Tackling the minority achievement gap: New Jersey: Lawrence Township Public Schools

School Administrator, March, 2005

School and community partners in Lawrenceville, N.J., started the Community Based Learning Program to eliminate the minority student achievement gap in Lawrence Township.

Lawrence Township Public Schools won the 2005 Civic Star Award for New Jersey for providing a wide variety of successful academic and enrichment services for children ages 3 to 18 in the program.

The academic lessons are written by the teachers involved in the programs and closely follow the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards. Initiatives include early literacy; homework assistance; tutoring in language arts, math and character building; enrichment; college preparation; SAT preparation; dance and theater, and college courses for credit.

Partners working to eliminate the achievement gap are Eggerts Crossing Village (ECV), Lawrence Neighborhood Service Center and Lawrence Township Public Schools. ECV is an apartment complex with 10 units, housing mostly African-American and Hispanic families. About 85 percent of the households are headed by single women--either mothers, grandmothers or aunts.

The complex is operated by Lawrence Nonprofit Housing Corp. (LNHC), an organization that serves all of Lawrence Township and has traditionally served the residents of ECV. More than 150 African-American and Hispanic students from the complex attend Lawrence Township Public Schools, whose total student population is more than 4,300.

The partnership evolved from a project called Renewing Our Commitment to Community initiated by the leaders of LNHC in 1999. The goals were to motivate young residents of the apartment complex to reach their potential to become educated and fulfilled adults, to strengthen families, to combat racial isolation and to build a sense of community.

In 2001, LNHC invited Lawrence Township Public Schools Superintendent Max Riley to become a partner is fulfilling these goals. With the support of the school board, the superintendent embraced the opportunity, and the new partners invited LNHC to join a long-term commitment to the educational success of minority students.

In 2002, the partners established a preschool program staffed by the district and located at the apartment complex. The partners employed a community-based learning coordinator to oversee the Community Based Learning Program there.

The program provides after-school tutoring and homework assistance during the school year. For six weeks during the summer, it provides enrichment and academic skill courses. Certified teachers staff the after-school and summer programs. Most are teachers in Lawrence Township Public Schools, providing a critical link to classroom teaching.

The initial enrollment during the 2002-2003 school year was 30 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grades. Enrollment the next year rose to more than 60 children.

Regular meetings with partner representatives, teachers, parents and staff members help ensure that the multi-faceted program is well supported and tailored to the needs of the students.

By locating the program in the housing complex, program partners have fostered credibility, trust and relationships among families and teachers.

The children at ECV represent a percentage of several of the subgroups addressed by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Most are African American and socio-economically disadvantaged, and, in 2002, 30 percent of the housing complex students were classified as needing special education services.

Before the program began, many ECV parents expressed a sense of being unwelcome in the schools and did not participate in school functions, belong to parent/teacher organizations or come to school when their children participated in performances. ECV student participation in extracurricular activities was low, and so was parent participation in teacher/parent conferences.

A Rider University statistician and a district school psychologist have documented the success of the partnership in changing these conditions. Standardized testing completed in September 2003 and January 2004 showed significant growth in reading readiness for preschool and kindergarten children who attended the program after school. In addition, no elementary students were newly classified for special education during the 2002-2003 or 2003-2004 school years.

Meanwhile, parent/teacher conferences among elementary school families increased 50 percent in the past two years, and more students are participating in extracurricular activities in the middle and high schools. In 2004, a math center was added to focus on the use of math manipulatives to increase children's conceptual understanding of math.

Representatives of the three partner organizations meet monthly for program reviewing, revising and planning. The school district plans to use the ECV model to replicate the programs in other neighborhoods where low-income, minority families with students are prevalent.

For more information on the program, contact Superintendent Max R. Riley at Lawrence Township Public Schools, 2565 Princeton Pike, Lawrenceville, N.J. 08648, or call (609) 530-8609. The e-mail address is vreccoppa@ltps.org.