A Tale of Two Schools

New Jersey had long been considered the state with one of the top 5 public school systems  in the United States. In the over 600 independent school districts, the successes of schools like those in Princeton or Rumson-Fairhaven, tend to overshadow the urban districts like Trenton or Camden.

Recently, David Kirp, a professor of public policy at University of California at Berkeley published a book, Improbable Scholars, that focuses on one of New Jersey’s school districts- Union City. Kirp compares the successes in Union City with the progress made in the Newark Public school system, which has been the beneficiary of a $100 million gift from Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook.

Professor Kirp goes on to point out that the high school graduation rate in Union City was 81% in 2014 compared to 69% in Newark. What accounts for the difference?

Faced with a possible state takeover due to poor performance, district administrators teamed up with teachers, and yes, parents to develop a program that has led to success. They tried to focus on how their students learned the best, on what the most effective teaching methods were, but more importantly, how to get the parents engaged. They accomplished this by gradually easing the students into English by teaching them initially in Spanish. The district went on to hire more ESL teachers. Parent meetings were also held in Spanish initially to help make the parents feel welcome in the school rather than intimidated. Knowing the importance of an early start to education, the school took advantage of state grants and initiated a pre-school program for all 3 and 4 year olds. Stable leadership at the helm of the district also helped to maintain stability whereas in other districts, most administrators stayed for about three years.

The takeaway from this comparison is that throwing huge sums of money at urban education’s problems does not always solve them. Money going directly to benefit students rather than to consultants or charter school fees are more wisely spent.

Educators throughout the country need to take a long look as to what can be done to save traditional public schools. The time for that is now.

c.2016 J. Margolis