Effective Systems

PreK-3rd’s Lasting Architecture: Successfully Serving Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students in Union City, New Jersey

https://www.fcd-us.org/prek-3rds-lasting-architecture-successfully-serving-linguistically-and-culturally-diverse-students-in-union-city-new-jersey/

Union City Public Schools has overcome the crippling effects of poverty and prejudice to close the achievement gap between its low-income Hispanic students and their wealthier peers across New Jersey. In a district with nearly 11,000 students-96 percent Hispanic and 85 percent low-income-language arts and math proficiency nearly matched or outperformed statewide averages in 2011. Compared to Hispanic and low-income students in New Jersey, Union City children had double-digit leads in academic proficiency.

The PreK-3rd’s Lasting Architecture: Successfully Serving Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students in Union City, New Jersey case study by Geoff Marietta and Sky Marrietta, documents Union City’s strong PreK-3rd program and offers four key lessons to serving linguistically and culturally diverse students.

David Kirp has also written a book about his time spent observing the school district Improbable Scholars: The Rebirth of a Great American School System and a Strategy for America’s Schools,which not only chronicles the Union City story, but describes seven guiding principles for how other school systems can achieve sustained educational success.

Read David Kirp’s New York Times OpEd The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools.