Creating a Community Alternative to Closing Schools

Abbott Leadership Institute Series 21: Moving Newark Schools Forward
Creating a Community Alternative to Closing Schools
Saturday, February 10th, 10-1pm

Newark, Rutgers University

I attended this event alongside Rebekah and Lin. In an effort not to repeat information already given, I will touch upon the most meaningful points from my perspective. Firstly, This was my first ALI workshop that I have attended and I was moved by the passion and commitment that attendees had for ALI. Despite the snow flurries in the morning, many attendees including parents, grandparents, community leaders and pre-service teachers were in attendance. The main purpose for the discussion was to understand what the “big picture” was in regards to school closings and how the decisions to close the schools will benefit (or not) students in the long run.

From my perspective the one thing that I took away from this workshop was to always take the position of a researcher and never cease to ask questions. It is important to be a critical consumer of information. For example, in the article Consolidation details released in Newark school closings plan (nj.com, 02.09.2012) Cami Anderson is quoted stating that “closures and consolidations are vital to boost academic equity ”. Yet, during the workshop an important point was brought up by Juluis. He stated that although it seems that Cami is trying to consolidate low performing schools with higher performing schools to “balance” out academic opportunities, the reality is that many of these schools are performing on equal levels. In some cases, due to school closings certain schools will have an influx of students with special needs. Take for example Dr. MLK School has a one-third special ed. population and 13th Ave has about half of its students who are enrolled in special education classes. If MLK is closing and its students are going to go to 13th Ave, there will now be a 70% student population of student receiving special education services. Hence, what does this mean for the school, students, teachers, services? Has Cami truly thought of the repercussions of merging too similar schools together?
Reforming schools is a difficult process (emphasis on the “process”). In our discussion on Saturday, we collectively came up with “Elements of Real School Reform” :

1. Respect for Different Cultures
2. Keep mechanisms that work
3. Generate/ analyze BOTH qualitative and quantitative data
4. Start with the students needs (both social and academic)

In a closing statement, an attendee brought up a point that gave me goose bumps. He stated that Newark is the head of the state (when talking about state control over the district and school reform), if the state is able to chop off the “head” others (districts) will fall. From my perspective, this is the beginning of many changes that will occur within the public school system. It is important for me as a teacher to not only represent my voice, but also provide the resources to my students to become self advocates and have a medium to express their feelings and thoughts.