An uncommonly good time in Newark

Howdy y’all (see I learnt something this year)

Have been having a fine time living in Brooklyn and working at a charter school network in Newark. It has been in the words of our top middle school student “fierce”.

How so I hear you cry?

Well imagine its 7-30 am on your first day of work and you are welcomed by the beat of a drum calling students to order.

As you struggle to get your bearings the headmaster leads 180 kids in the following chant as ear splitting volume.

Who are you?
A star who shines brightly for others.
Why are you here?
To get an education
What will you have to do?
Work hard,
Work, work, work, hard
And what else?
Take care of each other
What will you need?
Self-discipline
Why?
To be the master of my own destiny
What else?
Respect for myself, my peers, teachers and all people
Where are you headed?
To college!!!
What will you do when you get there?
Succeed and then give back to others.
What are we?
A community.

All very striking as a spectacle – particularly for a career office bureaucrat like me. Until that is you see later that morning the stats of the community in which this school is working: 2 in 100 on average graduate a four-year college. At which point making eleven year olds chant this takes on considerably more significance.

It’s all part of a deliberate strategy of raising aspiration both among students and faculty. Each class is named after a institution of higher learning- even in the elementary school. Kindergarteners are called scholars and gather each Monday morning around a banner declaring “class of 2020”.

Aside from that two other distinctive features mark the school: strict discipline and data driven instruction. Students wear uniform, file to class in orderly lines, and make public apologies. The school tests every 6-8 weeks and uses very nuanced analysis of the results to shape lesson planning.

Driving all this is a set of leaders as dynamic and focused as any entrepreneurs that I have encountered. They see closing the attainment gap as the civil rights cause of their generation and they have given 10 years of their lives to addressing it.

While some may find their zeal and methods a bit unsettling the results are hard to disagree with. Northstar Academy is the best performing urban public school in the state. It has 100 per cent of its graduating high school class going to a 4 year college. All from an intake selected by lottery and (joy to Treasury ears) with less per pupil funding than regular public schools in Newark.

And yet.and yet…. Five weeks in a range of questions are bugging me. How scaleable is this? Would these leaders have had more impact if they had turned their talents to an existing public school? Does it make sense from a system wide perspective?

But I’m only half way through so I’m supposed to be confused at this point. Mmm… maybe I can find some enlightenment in a pint of Brooklyn lager.

For more info on uncommon schools check out
http://www.uncommonschools.org/usi/aboutUs/USIVideo.html
(includes five year old chanting the Rutgers football song)