HISTORY
TEAM Academy's founding class sits on the steps of the Capitol, Spring 2003
In September 2002, 80 Newark fifth graders put their trust in five young teachers, an old building, and the promise of college, as they walked up the front steps of TEAM Academy for the first time. Beyond the academic and social challenges of entering a new school with a rigorous curriculum, those students faced challenges such as a leaky roof, lack of heat in winter, and space constraints that led to many classes being held in the hallways.
The students who founded TEAM that first September morning now represent TEAM’s first class to go to college. In fact, 88% of those students begin college in Fall 2010. In a city where less than 10% of adults hold a college degree this quite literally amounts to reversing the odds. Four years after they began, these students had reversed the achievement gap, outperformed their peers in Newark, the state of New Jersey, and the nation, and earned over $2,000,000 in scholarships to some of the finest high schools in the country, including Phillips Exeter Academy, Loomis Chaffee and Deerfield Academy. And now those students are off to some of the nation’s top colleges, including George Washington University, Occidental College, Howard University, Seton Hall University, Rutgers University, and NC and Delaware State, many of them on full academic scholarships.
Since 2002, hundreds of other Newark children have followed the lead of the founding class and spent countless hours pushing themselves to meet high academic standards and expand their worlds in ways they never expected. They have spent long afternoons running the length of a cross country course, learning the true meaning of a Shakespearean play, or staying after school for extra help. They have stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and recited the words of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. They have hiked the Grand Canyon, walked the Redwood Forests of Northern California, and danced salsa in Puerto Rico. And they have volunteered in food banks, cleaned up local parks, raised money for hurricane victims, and shown that being a compassionate citizen is just as important as being a good student.
Today, TEAM Academy has grown from a class of 80 kids in a cramped hallway into a network of four TEAM Schools serving over 1,000 students, with plans to expand much further. Rise Academy, TEAM’s second middle school, opened in August 2006, the high school, Newark Collegiate Academy, opened in August 2007, and the elementary school, SPARK Academy, opened in August 2009. The commitment and achievements of those first 80 students have paved the way for hundreds more of Newark’s students to join in this mission and prepare themselves for college and beyond.