Newark Educators' Community Charter School Beating the Odds

This week the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) released annual School Performance Reports, which include assessment, student growth, and accountability data for all public school districts in New Jersey. When evaluating student growth in reading, four of the top 10 highest growth school districts are public charter schools, including Newark Educators’ Community Charter School, which beat the odds and landed in the top 1% of the state when calculating how students grew relative to peers statewide in reading year-over-year.

"These incredible results are a true testament to how public charter schools meet students where they are. Through personalizing instruction and targeting learning gaps for every child, they have achieved some of the best student learning gains in the State,” said Harry Lee, President and CEO of the New Jersey Public Charter Schools Association. “The data is clear and undeniable - public charter schools play a critical role in eliminating the achievement gap for low-income students of color in our urban school districts.”

Student growth, as measured by median student growth percentiles (mSGP), takes into account academic starting points for individual students against their statewide academic peers. This data calculates growth year-over-year and is an important way to evaluate how schools are accelerating academic outcomes at the student level in mathematics and reading for every student.

These most recent assessment results continue to add overwhelming evidence that public charter schools are leading the way when it comes to academic achievement in New Jersey’s urban communities. Not only are Black, Latino, and economically disadvantaged charter school students outperforming their statewide peers in every grade and subject, they are making faster learning gains in math and reading compared to more wealthy, suburban communities throughout New Jersey.