Uncommon Schools encourages South Ward’s youngest learners to read during the summer months

[Newark, NJ – June 13, 2016] – Newark Public Schools (NPS) announced last week that it will be expanding its literacy and summer reading initiatives in collaboration with Uncommon Schools North Star Academy. Uncommon Schools will be providing all 4-year-old children living in the South Ward of Newark with North Star Academy’s Kindergarten readiness book. The workbook, which contains close to 200 pages of engaging and rigorous content, is the same workbook that Uncommon Schools provides to incoming North Star Kindergartners each summer to help them prepare for the upcoming school year.

“On behalf of all of the children of Newark, I am grateful to Uncommon Schools for its generosity and spirit of partnership in providing children of the South Ward with Kindergarten readiness workbooks,” said Superintendent Cerf. “We succeed when all children in Newark are provided with the resources they need to reach their full potential. The summer is an excellent time for our children to be able to continue to improve upon their literacy and mathematical skills, and these workbooks are a valuable tool that will help students as they continue their education throughout the summer months.”

The North Star Academy’s Kindergarten readiness book announcement adds to NPS’ focus on providing students across the district with greater access to a wide variety of books to improve student literacy skills and reading comprehension through innovative partnerships. The City of Newark is one of six My Very Own Library (MVOL) locations throughout the country including Chicago, Milwaukee, California, Delaware and the Dominican Republic. MVOL inspires and supports students’ love of reading by allowing them to choose from an assortment new and free books to build individualized home libraries. Over the course of the 2015-2016 academic year, MVOL provided 150,000 books to approximately 15,000 students throughout 23 Newark Public Schools.