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Raising Student Achievement in the Newark Public Schools

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Raising Student Achievement in the Newark Public Schools Raising Student Achievement in the Newark Public Schools Report of the Strategic Support Team of the Council of the Great City Schools Submitted to the Newark Public Schools By the Council of the Great City Schools June 2007 Raising Student Achievement in the Newark Public Schools ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Council of the Great City Schools thanks the many individuals who contributed to this project to improve student achievement in the Newark Public Schools. Their efforts and commitment were critical to our ability to present the district with the best possible proposals. First, we thank Superintendent of Schools Marion A. Bolden. It is not easy to ask for the kind of review that a project like this entails. It takes courage, openness, and an uncompromising commitment to the city’s children. She has those qualities in abundance. Second, we thank the Newark Public Schools Advisory Board for requesting and supporting this effort and for meeting with our team to discuss issues and challenges that the district faces. Third, we thank the staff members and teachers in the Newark Public Schools, who provided all the time, documents, and data that the Council team needed in order to do its work. Their openness and enthusiasm were critical to our understanding of the challenges faced by the Newark school system. Fourth, we thank the many individuals, groups, organizations, and associations with which we met. Our only regret is that we were unable to meet with everyone that we know had something valuable to contribute. Fifth, the Council thanks the school districts and organizations that contributed staff to this effort. Everyone contributed his or her time pro bono to help the Newark school district improve. The enthusiasm and generosity of these individuals serve as another example of how the nation’s urban public school systems are working together to help each other improve student performance. Finally, I thank Council staff member Ricki Price-Baugh, who drafted this report, and whose skills were critical to the success of this effort. Thank you all. Michael Casserly Executive Director Council of the Great City Schools Council of the Great City Schools 2 Raising Student Achievement in the Newark Public Schools TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments............................................................................................................................2 Executive Summary of Findings and Next Steps ............................................................................6 Introduction: Purpose and Origin of the Project............................................................................18 Chapter 1. Background ..................................................................................................................22 Chapter 2. Curriculum and Instruction ..........................................................................................39 Chapter 3. Synopsis and Discussion ..............................................................................................95 Appendix A. School-by-School Progress ......................................................................................99 Appendix B. Individuals Interviewed..........................................................................................104 Appendix C. Documents Reviewed.............................................................................................107 Appendix D. Strategic Support Team Members..........................................................................113 Appendix E. About the Council...................................................................................................117 Council of the Great City Schools 3 Raising Student Achievement in the Newark Public Schools Tables Table 1. Comparison of Newark Public Schools with New Jersey Schools and the Great City Schools, 2004-2005........................................................................23 Table 2. Achievement Gaps between Newark Students and Students Statewide on the NJ ASK, GEPA, and HSPA in Language Arts Literacy and Math, 2000-2006 ........................................................................................................26 Table 3. Disaggregated English Language Arts Scores at or Above Proficient for Newark Students and Students Statewide by Year..........................................27 Table 4. Disaggregated Math Scores at or Above Proficient for Newark Students and Students Statewide by Year .............................................................................28 Table 5. Language Arts Literacy Achievement Gap between Newark Students and Students Statewide by Ethnicity for Grades 3, 4, and 8 by Year.....................29 Table 6. Mathematics Achievement Gap between Newark Students and Students Statewide by Ethnicity for Grades 3, 4, and 8 by Year....................................30 Table 7. Newark Public Schools Advanced Placement Exams and Results, 2006........31 Table 8. Newark Advanced Placement Exam Results by Ethnicity, 2006 ....................32 Table 9. Newark Public School Dropout Rates for 1999-2000 through 2005-2006......32 Table 10. Comparison of Numbers of Newark Public School and New Jersey Students Taking the SAT and Their Average Scores, 2002-2006..................................34 Table 11. Comparison of Newark Public School and Statewide Disaggregated Student Average Scores on the SAT, 2006...................................................................34 Table 12. Number of Newark Schools in School Improvement Status in 2006-2007.….35 Table 13. Newark School Staffing Levels per Pupil in Newark and the Great City Schools, 2004-2005..........................…………………………………………36 Table 14. Spending per Pupil in Newark and the Great City Schools, 2004- 2005………………………..............................................................................37 Council of the Great City Schools 4 Raising Student Achievement in the Newark Public Schools Graphs Graph 1. Newark and New Jersey Test Results: Percent Proficient or Above in Grades 3, 4, 8, and 11 in Language Arts Literacy………………………………………..24 Graph 2. Newark and New Jersey Test Results: Percent Proficient or Above in Grades 3, 4, 8, and 11 in Mathematics……………………………………………………25 Graph 3. Ten-Year Longitudinal Comparison of Graduation Rates (1996-2006)………32 Graph 4. Newark Public Schools Graduates (1996-2006)……………………………….33 Council of the Great City Schools 5 Raising Student Achievement in the Newark Public Schools Raising Achievement in the Newark Public Schools: Report of the Strategic Support Team of the Council of the Great City Schools EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND NEXT STEPS FINDINGS The Newark Public Schools (NPS) has been at the center of reform and improvement efforts in New Jersey for the better part of 12 years. The results of these efforts are both significant and frustrating. The school district has made substantial progress over the last few years; but it also has a long way to go before it attains the level of excellence that everyone in the city wants. This report discusses both sides of the story. The state seized control of the school district in 1995 after a series of scandals and considerable public outcry about the condition of the city’s public schools. Beverly Hall, a veteran of the New York City Public Schools, was installed by the state as the school system’s first superintendent following the takeover. Hall’s four-year tenure ended in 1999 with her acceptance of the superintendency of the Atlanta Public Schools and the elevation of Marion Bolden to head the Newark school system. A Newark native, a seasoned administrator, and a former teacher in the Newark system, Bolden is now one of the longest serving big-city school superintendents in the nation, and has led the district’s comeback. The Newark schools were also the target of and ultimate beneficiary of the Abbott decision, a landmark state financial adequacy case that worked its way through the New Jersey courts over a 20-year period and eventually led to considerably greater funding for Newark and a number of New Jersey’s poorest communities and schools. The ruling also required the beneficiaries to set up a series of school reform models that ultimately proved to be of mixed effectiveness. Superintendent Bolden has been particularly aggressive over the last eight years in her efforts to turn around a system that was plagued by a negative national image. In some ways, her efforts have been heroic. She put considerable energy into boosting staff expectations for student learning, enhancing professional development for principals and teachers, aligning curriculum, installing standard reading and math programs, developing interim assessments, assigning literacy and math coaches, mounting new extended-time programs and other intervention strategies, and improving the overall climate of the schools. None of these were small steps in a district with achievement levels well below those of the state. Indeed, these efforts have set a foundation on which to build future progress. Council of the Great City Schools 6 Raising Student Achievement in the Newark Public Schools Particularly noteworthy efforts over those eight years included the district’s 21st Century Learning Centers; its After-school Youth Development Program; its strengthened magnet school programs at Arts, Science, Technology, and University High Schools; its new career-based programs and expanded preschool efforts; its improved bilingual initiatives; its parent involvement and student health
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