Press Advisory: Thursday Oct. 22, Community Meeting with Dr. Epps

For Immediate Release

Oct. 20, 2009

GRADUATION FOR ALL!

Community Meeting Dr. Epps, School District Superintendent

Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009, 6 to 8pm,

The city’s grassroots public school reform organization, Parents and Communities United for Education (PCUE) is holding a community meeting with Jersey City School District Superintendent, Dr. Charles Epps, to discuss challenges facing JC high schools in providing all high school students a quality education. The current Jersey City educational policies and practices are not working as evidenced by the alarming rates of drop-out, low graduation rate, low test scores, lack of adequate preparation for college and world of work. PCUE has begun a campaign, “Graduation for All,” in Sept. 2009 to improve JC high school education.

What:

Community meeting with Dr. Epps, Jersey City School District Superintendent. PCUE will call on the Board of Education to implement bold and innovative actions being proposed by the PCUE’s high school campaign platform. The public and the press are welcomed to the meeting. There will be an opportunity to make comments and ask questions.

Where:

Metropolitan AME Zion Church, 140 Bergen Avenue, Jersey City (corner of Belmont Ave.)

When:

Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009, 6 to 8pm

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 a grassroots and direct action organization working to improve Jersey City public schools. 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.

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169-A Martin Luther King Drive, Jersey City, NJ 07305

201-918-2918 – pcue.info@seocnj.org

http://www.pcue-graduation4all.blogspot.com

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Contact:
LueElla McFadden, President, 201-918-2918
Loyda Goldston, 1^st Vice-president -- 973-204-4121

Jersey City Reporter: Group (PCUE) advocates plan to improve test results

Four JC high schools have low graduation rates
Group advocates plan to improve test results
by Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter Staff Writer


ABOUT GRADUATION REFORM – Yvonne Weaver (left) and Mahmood Ketabchi (right) are seeking reform of graduation standards in the Jersey City public high schools.
slideshow

A major determinant of a successful school system is the high school graduation rate.

By that standard, the Jersey City school district would get a failing grade, because the state Department of Education found that in the 2007-2008 school year, about three out of four students passed high school, or 74 percent. That is far below the state average of 92.8 percent.

Four of the city’s six high schools – Snyder, Lincoln, Ferris and Dickinson – had graduation rates for that period below the state average. Only McNair Academic (a magnet school for high-achievers) and Liberty (for kids who need small learning communities) were above average.

To read the full text, please click o9n the link below:

http://www.hudsonreporter.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Four+JC+high+schools+have+low+graduation+rates-Group+advocates+plan+to+improve+test+results-%20&id=3943735-Four+JC+high+schools+have+low+graduation+rates-Group+advocates+plan+to+improve+test+results-&instance=secondary_stories_left_column