BUFFALO—Five years ago this Rust Belt district had a 48% graduation rate, short school days and spotty after-school programs, while its teachers’ contract offered free tummy tucks, face-lifts, and nose jobs.

The picture is changing.

The district’s four-year graduation rate climbed to 64% last year, attendance has ticked up, and 10 of its most troubled schools improved enough to get off the state’s list of those at risk of closure or takeover by an outside receiver. Teachers now work under a tougher new contract that doesn’t pay for cosmetic surgery.

This city of about 260,000 in western New York shows what can happen when a community gets so fed up with its school system that influential civic leaders look past their differences and work to fix it. With more than 31,000 children in kindergarten through 12th grade, the high-poverty district still struggles, but it has lengthened the school day from 6 hours, 50 minutes to 7 hours, 15 minutes, and added social services to help students come to class ready to learn.

City leaders turned to a Manhattan-based source for help: Say Yes to Education, a national nonprofit that uses the promise of college scholarships as a carrot for systemic change. Supporters say it provided stability in a district that had seven superintendents in seven years. (Read about the philanthropist behind Say Yes to Education.)

“Say Yes brought continuity, and that was a game-changer,” said Samuel Radford III, a parent leader. “A culture shift happened because you had a larger table of people paying attention to education.”


Say Yes came to town in 2011 after a long campaign by Clotilde Perez-Bode Dedecker, president of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo. In hopes of restoring the city’s glory after decades of decline from lost manufacturing jobs, she recruited city leaders to join her pitch to be a Say Yes site.

Say Yes pledged $15 million and technical assistance to seed a system of support services. In turn, local donors were required to commit $15 million for scholarships.

A 16-member operating committee has been meeting every two or three weeks. It includes the district superintendent, mayor, union chiefs, business leaders, foundation heads and elected parent representatives. Ms. Dedecker calls such collaboration “unnatural behavior performed by consulting adults.”

Some relationships, however, were rocky. Mr. Radford, one of the parent leaders, often criticized the teachers union, saying it cared more about staff pay than students. The union president would fire back that faculty worked hard under difficult conditions.

Related Philanthropist Gives Students Hope

“I would read the morning paper and any one of the stakeholders on the operating committee would be on the front page attacking each other,” said Ms. Dedecker. “The scholarship was a huge incentive for people to focus.”


Using a mix of public funds and philanthropy, Say Yes and district officials worked to set up mental-health counselors and medical clinics in schools, and summer camps in local churches. Now, all elementary and middle schools offer after-school programs. Say Yes hired a Family Support Specialist for every school to boost attendance by helping the most troubled families find housing, food and other assistance in a district where 82% of students are poor.

One such specialist, Alex Brady, talks of a seventh-grader who was absent for weeks after his brother was killed by gunfire. The boy’s mother relied on him to help with her younger children and was afraid to let him leave the house. Mr. Brady arranged counseling and helped them delineate appropriate responsibilities. “When all those worries were off his plate, he came to school every day,” Mr. Brady said.

More change came in 2015, when Buffalo’s school board hired the district’s current superintendent, Kriner Cash.

When Dr. Cash arrived, 25 of Buffalo’s 55 schools were performing so poorly that the state warned they would be put in the hands of an outside receiver or closed if they didn’t improve quickly. Empowered by a new state law that allows some superintendents to override some union rules at failing schools, Dr. Cash made staff at some sites work longer days, replaced some principals and provided extra staff training. Ten of the 25 schools have gotten out of receivership.


Dr. Cash hammered out a new teachers’ contract that extended instructional time for all schools and promoted what he calls a “New Education Bargain.” Parents must make sure children go to school and do their homework. In return, the district pledges to replace “dropout factories” with new high schools tied to emerging industries, reduce class sizes in early grades and open more “community” schools with services for families, among other things.

Philip Rumore, president of the Buffalo Teachers Federation, called Dr. Cash’s plan “a very promising vision.” Even so, the union has clashed with him lately on some details, such as the district’s effort to change the starting times at some schools.

Dr. Cash calls Say Yes a “turbo booster” for his agenda. By the count of Say Yes officials, about 4,000 Buffalo children have used its scholarships to move on to higher education. Local donors have contributed $24.5 million to this mission so far, in addition to $10 million toward a goal of a $100-million endowment.

Supporters hope the community will sustain the services long-term after Say Yes’s investment ends.


Students say the prospect of college aid gives them hope. That includes Jontá Daniels, 19 years old, who was taken at birth from her mother and raised by her grandmother. Ms. Daniels failed two courses and got pregnant, but the vision of a college degree brought her back to high school.

One day this spring, while she was in labor, she got a call with the news she could graduate. She already has enrolled in Erie Community College for 2018.

“You can’t support a child without a diploma,” she says.

Write to Leslie Brody at leslie.brody@wsj.com