Abstract
Rochester, New York: America’s first boom town, cuttingly nicknamed Smugtown, can be understood as being comprised of a toxic soup of socio-economic and educational data regarding its urban school district and youth that ought to shock anyone who hears it. In 2014, the Rochester City School District (RCSD) graduated 43.4 % of its students overall within four years (Gorbman (New H.S. graduation rates: RCSD lowest percentage in NYS, 2014)). With the addition of Summer School, the number reached 51 %. Although the overall high school graduation rates in Rochester are routinely the worst in New York State, the graduation rates for Black and Latino/a students stand out when examined in comparison to all students in the state.
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Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank Jericsson Pichardo for joining him on this adventure, as well as Valerie, Yashasvini, Tequila, Canoli, Gino, and Barclay for their unconditional love and constant support. Further, this chapter is dedicated to all animals everywhere. Please liberate, rescue, foster, and adopt. This work is additionally dedicated to Anne Kelley (1921–2015) and her soulmate, Barclay.
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Helfrich, J.T. (2017). The Rochester River School: Humane Education to Confront Educational Injustice and the School-to-Prison Pipeline in Rochester, New York. In: Nocella II, A., Ducre, K., Lupinacci, J. (eds) Addressing Environmental and Food Justice toward Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50822-5_3
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