RALLY: Parents Demand Better High School Education

Parents & Communities United for Education

Contact:

Loyda Goldston, 1st Vice-president-- 973-204-4121
Rosemary Nwabueze, 201-388-7913

GRADUATION FOR ALL!

Parents’ rally calls for bold and innovative actions
for better high school education


On Tuesday, Sept. 8, from 12 to 1pm, Parents and Communities United for Education (PCUE) held a rally in Bergen Ave. on the corner of Academy Street in Jersey City to highlight the urgent call to graduate ALL our youth/children from high school and provide them with a quality education that prepares them for college and the world of work. The current Jersey City educational policies and practices are not working as evidenced by the alarming rates of drop-out and failure to obtain a high school diploma – rates that are crippling the future of too many Jersey City youth.

According to the NJ Department of Education data, Jersey City high schools have made little or no progress in improving test scores over the last four years. From 2004 to 2008, Jersey City progressed just about 6%, from 42.7% to 48.6%, in the Math section of the High School Proficiency Assessment, (HSPA), and slightly declined in Language Art, from 64% to 63.9%.

Jersey City high schools drastically under-perform compared to the rest of the state, and this performance gap remains wide and persistent. In 2008, the City performed 21 percentage points below the Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) benchmarks in language arts, and 25 percentage points below AYP in math.

Loyda Goldston, PCUE 1st Vice-president and parent of three children in school # 34, stated “We are here to stand up for our youth to get a better high school education. When youth do not make it through high school and are not well prepared for college and world of work, it is a failure for everyone.”

“Despite all the myths that parents don’t care, we as parents are present for our children. Our school district must do its part. As parents we want to find out more about our schools. We need a one-page annual report card for each high school that tells how our schools are doing in educating our children. Also, we would like to be able to evaluate our schools progress,” added Ms. Goldston.

Yvonne Weaver, another parent who has a child in Snyder High School, said “If our high schools have not met the relatively low standards over the last several years, how will they prepare students for college prep English and more rigorous courses in math and sciences and most probably several high-stake end of the course exams that will replace the HSPA?”

Ms. Weaver continued, “We need intensive and more structured student support system in place. A lot of students fall through the crack with little or no support for them to get on their feet and move forward. These are the students who leave the schools, don’t graduate on time, and aren’t prepared for college or decent career. There must be a Tutoring Center in each high school which is available to students after school, as well as more intensive individual advising at least on a quarterly basis.”

Milagros Delacruz, a PCUE member and parent of a student in Dickinson High School in Jersey City said “I know many undocumented immigrant families who have children in high schools. These students do not qualify for in-state college tuition. Their tuition will be almost 2 ½ times more than their classmates. What kind of future awaits them? How many of them will drop out? What kind of motivation do they have to take their schooling seriously? We have to make sure these students have a future to look forward to. Our school district can help by creating a scholarship fund for these children.”

In its platform, “GRADUATION FOR ALL,” PCUE has called on the Jersey City Board of Education and School District Superintendent, Dr. Epps, to take bold and innovative actions to drastically improve Jersey City high school performance. The proposals call on district officials to build a genuine partnership with parents and the community, to provide effective student support programs, to support our teachers and school staff, and to upgrade computer technology labs and make them accessible to all students.

PCUE is a grassroots organization of parents, grandparents, and concerned members of the community. It is a chapter of the Statewide Education Organizing Committee of NJ (SEOC). PCUE is committed to organizing parents in all Jersey City communities to improve education for our children. Over the course of last year PCUE launched a successful campaign to assure that school officials test all our schools for lead in the drinking water, notify parents and the community of the testing schedule and test results, and provide all public school children with safe water.