Few students can claim they went to Harvard, but now students from four high schools in the New Visions network can say just that.

During fall 2019, students from the Community Health Academy of the Heights, Morris Academy for Collaborative Studies, The Young Women’s Leadership School of Queens, and The Young Women’s Leadership School of the Bronx (TYWLS-Bronx) participated in a new program that provided free enrollment in Poetry in America, a course offered by the Harvard Extension School. New Visions for Public Schools connected schools to the National Education Equity Lab, which ran a pilot offering the course as an experiment in innovative ways to bring world-class college experiences to students who are still in high school. 

The college-level course was taught through a hybrid model, with video lectures by a Harvard professor and teachers in each participating school facilitating student activity and discussion. Harvard teaching assistants graded student assignments throughout the course. 

Thirteen of sixteen participating students from TYWLS-Bronx earned college credit through the course. They found it a rigorous alternative to more traditional advanced coursework like Advanced Placement classes at their school. Having to adhere to externally-imposed deadlines on coursework and assignments—ironically, no extensions granted—provided good preparation for what will be expected in college, and the hybrid video/live course structure pushed students to collaborate with each other in new ways. 

The experience was a valuable one for teachers, as well. The lead teacher at TYWLS-Bronx shared that completing a course delivered in such a new way pushed her to develop new ways of supporting students. It also exposed her to the world of Harvard Extension courses, which she is continuing even though this specific opportunity is done. 

And at the end of the day, there’s that name. Students showed themselves that they could succeed not just in a college course, but a Harvard course. It’s extraordinary learning for any high schooler.