended MRNY classes consistently:

1. Speak, understand, read and write better in English;
2. Gain new word processing and internet navigation skills from Computer Literacy classes;
3. Read and write in Spanish with more comfort and pride than ever before; and
4. Successfully pass their Citizenship exams.

Partnerships and Collaborations
Make the Road New York is proud to be a pilot site of the Plazas Comunitarias program, in collaboration with the Mexican government and New York University's Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, which provides resources for literacy students and those seeking primary and secondary school instruction in Spanish. In addition, MRNY has also been selected by IBM to pilot online resources for adults seeking to improve their English reading and pronunciation. MRNY is also a member of the New York Coalition for Adult Literacy, the New York City Education and Training Coalition, and the New York College Transitions Network.