NEWARK

Newark:

Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, is home to a number of the nation’s best charter schools. While the city still faces significant economic and educational challenges, it is experiencing significant resurgence under Mayor Cory Booker, with education as a centerpiece of the city’s transformation.

Newark is home to over 280,000 people, making it the 64th largest city in the nation. It is also the second most densely populated city in the nation. Newark is New Jersey’s second most diverse city, with a population that is approximately 54% African American, 30% Hispanic, 27% White, 18% other, and 1% Asian as of 2008.

As of 2003, the median income for a Newark household was $26,913 which correlated to 28.4% of the population living below the poverty line, making Newark the nation’s second poorest large city. Poverty in Newark impacts the young even more significantly – with 36.6% of those under the age of 18 living in poverty.

Newark Schools:

The Newark Public School district is the state’s largest, serving approximately 45,000 students. The city’s public schools are among the lowest-performing in the state. Although accurate dropout statistics are hard to find, it is clear from enrollment statistics that significant numbers of Newark students do not make it through high school, and the majority who do finish ill-prepared for post-secondary studies or work.

  • Of the 11th graders who took the state HSPA (High School Proficiency Assessment) in the spring of 2007, less than 40% were proficient in math, less than less than 30% in science and less than 60% were proficient on the language portion of the test. (http://www.nj.gov/education/schools/achievement/2008/hspa/)
  • The HSPA is not testing high school level material to begin with. According to a recent analysis of the HSPA, “it tests academic skills more equivalent to the 8th grade, not the 11th when the test is first given.” (http://www.nje3.org/schoolwatch/giving_diplomas_meaning.pdf)
  • Of those students who do graduate Newark Public Schools, approximately 50% do so through the alternative test (SRA), which is only given after a student has failed the HSPA three times.
  • As of 2003, 64% of Newark residents 25 years and over had at least graduated from high school and 11% had a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Newark Charter Schools

Newark is home to a large concentration of high performing charter schools including TEAM Schools, Uncommon Schools (North Star Academy), Robert Treat Academy and a number of others. Newark’s size makes it an ideal setting for the expansion of a small number of high performing charter school networks to have a disproportionately large impact on the performance of the school district. For every TEAM middle school in Newark, it would take 286 similarly sized schools in New York City to have the same scale of impact. TEAM’s elementary and high schools, with larger projected enrollments will have an even more significant impact on the scale of charter enrollment in the city Currently, nearly 5% of Newark’s 45,000 students are served by high performing charter schools. In the next 10 years, this percentage will significantly increase, drastically improving the preparedness of Newark’s children for college and probability that they will attend college.