Thousands of students and teachers went back to school in Newark Tuesday, in what could be the last year the school district is under state control.
Source: http://abc7ny.com/education/newark-students-back-to-class-for-last-year-under-state-control/2379479/
The SD provided staff members with tools to self-soothe and self-regulate themselves to get them ready to better serve their students. Christopher N. Cerf, NPS Superintendent of Schools said, “The benefits of offering yoga to both administration and staff are many, which is why NPS has worked with NYM since 2009 and is now extending the NYM program to more schools in the district and to the administrative arm of teaching and learning.”
Debbie Kaminsky, founder of Newark Yoga Movement said she is honored to be the recipient of these unique micro grants from NPS to provide yoga to students and administrators. She stated, “Teaching students to breathe and relax as they learn is a great step forward in education and in social and emotional learning.”
The Newark Yoga Movement will be teaching yoga and its related properties and benefits to 9 schools this year. More than 500 students at Sussex Avenue Renew School learned yoga as a way to reduce stress, help them concentrate and remain calm in different situations according to school administrators.
Newark Yoga Movement team has been meeting with school leaders and tailoring yoga programs that fills their school needs. According to Ms. Kaminsky, many of the schools are looking to yoga to help give children dealing with behavioral issues a leg up through gaining additional tools. She said one school has added the important parent component and children with special needs will also be receiving yoga in several schools especially for the self-soothing/self-regulating benefits and beginning in September at one school, Newark Yoga Movement will be teaching yoga to both children who are deaf or blind.
In the face of corruption, mismanagement and low achievement scores, the state took over control of Newark schools 22 years ago. Now, Newark’s public schools are on track to regain local control. Last week, a key transition plan was given final approval by the state’s commissioner of education. But, the full transition’s only just beginning. Former Commissioner and current state-appointed School Superintendent Chris Cerf sat down with NJTV News.
Source: https://www.njtvonline.org/news/video/newark-public-schools-chief-district-ready-local-control/
[Newark, NJ – June 28, 2017] The Weequahic High School Marching Band was presented with the 1st Place High School Parade Band, Class A Award in Orlando, Florida in May. The award recognizes the best high school marching bands in the nation. The marching band has received national honors in the past, winning 1st, 2nd and 3rd place honors in the same national competition over the last several years. This year’s performance was at ORLANDOFEST, the annual national high school marching band competition.
NPS Superintendent Christopher D. Cerf said, “The Weequahic High School Marching Band continues to represent their high school, Newark Public Schools and the city of Newark with distinction and honor, with their dedication to their craft and their high performance ability. They continue to carry the torch as one of the best marching bands in this nation. We are proud of their achievements.”
Board Chairman Marquis Aquil-Lewis said, “I am so proud of the student band members. They practice the Core Beliefs of the high school; namely, Every Student Can Achieve; Every Student Achieves when they develop self-esteem and self-advocacy skills; and Every Student Achieves in an environment that fosters high expectations.”
In addition to recognizing the band at the Board Meeting, board members also recognized the dedicated leadership of Band Director Michael Page, who this year is celebrating 20 years as Director; along with volunteer alumni Darryl Taylor, who has volunteered for 30 years, his son Maurice Taylor, who has volunteered for 10 years as drum line instructor and Jamal Littles, who has volunteered for 15 years as horn line instructor. Also recognized was Principal Lisa McDonald and the staff whose continuous support, guidance, mentorship and encouragement have allowed band members to achieve national recognition as one of the best bands in the nation.
By: Jessica Mazzola | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com | Email the author | Follow on Twitter
NEWARK – The nearly 2,000 Newark students who have graduated high school over the past few weeks, district leaders say, are a symbol. The long-struggling district — which is in the midst of transitioning out of a twenty-plus year period of state control — is finally seeing signs of progress across the board, Deputy Superintendent Robert Gregory said in a phone interview last week.
“We are definitely trending up, and at the same time, trying to transform, and create a college-going culture at each school,” Gregory said, noting that different high schools in the city have had different practices and strategies in place, leading to vastly different graduation rates and student performance.
“We are trying to create systemic solutions to systemic failures,” he said. “Past inequities have shaped current realities.”
Newark’s 16 high schools graduated more than 1,900 students, which Superintendent Christopher Cerf called a “monumental milestone” for the kids.
