Community Partners
Having worked with students in the most impoverished and the most affluent zip codes in the country, Dr. Parker has seen first-hand that there is no inherent difference in intellectual and academic ability between the two groups. The only difference is that students in underserved communities do not have access to the type of supplementary services necessary to make them competitive in the high-stakes game of elementary, middle school, high school and college admissions.
In light of these observations, Parker Academics is deeply committed to the goal of ensuring that students in underserved communities have access to the same high-end academic services as their more affluent counterparts. Take a look at some of the exciting partnerships that we have sustained with schools and community development agencies.
In 2006, NASA began the New Horizons mission to Pluto. In 2015, the spacecraft finally reached its destination. Like the mission to Pluto, which met its ultimate goal nearly 10 years after its launch, our New Horizons program holds that if students learn to think within the language of standardized testing early, when they are in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades, then not only will they have a good chance of attending competitive high schools, but they will also be primed to do well on college and even graduate admissions tests. In addition to regular homework help, the program uses games and interactive activities to provide SHSAT, SSAT, ISEE and Regents prep to 25-30 6th, 7th and 8th graders during after-school hours. Since 2017, we have been using this same model to work with the center's elementary grades, serving 50 1st through 5th graders.
Educational research and neuroscientific data confirm the supreme benefit of learning that stimulates multiple centers of the brain simultaneously. By engaging in tournaments and physical activities as a part of the test prep experience, New Horizons participants gain an intuitive, deeply embedded mastery of challenging academic material.
Parker Academics is very excited to be working with Phipps Neighborhoods to offer Regents, SAT and ACT Prep classes and support services for Bronx students at Urban Assembly High School for Environmental Protection, Leadership Institute High School and East Bronx Academy. What makes these programs successful is that the Phipps Staff, Parker Academics' teachers and the staff at each respective school are all deeply committed to ensuring that the course participants meet their college and career goals.