Though district officials say statistics about the Class of 2017 will not be finalized until August graduates are counted, preliminary numbers show statistics are moving in a positive direction. Gregory said the trends are thanks to several key graduation and post-grad policies the district has implemented over the past few school years.
The district has long struggled with its graduation rate. Even after a four-point bump to 73.5 percent last year, it still remained well below the statewide 90.1 percent graduation rate.
The numbers of students graduating also varied dramatically school to school within Newark Public Schools.
Though the numbers are not yet finalized for this year, “we definitely expect to see an increase in graduation rates based on the data we’re seeing right now,” Gregory said. The immediate goal, he said, is to raise the district-wide graduation rate to 80 percent, which officials project should be attainable within the next several years.
The anticipated increase, Gregory said, can be traced to several new practices, including allowing students to make up failed classes online, and at night school. The district has also mandated every school implement graduation trackers, which chart the progress of every senior in every school, and require school leaders to intervene if students fall behind on graduation requirements. The district’s new credit accumulation trackers chart the credits earned each quarter by every student in every high school, starting freshman year.
About 75 percent of students who graduated this year are expected to attend two- or four-year schools, officials said. The Class of 2017 members have been accepted to 135 technical, community, and four-year colleges across the country.
Seven students will be attending Ivy League universities (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania) on full scholarships.
Before this year, Gregory said schools were not required to track students’ post-graduation plans, so only about six of the district’s high schools did. Now that it is centrally required, he said, this year’s graduating class can “act as a baseline” to which future classes will be compared.
School officials said about 14 percent of this year’s graduating seniors were accepted to five or more colleges. The move to focus on college while kids are still in high school can also be seen, officials said, in several programs that this year saw 71 students graduate high school with Associate’s Degrees from Essex County College and Bard College.
Another 52 students, officials said, plan to join the armed forces.
Newark seniors have received more than $15.7 million in scholarships, school officials said.
Several students who plan on going to school this fall on full scholarships articulated an attitude Gregory said the district is working to spread to the whole student body in every high school.
Michael Lawrence, a West Side High graduate going to NJIT, said his family members, friends, and teachers “pushed me to be someone who is passionate for success.” Lucia Couto, Arts High School’s valedictorian, who will be attending Harvard, said she was thankful to take advantage of opportunities in the city.
“Don’t let people’s opinions about where you come from make you think in a certain way,” she said. “I love Newark and I’m proud to say I live here. A lot of good things and people come from Newark.”
Many of the district’s new strategies, Gregory said, focus on keeping centralized tabs on students’ progress through high school, and on generating excitement about college and post-graduation plans among students and their families.
To those ends, he said, the Newark City Learning Collaborative — an organization supporting post-secondary education for city residents — has hired a College and Career Readiness specialist and a College Coordinator, who will work with Newark seniors.
NPS has also purchased software that Gregory said will allow it to more easily track student progress, and work with individual students to set post-graduation plans. Better data management in central administration will allow for more pointed intervention and student progress management, he said.
“We want every student to be accounted for,” he said.
[NEWARK, NJ – June 27, 2017] Nearly 2,000 Newark Public Schools (NPS) 4th and 5th grade students recently performed at NJPAC as part of the Recorder Arts for Musical Pathways Program; a partnership between NPS and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. This participation more than doubled the 739 students who participated last year.
“Thank you to NJPAC and Margaret El for their dedication to this important program that brings the arts to our students and allows them to play in the best concert hall in this country,” noted Superintendent of Newark Public Schools Christopher D. Cerf. “We must continue to grow programs like this because the arts are a vital part of our students’ education.”
The partnership includes 20 schools and teachers, who participated in a two day professional development program. As part of the program, NJPAC’s Recorder Arts master teacher conducted two site visits at each school during the first and second semester of the school year for in class support. In addition, NPS teachers from each of the 20 schools made nominations for the All-Star Recorder Choir, who performed on stage during the concert. The concert was held on June 15 at NJPAC’s Prudential Hall.
“I absolutely got chills looking out over the orchestra and all the way up to the third tier in Prudential Theater, seeing and hearing over 1900 third and fourth graders from Newark Public Schools performing in unison,” Added Margaret El, Director of Arts Education at NPS. “We are so excited about the work NPS music students and teachers have accomplished, and look forward to many students pursuing an instrument of choice in the future.”
Click here to listen to the concert.
Participating schools included:
